Risley Ranch

KC PRSA Presentation

I had the privilege of presenting to the Greater Kansas City PRSA chapter last week.  The subject:  "Building Public Relationships Through Social Media."  We hosted about 40 or so folks at Barkley.  It was a great crowd.  Very in tune with the subject matter, and very engaged.  I've posted the presentation below, along with an appendix of data.  Thanks to Tracy Richardson for inviting me and the chapter for allowing me to speak.

Download prsa_sm_presentation.pdf

Download prsa_sm_appendix.pdf

Technorati Tags: PRSA, Presentation, PR

Babies and Tai Chi

I had a great weekend.  So good, in fact, I didn't want to do any work, blog, twitter or anything else except soak in the sun.

Saturday Joe took his testing for karate.  We've had him enrolled in the local ATA franchise for close to six months now.  He practices twice a week with other 5-6 year olds.  It really is neat to watch him go through the moves, and I'm impressed with the positive, confidence-building and respect-generating nature of the program.  I studied Goju Ru karate in college and loved it.  My karate career ended when I destroyed my little finger in a sparing match and had to have reconstructive surgery on it.  Even so, I'd like to encourage Joe to follow martial arts for its mind-body-soul attributes, as well as the need to learn self-defense.

Also on Saturday, I finished an eight-week course in introductory Tai Chi.  I found the Lawrence Academy of Tai Qi through a reference, and decided to make it part of my "Tao Makeover," which I started back in February of this year.  The instructors -- Trish, Adam, Katie and Travler -- are wonderful folks.  They've been practicing this Taoist martial art for at least 10 years each, and it shows.  They teach a derivative of the Wu style, which is one of the five traditional schools of Tai Chi, all of which originated in China.  You probably think of old people in a park doing slow, long movements in unison when you think of Tai Chi.  It is a "soft" martial art; however, it requires all the things I'm trying to better in my 40-year-old self: balance, concentration, stamina and positive energy.  I'm definitely going to continue the training.

On Sunday we headed into Kansas City for the local March for Babies event.  The March of Dimes is a Barkley client, and one of the many brand-changes we helped them with was changing the name of their signature event from Walk America to March for Babies.

It was a gorgeous sunny day, and thousands of people descended upon the Power and Light district for the 1- or 3-mile walk.  We opted for the 1-mile, which went right past the Barkley building, which was decorated to the hilt to show off our passion for this client.  My hat's off to everyone who helped organize us for this event -- especially the MOD team and Jennifer Cawley, who put in all kinds of time organizing and rallying us.

Technorati Tags: March of Dimes, March for Babies, Tai Chi, Barkley

Hello Twitter

Yes, I'm way late to the party, but I decided to give Twitter a try.  My colleague, Dustin, and his awesome presentation yesterday at our brown bag, convinced me.  Follow me if you like.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, microblogging

Get mobi

I'm no mobile expert -- that title belongs to guys like Mark and Dustin at our shop -- but I saw an online show today about Admob, and I was super impressed.

Fast Company magazine (one of my favorites) has launched Fast Company TV, and they have social media guru Robert Scoble hosting.  It's an awesome site.  And the first show I saw was an interview between Scoble and Admob founder and CEO Omar Hamoui.  You gotta watch this video, and make sure to watch the end where he runs a demo.  Too, too cool.  Maybe this is old news, but I was impressed.

I think the most prophetic thing Hamoui said was that we have yet to tap into the next phase of mobile advertising -- local targeting.  Although Admob can target in a variety of ways, it can't yet geo-target.  In the next two years, however, when devices are installed with GPS standard, look out.

Technorati Tags: advertising, marketing, mobile, mobile advertising, Fast Company

Planet Fresh

The power of a positive attitude, focused on getting something done, can really make a difference.  Barkley's new green initiative, Planet Fresh, is such an example.

Susan Shank, a veteran member of the PR team, started the Planet Fresh initiative several months ago because of her passion for the environment and our company.  She organized a group of like-minded folks, and before you know it, she had a movement.  Now it's institutionalized with its official launch today.  Some of the green things we're doing as a company are:

Giving each person a recycle bin and reusable shopping bag.

