January 2010 L.A. Connect

On behalf of the PRSA-LA Board of Directors, welcome to our first newsletter of 2010 and the beginning of a year of programming we hope will inspire you to become engaged in chapter activities.

My fellow board members and I have found PRSA-LA to be a place where we can exchange ideas with fellow chapter members. Active participation has been rewarding for us and we think you’ll find that to be the case, too.

We want you take advantage of your membership. In other words, if you read this newsletter, we invite you to attend a chapter meeting. If you attend a meeting, we urge you to join a committee. If you’re on a committee, think about taking on a leadership role.

Our board is dedicated to providing you value for your membership and giving you opportunities to advance as a professional. We’re also committed to developing the future leaders of our profession.

To that end, we want to hear your thoughts about how we can help you get the most value from your membership. Please send ideas to me at ericmosesprsa@yahoo.com.

In the meantime, you will find me and the rest of the board at our first event of the year – the "State of the State of PR" – on Jan. 27, as well as at the chapter’s popular "At Breakfast With…" series, which resumes on Feb. 10.

We look forward to seeing you in 2010 and wish you the best for a successful year.

Eric Moses, PRSA-LA President
Director, Communications & Public Affairs
Occidental Petroleum Corp.
ericmosesprsa@yahoo.com

Join PRSA-LA as we open the 2010 programming year with the our most popular annual program – the "State of the State of PR." Frank Mottek, host of the KNX Business Hour, will moderate a discussion about the current state of the PR industry with some of Los Angeles’ most influential senior-level corporate and agency communications executives.

Among other topics, the panel will focus on:

• What’s ahead for the PR industry in Los Angeles, from a local, national and global prospective

• How the dramatic changes in media are impacting the public relations profession

• The latest trends in PR strategies and tactics

PANEL:

Moderator: 

• Frank Mottek, Host, KNX Business Hour

Panelists:

• Dani Dudeck, Vice President – Global Corporate Communications, MySpace

• Patricia Fregoso-Cox, Regional Vice President, Communications, Time Warner Cable – West Region

• Fred Muir, Chief Executive Officer, Rose & Kindel

• Josh Gertler, President, Consensus Inc.

• Colleen Haggerty, Senior Vice President, West Coast Media Relations, Bank of America

This is a must-attend event for professionals at all levels! For more info and to register, visit the events page on PRSA-LA’s Web site.

This program has sold out in the past so be sure to RSVP today!

Highlights Now Available from PRSA-LA’s  Social Media & The Web 3.0 Frontier Seminar

Audio and video highlights of the event  are now available on the PRSA-LA Web site, where you’ll find keynote addresses from Emanuel Rosen — author of The Anatomy of Buzz, and Peter Shankman — founder of Help A Reporter Out (HARO).

PRSA-LA’s 6^th annual Quality Time with PR Minds event held on October 10, 2009 proved to be the largest yet, with 80 PR volunteers meeting in teams to provide free counsel to 30 local nonprofit organizations. Collectively, the PR volunteers donated more than 400 hours of counsel in one day!

Since then, several of the nonprofits have shared the great outcomes that resulted from the advice they received. For example, The CLARE Foundation — a nonprofit providing alcohol and drug recovery services — credits Quality Time with the Foundation’s recent front page story in the Santa Monica Daily Press.

PR volunteers have also shared how they benefited from the day. "Quality Time was one of my most rewarding volunteer experiences, and it was gratifying to hear the high level of strategic thinking from my fellow PR professionals," said volunteer Bonnie Somers, vice president of communications for Milken Family Foundation.

Started in 2004 as part of PRSA-LA’s pro bono program, Quality Time has also been adopted and implemented by other PRSA chapters including Georgia, Nashville and San Diego.

The Quality Time Los Angeles committee thanks sponsors Kaiser Permanente, RAND and Emjay Creative for their continuing support. A big shout out also goes to PRSA’s Young Professionals, who provided logistical support for this year’s event.  

Stay tuned for more information on Quality Time with PR Minds 2010. In the meantime, join the Quality Time group on Facebook or visit the Quality Time page on PRSA-LA’s Web site.

Victoria LeLash, APR, PainePR
Event Co-Founder and Chair
vlelash@painepr.com