See Thru

A funny thing happened on the way to the ball park – the Nationals won! This does not happen often.  As a former Washington Senators stadium Public Address Announcer, I have seen many more losses than winners. You’ve heard the slogan: “First in War! First in Peace! Last in the American League! Well, times have changed! For the past few years the Washington Baseball Club is now known as the Washington Nationals – and we are no longer in the American League, we’re now in the National League. We're talking Major League Baseball in Washington DC! 

As communication professionals, we all have come to learn that the basic premise of marketing is to deliver the right message through the proper channels to impact a desired target audience.

Or as legendary advertising icon Earle Palmer Brown once told me, “take the right fishing rod in the best boat you can find and ‘fish where the fish are.’”

When a monumental yet tragic story breaks -- like the alleged civilian killings by a U.S. service member in Afghanistan – it’s almost disturbingly fascinating to watch how coverage unfolds in this era of fast-paced digital journalism. Within just one week after the story broke, we had read detailed assessments of at least five to ten potential contributing factors to the rampage. We had become familiar with the blog entries of the accused’s wife (“The Bales Family Adventures” & “BabyBales”), been exposed to court records showing multiple financial and legal missteps by the soldier, and heard from his disbelieving neighbors. On social media, we witnessed a virtual war break out between those deeming Bales a war hero and those who proclaimed him a terrorist. All of this transpiring before the suspect was even charged with a crime.

A few weeks ago was the one year anniversary of the murder of Jayna Murray at the lululemon athletica store in Bethesda, Maryland.  In commemoration, the store held an open house for Jayna’s friends, family, co-workers and the local community.  As I stood outside the store managing the media who had come to cover the event, I could not help but feel the terrible loss of someone I had never met, but yet someone I had come to know in a year-long journey, working with both the lululemon educators (employees) and the reporters who had told this story for the past 365 days.

It’s been a whirlwind few months for me professionally.  In November 2011, Sage acquired BWF Communications (BWF), and as Director of Special Events at BWF, I came along with six of my colleagues to Sage’s new offices in McLean, VA. Instead of a small townhouse stuffed to the brink with event supplies, we are now part of a 50-person staff on the spacious fifth floor of a lovely office building, which is quite a change of scenery.

Despite the change in office space and coworkers, my focus here at Sage is the same as it was at BWF… producing top-quality events for our clients.  Whether it be a 300-team soccer tournament or a GSA conference, the most common sticking point for every client becomes budget.  Almost every client I work with asks me the same question; how can we create an event that accurately reflects our company without breaking the bank?

You would never know it to see me work a room, but I am a natural introvert. It scares me to walk into a crowd of strangers armed only with a badge and business cards. But, I’m in business development, and being a wallflower is not an option.

Here are a few tips I’ve picked up over the years — having suffered only minor lacerations to my ego. Maybe you’ll find a nugget or two that you can use.

Today's topic is one that's been top of mind for me for some time now. Happily, the stars have aligned, my brave little blog post has made its pilgrimage from brain to desktop to world-wide web, and my bout of blogger's block has ended. For this I have to give credit and thanks to:

1) The free block of time on today's calendar.

2) David Michel Davies (@dmdlikes), ex. director of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS), and founder of the Webby Awards for his presentation at the "Webby Talks" DC stop at the National Press Club.

3) And to industry friend and colleague, Tom McMahon, for inviting me to said Webby Talks event.

Another Presidential election is less than a year away. The Democrats are backing President Obama, since the incumbent is usually a safe bet. Unfortunately, this means an unusually large number of Republicans spent most of 2011 wrestling endlessly amongst themselves for the chance to take him on in 2012. I’m not sure if this is the longest pre-convention tussle ever, but it sure feels like it, and I for one am happy it’s beginning to wind down. Still, the wrestling continues.

According to a recent CNN article, Twitter has become the latest battleground between the Taliban and NATO. While @ISAFMedia – the press office for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) – routinely posts NATO’s operations updates, the organization’s virtual spokesperson also spends a good deal of time casually bantering with other Twitterers. And exchanging jabs with @ABalkhi – the self-proclaimed “Voice of the Jihad” who tweets on behalf of the Taliban. Besides routinely shooting down each other’s propaganda, they've recently become engaged in some Twitter tussles of a more personal nature, leading followers to watch in amusement and, in some cases, to wonder aloud why NATO’s press office continues to engage with the enemy.

The federal contracting community has its own terminology that can seem like alphabet soup. Before your company can compete in this sector, you need to become familiar with acronyms such as RFPs (Requests for Proposals), SOWs (Statements of Work), BPAs (Blanket Purchase Agreements, IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity) and the FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulation) among many others.