New kitchen-ware... The plates are made of a sugar-cane byproduct called bagasse that biodegrades within 30-90 days. The utensils are made from corn or potato starch and are compostable and biodegradable. And, the paper towels are made from recycled materials.

An electronics recycling program.

Server clean-up to reduce electricity use.

Toner cartridge recycling.

We use compact fluorescent bulbs in the building whenever possible.

Our cleaning company uses environmentally friendly cleaning paper and products.

The foam core and matte board we use for presentation boards is made from recyclable
materials.

Our printers and copiers switch to power-save mode when not in use.

And besides looking beautiful, our roof-top garden helps moderate temperatures, improve air quality, reduce storm-water runoff and creates a habitat for birds and butterflies.

We may not be the greenest company on the planet, but we're doing our part.  And the Planet Fresh team will continue to crank-out ideas for us.  Nice job team.

Technorati Tags: Environment, Green, Barkley, Fresh

Inspiration for the day

Noted jazz musician Herbie Hancock wrote an article in United Way's Hemispheres magazine.  On a 15-hour flight across the Pacific Ocean, you'll read anything, so I picked it up.  I loved this paragraph:

"Reinvention is relishing the idea of looking for a new way of doing something, so you present something that's fresh.  Exercising your creative abilities is one of the most important aspects of a human being -- or organization.  The more you explore looking at things differently and creating another way to look at things, the more choices you'll have to invent a new framework, a new environment.  Consequently, you'll be able to do something others have not."

China bound

In the midst of what will one day probably be a major PR case study, I am heading to Shanghai, China, for a meeting of IPREX -- a trade association for independently owned PR firms across the world, of which Barkley is a member.  We are not meeting in China because of the issue; we have had this meeting scheduled for several years.  It just so happens this crisis is occurring at the same time.

I have never been to China, and I am both excited and nervous about the trip.  My nervousness is not because it's China -- I'm fascinated by the Country, its culture, and its economic rise.  I'm privileged to be alive at this time in history when China is undergoing its change.  It's more about being away from my family for so long, so far away.

Of course, not everything in China is changing for the better.  The government's strong-arm tactics in Tibet seem completely at odds with their forward-looking economic development.  Every time I read a story about this issue, I'm reminded of Tienanmen Square in 1989.  My guess is most of us that remember this incident have permanently associated it with China, Communism and the dark side of both.  And it's exactly this image China's government is hoping to erase by hosting the Olympics.  But its almost certain they will not.  Because this isn't a PR problem, it's a character problem.  Freedom is the solution to this problem.

Anyway, I didn't want this to turn into a political post...I'll be staying at the Pudong Shangri-la Hotel. 
I depart tomorrow and return on Sunday, April 20.  I'll be blogging daily and posting pictures to my Smugmug account.

A special thanks to my colleagues at Barkley for being such an excellent team that I can even venture on a trip like this, and to my wife for just being you. :)

Technorati Tags: China, IPREX, PR, Olympics

Crisis communications & advertising

The Kansas City Ad Club was nice enough to invite me to speak at a luncheon meeting today.  The subject was crisis communications management.  I think it's great that traditional advertising had this topic on its agenda.   The lines are blurring among disciplines, no doubt.

Download crisis_ad_club_4208_blog.pdf

Thanks to Jeremy Ragonese at Boulevard for inviting me, Rachel at the Ad Club for hosting, and to all who attended and endured the full hour.

Questions

There will always be more questions than answers.  That's what I've discovered about life.  That's an uncomfortable fact for some people because our society wants answers.  Clients want answers.  We pour through data to formulate strategies so we can make recommendations.  We give POV's.  We're experts; answers are our business.

