Picture-Perfect Protos: Honoring the Best of PR

I'm a highly competitive person.

And throughout my nearly 20-year career in public relations and communications, I've submitted case studies on projects that not performed exceedingly well in the business world, but also had to meet the highest levels of documented success of the four cornerstones of effective PR -- research, planning, implementation and evaluation.

Watch an interview with John Wayne Airport Spokeswoman Jenny Wedge on the significance of the awards program.

And you can hear an audioBoo interview with PR university students attending the prestigious event for the first time.





This year was no exception as we prepared entries for the annual Protos Awards for the Orange County Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. But it was a bit different this year. As soon I stepped into the Surf and Sand Resort Hotel in Laguna Beach Friday evening, I knew it was unique.

The regular competitive edge was replaced with friendly smiles and a celebratory note. We were gathered to honor the achievements of our industry. And it was especially meaningful in the current economic recession where harsh financial realities forced all of us to do more with less.

The event emcee, Ric Romero, consumer reporter for ABC7 news, joined veterans in the profession to  pay tribute to award winners in numerous categories and to recognize area university PR students -- Alicia Guiterrez of Cal State Long Beach, Jennifer Nguyen of Cal State Fullerton and Amy Chase of Chapman University -- as Shining Star Scholarship recipients.

As you can see from the above music slideshow, we were among the many honored for our behind-the-scenes dedicated work on behalf of our organization or clients. We took home awards for every one of the entries we submitted, including the only two prizes for social media programs and one for our interactive transportation-focused e-newsletter.

But the highlight of the night was sitting next to and chatting with a PR legend -- John van Barneveld of Public Communications Worldwide -- who won both the Distinguished Service Award for Individual and for Organization. See the video interview taken with my new iPhone 4 with the father-daughter Barneveld team and the TV journalist.


As the night progressed, I found myself cheering for every winner. It wasn't about who collected the most hardware, but a celebration of how much we have progressed as an industry.

The event was special because of the passion of a handful of PR professionals. Please join me in thanking Protos Chairwoman Ricca Silverio of Bock Communicatons and her hard-working team of:

EVENT COORDINATION, DÉCOR & ENTERTAINMENT
Nicole Hoperich, NDH Creative
Mairim Martinez, Integrated MarketingWorks
Julia Meza, Integrated MarketingWorks

AWARDS PROGRAM
Jocelle Untalan

PROMOTIONS & PUBLICITY
Laura Figge, Pacific Communications
Rachel Smith, GolinHarris

JUDGING & ENTRIES
Teri Sawyer, T&Co.
John Tomaszewski, Marketwire

SILENT AUCTION & RAFFLE
Jenny Corsey, Westbound Communications
Alexis Linn, GolinHarris

SPONSORSHIP
Kate Mossbarger, Global Results Communications
Julie Murphy, Kia

TROPHIES
Barbara Ruelas, Global Results Communications

COMMITTEE MEMBERS-AT-LARGE
Jill Cagle, Building Industry Association
Courtney Day
Anne McNulty
Molly Smith, PRSSA, Cal State Fullerton

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Did you attend the event or experience it via live tweets? What did you think about the event and the recipients of the Protos honors?

I also welcome your thoughts about the future of the PR industry in our fast-changing world of real-time information.

Pho Tweetup: Twitter Never Tasted So Good

If you're like the average American office worker, you're pressed for time during the lunch hour. It's rare these days to go out and enjoy a good meal with good company.

I often find myself eating lunch in my office. But I do deliberately try to get out into the world and experience Orange County's sunshine -- once in a while.

For months now, Orange County Register's Jon Lansner or @JonLan and I have been trying to go to Little Saigon in the heart of Orange County for pho, Vietnam's national noodle soup dish.

Pronounced "fuh," it's served with rice noodles, chicken, beef or vegetarian style over a piping hot clear broth that's been stewed for at least eight hours with spices. Then cooks sprinkle over each bowl sprigs of cilantro, sliced white onions and peppery scallions. And it was subtly delicious -- nuanced with spices and herbs at Huynh restaurant.

The customize-it-yourself dish is complete by adding your personal touch of fresh bean sprouts, Thai basil, Vietnamese coriander and rau ngai or Vietnamese saw-leaf herb. Add the garlicky Vietnamese red-pepper sauce and semi-sweet hoisin – and it’s nearly the perfect all-in-one dish. 

Instead of just meeting over steaming bowls of pho and other tasty Vietnamese dishes, we opted to extend an open invitation via Twitter to anyone who wanted to join us.

Just a day ago, we tweeted #OCtwEATup or Orange County meet-up via Twitter with an emphasis on EAT. It made sense -- open conversations via social media, open table and great discussions with some new friends:

@JonLan

@Gallagherstar 

@DeanSoto 

@travelcostamesa 

@saigondotcom

After the great conversations, the group of Twitterers stopped next door at a market with the scent and sights of fresh exotic tropical fruits.

While the group soaked in the culture, I had to run back to the office for a 1 p.m. conference call. I traveled internationally for lunch, met some new friends -- and didn’t even realize it.

Overflow Crowd Gathers For The First GOV 2.0 To Increase Public E-volvement

Ellen Burton, executive director of OCTA External Affairs Division, gets some assistance from Ben Boyce, an employee with Laer Pearce and Associates of Laguna Hills.

By Ted Nguyen
Manager of public communications & media relations

The best hearts and minds of social media gathered Tuesday, July 21 at OCTA to discuss how to utilize social media to create transparency and accountability as well as bring a level of authenticity to the seemingly endless and faceless bureaucracy of government and public agencies.

