Saturday

This morning was the Keynote Address from Mona Pasquil and Chapter Roll Call. Pasquil, for those that don't know her, served in President Clinton's White House as deputy director of political affairs and worked as a deputy campaign manager for Gore/Lieberman 2000. I was actually really excited to see her speak, as she's one of my personal favorites. She talked about some of the communications crises she faced during her political career, as well as her personal role as an Asian-American woman in politics.

Following her address, the chapters were invited to give a roll call, but much to my dismay, ULM wasn't called (we following the University of Louisiana at Lafayette alphabetically, so I'm sure to the person calling roll there appeared to be a typo on the list). Fortunately, having been "adopted" by ULL, they helped me with a spirited roll call after I announced that I was left off the list.

The professional development sessions this afternoon were incredibly informative and enlightening. I attended the following:
Media Relations
This was presented by Dr. Joseph Trahan, president and CEO of Trahan & Associates. He's a former Lt. Colonel and did public affairs for the Pentagon. He introduced us to his "3 C's" of media relations: Control (never lose your cool with a reporter), Competence (don't try to pretend you know something you don't--always "stay in your lane") and Concern (your face and tone have to convey your interest and concern about the topic at hand).

Public Affairs and Community Engagement
April Bolduc gave this presentation. She's PR Manager for Sempra Energy, a large, diverse energy provider in California. She spoke about the many ways her company has to engage in public affairs every day, such as recent wildfires in Southern California which threatened to cut off power to all of San Diego.

Nonprofit PR
This session was presented by Debbie Mason and Del Galloway from the United Way of America, who each have significant PR responsibilities for the UW and came up with their iconic "Live United" campaign. They talked about creating and implementing campaigns for nonprofits, giving us these few crucial tips: let people "own" the campaign (let local chapters decide how they'll embody the campaign), manage the message through inspiration, and simply "be, do, say" (meaning that a campaign should be about embodying an idea, doing something with that idea, and then simply telling people about it).

Tomorrow, the professional development sessions continue, so I'll report again then.