I just finished a book that's altered my state of mind about questions and answers.  It's called Socrates Cafe, by Christopher Phillips.  It's wonderful.  Phillips left his profession as a freelance writer to embark upon a journey to bring philosophy to everyday people.  He travels around the Country hosting "Socrates Cafes" -- informal jam sessions in coffee houses, schools, nursing homes and businesses.  The point?  To question.  Anything and everything.  Because philosophy, and life in general, is all about questions, according to Phillips:

"Questions, questions, questions.  They disturb.  They provoke.  They exhilarate.  They intimidate.  They make you feel a little bit like you've at least temporarily lost your marbles.  So much so that at times I'm positive that the ground is shaking and shifting under our feet.  But not from an earthquake.  Welcome to Socrates Cafe."

But why Socrates?  Phillips explains:

"For a long time, I'd had a notion that the demise of a certain type of philosophy has been to the detriment of our society.  It is a type of philosophy that Socrates and other philosophers practiced in Athens in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.  A type that utilized a method of philosophical inquiry that 'everyman' and 'everywoman' could embrace and take for his or her own, and in the process rekindle the childlike-- but by no means childish -- sense of wonder...A type of anti-guru philosophy in which the person leading the discussion always learns much more for the other participants than they could ever learn from him.  A type of philosophy that recognized that questions often reveal more about us and the world around us than answers.  A type of philosophy in which questions often are the answers."

Beautiful. I didn't just read this book, I devoured it.  I've always been a questioner.  But the more experienced I've become, the fewer questions I've asked.  Because people come to me for answers, not questions.  But having the answers isn't having wisdom.  Asking the right questions is wisdom.  Conversing, not dictating, is wisdom.  And as Phillips says, "the way people go about conversing is every bit as critical as their ability to converse freely."

The book is full of wisdom, much of it not from Phillips himself, but the everyday people he portrays in the descriptions of his experiences with Socrates Cafes all over the country and his numerous quotations from great philosophers throughout the ages.

The original Hellenistic Greek word for philosophy, philosophia, means "love of wisdom."  I thought to myself, "What if we had an agency full of philosophers?"   Wouldn't that make us more creative?  Wouldn't we ask better questions, and therefore, find better solutions to clients' problems?  Wouldn't we provide better client service because we'd be better listeners?  The book made me question (ha!) the way I approach my profession.  We simply must ask more questions!

Phillips said, "For a long time, the question has suffered at our hands.  It isn't just that many of us fear questions.  Rather, many of us seem to have only the flimsiest idea of the question's power and potential.  An many of us no longer seem to have the faintest idea how to use it." 

Amen.

He continues, "It'll come as no surprise that I think one of the most fruitful ways for steeling us to take the jump is the Socratic Method.  It enables us to bring into better focus, and then to resolve, our perplexities.  Not once and for all, to be sure, because new perplexities always present themselves.  But in a way that can make us more knowledgeable and at the same time more empathetic and insightful -- more virtuous, Socrates might say." 

I added the emphasis above because in my humble opinion, these two traits may be the most important traits of our profession and are all too often laking in our professionals.

I urge you to read this book, whether you're in marketing or not, or at least check out Phillips' website.

Technorati Tags: Philosophy, Socrates, Christopher Phillips, Public Relations, Marketing

Keepn' it fresh

I'm proud to say Barkley is now an official sponsor of a development cycling team.  We're partnering with Hincapie Sportswear, a leading manufacturer of clothing for performance cyclists. Hincapie was founded by George Hincapie, who is one of the U.S.'s most successful elite cyclists.  He rode with Lance Armstrong in all seven of his Tour de France victories.

The Hincapie-Barkley Development Team pairs elite racers with young riders and mentors them in their quest to join the pro racing circuit.  The team will participate in many events throughout the U.S. in 2008.

We didn't do it for the PR (but this article in the NYT was a nice bonus).  We did it for two reasons:  1) to learn about the category; 2) to get direct feedback from people who are in the category.

IV Whitman, who heads our account planning group, deserves the credit for the idea, and our leadership deserves credit for taking a chance on the idea.

Technorati Tags: Barkley, Hincapie, Cycling, Lance Armstrong