While channel surfing one evening this summer, I stumbled upon a great miniseries on National Geographic – “The 80s: The Decade That Made Us” followed up by “The 90s: The Last Great Decade.” Both offered the history buff in me an overview of cultural and political milestones that I wasn’t around to experience firsthand or…
With topics like Heartbleed, the Target Hack and the ongoing fallout from the Edward Snowden disclosures constantly in the news, cybersecurity is a hot topic that affects consumers, businesses and government. To stay abreast of major updates, readers need reliable sources of news that they can depend on. A few weeks back, my colleague Kara…
Amazon has consistently proven that it is one of the leading innovators in the internet economy (having announced last year that it would start delivering packages via drone soon.) Now, Amazon has set its sights on another vertical – the smartphone market, with the recent release of the Fire Phone. The phone offers a number…
When it comes to discussing my generation, I don’t normally hear much praise for millennials. Other generations view us as lazy, entitled and expecting overwhelming amounts of praise. And in some aspects I understand that we as a generation aren’t the best. We literally don’t understand the definition of the word “literally.” One of our…
With $237.5 million raised for health-software startups in the first quarter of 2014 alone, this industry segment is on fire. This, coupled with explosive interest in the post-Affordable Care Act world, means the media has an insatiable appetite for new voices and fresh ideas. That’s why we’re having so much fun right now connecting our…
Throughout my career I have been fortunate to work with companies spanning numerous industries and at various stages of growth, from start-ups to global, publicly-traded companies. Each of these stages of maturity has necessitated different types of PR representations. Early-stage companies seeking investment or acquisition tend to require strong focus on brand recognition and thought…
The other day, I received a phone call from the alumni office at my alma mater. I have received phone calls from the alumni office in the past asking me for donations (and have made donations), so I had no qualms about answering the phone and engaging with the associate on the other end. What…
Thought leadership has become a big part of organizations’ communications mix, even for companies like our clients who are selling solutions to government agencies and other businesses, especially here in DC. The idea behind thought leadership is to take the focus away from products and direct it towards the underlying issues that our clients’ solutions…
As PR professionals in DC, it’s our job to monitor the federal marketplace for trends that inform our clients’ communications and marketing strategies. One theme we’ve heard a lot about lately is that in this era of flat or declining government budgets, it’s become almost cliché to talk of agencies “doing more with less.” How…
Most PR pros know that reporters get hundreds, maybe thousands of emails a day, many of which are irrelevant newsletters, press releases and pitches that are the product of old or misinformed lists. Unfortunately it gives a lot of good PR pros a bad rap. It also makes it more difficult for your story idea…
He wears leather gloves and constantly smokes cigars. He is cool and calm even when in peril. A master of disguise, this chief tactician relishes the moment when he can say, “I love it when a plan comes together.” Thanks to a recent film adaptation of a popular 1980’s TV show, old and young will…
The news that the U.S. government is giving up control of the Internet – that is, the Department of Commerce announcing it will end its oversight of ICANN, the non-profit that administers Internet domains – brought me back to a time in my public affairs career when I learned first-hand about managing controversies, especially those…