Billed as GOV 2.0, an overcapacity crowd of 75 Orange County professionals gathered to exchange tips and share best practices for wildly popular social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. It was the first event of its kind for government and public agencies in Orange County.

Public Already Gets Social Media

The growing number of Californians using online tools is astounding. It’s especially true in tech-savvy Orange County, according to a recent statewide survey.

Julie Chay, a public information specialist with OC Waste and Recycling, came to the event a bit intimidated by Facebook and Twitter. After spending two hours learning about social networking sites with Ryan Maloney, an OCTA community relations associate, she became a convert.

"It was great to have hands-on learning, so public agencies can engage with the community already communicating on these new media sites," Chay said.

Julie Chay, a Tustin resident and OC Waste and Recycling information officer, nervously awaits her one-on-one session on Twitter with Ted Nguyen, an OCTA manager.

Public Agencies Jumping on Board with OCTA

We planned for a capacity crowd of 50, but made room for the overflow numbers. Hundreds of other people followed the event via live Twitter updates and others from as far as Lithuania, Germany and Asia participated via a live streaming online video thanks to Social Media Club Orange County’s Morgan Brown.

After communicating with many of these giants of the twitterverse in the nation, never mind Orange County, I was excited to take part in an engaging panel discussion.

Community relations associate Kristin Johnson of OCTA, left, shows Tresa Oliveri, also of OCTA, and Rosemary Valdovines, a city of Westminster public information officer, how to use cost-effective tools to perform public outreach.

Bringing the Superstars of Social Media

I was nervous meeting them for this tweet-up. Knots in my stomach tightened as I was feeling oh-so small because my social media experience pales in comparison to these other power panelists. Come on, can I really compare to Deborah Micek who wrote the first book on Twitter? I’m so out of her league.

Then there is Mark Davidson, the king of micro-blogging. He has 46,400 followers! Me, a measly 750 that I was happy with just days before. Or Tami Abdollah, the L.A. Times reporter who got the Times well … ahead of the times with its strong presence on Twitter and Facebook. Or Joel Bishop, the social media guru of South Orange County, who also happens to be a Dana Point city councilman.

Or the faces in the crowd. Some are the superstars of social media. But what are they doing in the audience?!? I should be learning from them. Let’s switch places, especially Rochelle Veturis, the queen of Twitter. And then there is that darn Neal Schaffer. He’s always witty and posts interesting items. No wonder why he’s got more than 21,000 followers.

Dubbed the “power panel” by O.C. Twitterers, the panelists includes moderator Morgan Brown of TurnHere Internet Video, micro-blogger Mark Davidson, L.A. Times reporter Tami Abdollah, Twitter author Deborah Micek, Dana Point City Councilman Joel Bishop and OCTA public communications manager Ted Nguyen.

Sharing and Caring

After listening to the event’s moderator, Brown, a marketing expert from Aliso Viejo, introduce us, I felt even smaller. As we discussed all sorts of topics from how news reporters are using social media to cover stories, diverse ways the public engages with elected officials and public agencies to some pretty interesting discussion on how to avoid pitfalls of launching a social media program, I quickly felt better.

I did know a thing or two about this stuff. And I learned so much more from my new-found friends online and offline.

Then it happened. My "ah-ha" moment! I realized we’re all in this thing together. That’s the point of it all – to help each other "get" social media and share it. And that’s why I love the club’s slogan: If You Get It, Share It.

And we did just that. I passed out T-shirts that I paid for on my own dime to thank these social media veterans. Obviously, it would be a Twitter T-shirt with their online names. And we unveiled a new online tool for OCTA’s new public e-volvement program that will utilize social media to complement our traditional bag of outreach and communications tactics.
It’s in the Bag: Online Toolkit to Enhance Transparency in Government

Because we all serve the same Orange County public, we shared OCTA’s new e-volvement bag of information with other agencies.

I’ve already gotten comments from other public agency folks – John Wayne Airport, County of Orange, city of Anaheim, city of Westminster, city of Orange, the sheriff’s department, O.C. fire and others – thanking us for sharing the cool kit.

Because I take my professional mantra of "If you can’t evaluate it, don’t do it!" seriously, we tallied the results of participants’ written comments. Because of outpouring of positive live tweet postings during the event, I shouldn’t have been surprised by the written surveys. Most people filled out a survey before leaving – 55 out of 75 audience members. And a whopping 100 percent said they either "strongly agreed" or "agreed" that:

• Panelists shared relevant knowledge and useful information


• Panelists were engaging


• Panel discussion was well organized

And 96 percent said they were interested in attending a future session on social media.

"Just attended an inspiring GOV 2.0 seminar on social media put on by OCTA," Julie Senter, a Long Beach PR consultant tweeted to her followers. This was just one of nearly 100 tweets on the premier event.

More Than Just Improving Transportation

At OCTA, we’re not the experts on social media by any measure of the imagination. But we have picked up some nuggets of knowledge and garnered success along the way. We've also experienced some pitfalls during our social media journey. As a public agency serving Orange County's taxpayers, we can’t help but share with others in government and public agencies because we care about enhancing our community.

For us, it’s not just about improving roads, freeways, railways and buses. It’s also about effectively communicating with the public and helping provide them with information they need to make their lives better.
Interested in more social media events? Check out the Social Media Club Orange County to get involved.