M&O PR’s Kevin Sawyer and I are now finally back in the office after two jam packed days of Media Relations Summit. Public and media relations professionals, academics and business communicators from across the country gathered at what is known as the largest event for media relations in the world. Kevin blogged the event over at Media Relations blog and I made a few posts here and many more on Twitter.
Here’s a summary of the sessions we attended and covered:
The compelling morning keynote presentations were sandwiched by PR Technology updates and then followed by 4 tracks of sessions. Here are the sessions that Kevin and I blogged:
- Media Relations Summit 2008: A Preview – Kevin
- MR Summit: Charlie Rose and the Death of the VNR – Kevin
- Disney’s Duncan Wardle and the Future of Public Relations – Kevin
- Evergreen Magic: How To Make News When There’s No News – Kevin
- Blogginz Yer Presentationz – Scoblizin Yer Paradigmz – Kevin
- Do it Wrong, Stupid! Mike Moran Keynote – Kevin
- From the Horse’s Mouth: 11 Tips for Pitching Reporters – Kevin
- The Future of PR: Media Relations Summit 2008 – Lee
- Charlie Rose Keynote with Howard Rubenstein – Lee
- Mike Moran Keynote: What Corporations Need From PR in a Web 2.0 World – Lee
- Getting the Most Out of Your Corporate Blog – Lee
My speaking slot was the last of the day and in direct competition with the “Future of the Press Release” session – yet we still had pretty good attendance. Lee Aase from the Mayo Clinic was kind enough to cover my talk and others on the panel, “Secrets of Increasing Traffic to Your Corporate Website” plus Mike Moran added a few thoughts and observations as well.
I would point you to all the photos I took, but if you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know about the Alcatraz inspired seasick episode of the cowboy fishing boat captain and the camera-eating bay – which resulted in a greater appreciation for dry land.
However, Kevin was armed with another camera and was able to take a few photos before his battery went dead.
Overall, it was a great conference with plenty of networking opportunities including a nice Twitter meetup held by the SF Social Media Club on Sunday afternoon with Chris Heuer, Jeremiah Owyang, Brian Solis, Dave McClure, Daniel Riveong, Kristie Wells, Eric Doyle, Lorna Li, Ellen Leanse, Andy Kaufmann, Deborah Crooks, Albert Maruggi, Jacob Morgan and others I didn’t meet.
Later on in the conference it was nice to catch up with Mike Moran before he did his keynote presentation. Mike is someone that I always look forward to seeing – very smart, social and a tremendous skill at being both visionary about technology trends in marketing and grounded in fundamental marketing principles at the same time. Mike is really becoming an in-demand speaker, especially for keynotes.
I was also able to spend some time with Brian Solis (photos) – someone, who after talking with in person, I can tell really “gets it” when it comes to understand the emerging roles of conversation, social media and digital marketing.
