Cristyne Nicholas, CEO at Nicholas & Lence Communications, breaks down the critical role she played in rebuilding New York’s tourism following 9/11, drawing parallels and distinctions with COVID.
Cristyne shares examples of creative ways NLC has been promoting travel in New York City in the current environment. She also provides practical tips on how smaller markets can effectively promote safe tourism.
Lou Hammond, Founder and Chairman, Lou Hammond Group, encourages the public to keep the travel dream alive. She discusses the effects of COVID-19 on the travel industry from a PR point of view and the rising shift to regional communications.
Lou also shares new strategies in destination PR and mistakes to avoid going into 2021.
Charlie Dougiello, CEO & Founding Partner, The Door | idea house, shares insights on undertaking a creative led approach to PR.
He emphasizes the importance of having a diverse workforce to come up with the best ideas. Charlie also discusses how his agency has become a resource for clients beyond public relations.
Aaron Kwittken, Chairman at KWT Global and CEO at Prophet, discusses the role of A.I. in public relations and how it can help communicators pitch the media more effectively. Aaron shares what pushed him to develop the platform in the first place.
He also breaks down how the technology works and how he is able to bring the intelligence into artificial intelligence.
Alyssa Garnick, Founder of Agean Public Relations, discusses how consumer brands are increasingly propelling positivity and optimism, even during Coronavirus. She provides examples of passion brands and commodity brands who had gained permission to play in the current environment, sparking creativity, brand love and engagement and sales.
Alyssa also shares her thoughts on if there is any place for stunts from consumer brands right now. Lastly, Alyssa tells us what it’s been like to start an agency amid COVID and today’s churning business dynamics.
Julie Crabill, Chief Marketing Officer at GoNoodle, discusses how public relations fits into a CMO’s workload, and how communications professionals can effectively work with both a CCO and a CMO. She shares tips on how companies can become better clients and how agencies can help. Julie also notes the value of leveraging local news channels to get your message out there.
Additionally, she emphasizes the importance of diversity and urges marketers to understand that it’s a profit center, not a cost center.
Linda Dunbar, Communications Executive & Founder of Diversity Decoder, spoke with our host and CEO of D S Simon Media, Doug Simon, about changes in internal communications as a result of COVID and social justice issues. It is more important than ever to continually check in and communicate with employees as we’ve moved towards a remote work environment.
Linda also discusses the information gap in communications when it comes to having difficult conversations about diversity in the workplace. Linda is optimistic that we are going to see more businesses actively pursuing and supporting diversity inclusion.
Michael Schoenfeld is the VP for Public Affairs & Government Relations and CCO at Duke University. In this conversation with host and D S SImon Media CEO, Doug Simon, Michael shares best practices for communicating a university action plan regarding COVID to multiple stakeholders in times of uncertainty and avoiding a “blame the student” mindset.
Michael emphasizes the importance of frequently conveying the need for flexibility and the need for resilience. He also discusses how colleges that may lack resources and funding of a top research university with a medical center can manage the ongoing crisis.
Liz Kaplow is the Founder & CEO of Kaplow Communications. She shared with the host and CEO of D S Simon Media, Doug Simon, tips on effective leadership during these challenging times. Liz emphasizes the increased importance of human leadership and the increased link to external and internal communications. She also tells us how to maintain a consistent mindset in this time of uncertainty and volatility.
Liz is optimistic about the future of PR and its role in telling great brand stories. She notes “Those connections with executives from the brands we represent are more important than ever. Their stories are more important than ever…I do believe that what we do and our contributions will make a huge difference as we move into the future.”
Kym White, SVP & Chief Communications Officer at CVS Health, discusses the challenges of integrating communications for multiple businesses under one cohesive brand. Kym also shares with us her experience of taking on a new leadership role amid the ongoing pandemic.
Having been on both the agency side at Edelman and now the client side at CVS Health, Kym gives tips on building successful relationships between the two.