PRSA ICON 2022

Dallas-Fort Worth Chapters Shine at PRSA ICON 2022

By Andra Bennett House, APR, PRSA ICON Local Host Committee Co-Chair 

We did it! The Dallas and Fort Worth Chapters knocked the hospitality at Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)’s ICON 2022 out of the ice park at the Gaylord!

More than 1,000 PR pros, speakers, exhibitors and sponsors gathered at the Gaylord Texan Hotel in Grapevine to learn and grow Nov. 12-15, and they got an extra helping of Texas hospitality on the side. And guess who brought the most money and peeps to the party? GFW PRSA! We had 54 registrants, more than any other chapter in the U.S. Dallas was second with 51 registrants.

I want to begin by thanking those who answered the call last year to be on the DFW Host Committee, co-chaired by Thomas Bennett, III and myself: Cambria Jones; Andrea Huguely; Christy Jones; Michelle Sing; Blake Lewis, APR, Fellow PRSA; Kim Brown, APR; and Maricar Estrella Hastings. We met virtually on a monthly basis to brainstorm potential sponsors, plan the welcome reception and hospitality booth activities, and promote the conference. Most worked the hospitality booth at some points during the conference as well.

We served up a spicy hot welcome at our Hospitality booth with dozens of jars of salsa donated by Mrs. Renfro’s, client of Balcom Agency. Those were gone by the end of Day 1! We also provided raffle items with a gift basket from Visit Frisco, Starbucks gift cards, 12 tickets to Dallas Wings 2023 home games, and pins and maps from Grapevine CVB, Visit Fort Worth and Visit Dallas.

Thanks to all the hospitality booth volunteers from the Dallas and Greater Fort Worth Chapters:

Alyssa Christian
Ashley Freer
Richie Escovedo, APR
Susan Schoolfield, APR
Lesley Dupre
Carol Murray, APR
Glenda Holcomb Moreno
Isabelle Scott
John Ponzio
Joy Donovan Brandon
Kathleen Sams
Lesley Mason
Linda Goelzer
Malinda Miller
Michelle Sing
Paula Cobler
Prescotte Stokes III
Taylor Bartley
Terry Allen
Tiara Tucker
Krista Roberts

And did you know Fort Worth brought the Hypnotoad to ICON when TCU PRSSA — out of all the PRSSA Chapters in Texas — stepped up to host PRSSA students at ICON? What an exciting and unique learning experience for all students involved in coordinating this major event. Thank you, Dr. Amiso George, APR, Fellow PRSA for leading that effort.

Finally, if you haven’t seen the photos from the welcome reception, go here to see PR People. Having. Fun. The dance floor was not large enough for all the folks wanting to learn line dancing! And Prowler the mascot from Panther City Lacrosse has surprisingly deft footwork, er, paw work.

Next time you see Ken Ross, APR from Lockheed Martin Aerospace, be sure to thank him for LM’s generous donation to fund the Welcome Reception entertainment and decorations, as well as Balcom’ssupport.

PRSA National staff and board members are all still singing the praises of our chapters and are glad they chose to return to North Texas after a 30-year absence. We should all be extremely proud of the way we represented the Lone Star state and our profession. Next year, Nashville has its work cut out to top the DFW team!

Shoring Up the Base

Another photo-op idea that was all washed up

Written by: Jeff Rodriguez, Historian

They say a picture is worth—oh, never mind, you know that bit. This month’s column is not about the value of a great picture, but about the cost of a bad one.

That’s what happened on January 9, 1971, when President Nixon went for a walk on the beach near his home in San Clemente, CA.

Whether you were a fan of Nixon or not, most people agree he had a reputation for being somewhat stiff. With the 1972 election coming up, his aides thought it was a good idea to try and build up his image as a man of the people.

So they came up with a plan to have the President photographed while walking along the beach. It seemed like a good idea; after all, everyone enjoys spending some time on the beach (except for whales).

There was only one problem: Nixon took his stroll wearing his official Presidential windbreaker, slacks and wingtips. So he looks completely out of place, more like someone who is walking for help after his car broke down. This was not the way to be seen as a man of the people—unless perhaps the people are in North Korea.

To his defense, Nixon had a very good excuse: He always preferred to dress that way. As he once told a reporter, “I’m always wearing a coat and tie. Even when I’m alone. … That’s the way it is.”

And he was right: In fact, you can find many other shots of Nixon “relaxing” in non-relaxing clothes. There are photos of him at picnics, riding on a small boat, playing with his dog, hosing down the roof of his house, even lounging by his pool. In each shot, he is dressed like he is on his way to a conference, and in most of the photos, he looks like he’s the keynote speaker.

Nixon once said he thought it was more important for a politician to be respected than loved. As it worked out, he ended up with neither, but this PR move clearly did not serve him well.

A sidebar: The aides may have gotten their inspiration from Nixon’s old rival, President Kennedy, who also was photographed walking on the beach; what’s more, he was wearing a sport coat.

But JFK, ever the style maven, was shrewd enough to also wear khakis and sneakers, and the photo could have made the cover of GQ. Even more impressive, JFK also was once photographed on the beach with no shirt on. That shot alone had to be worth a few thousand votes.

And so another well-intentioned photo-op when awry. But this gaffe was no fault of Nixon’s; someone, anyone, on his team should have spoken up. It was similar to Michael Dukakis’ infamous tank ride, a topic we previously covered, as may be recalled by both of our regular readers.

As PR pros, we are assigned to always be on the lookout for ways to better “position” our clients. But positioning is a craft, not a science, and requires both skill and insight. So before we try to burnish our client’s credentials, it’s probably wise to make sure we’re using the right polish.

May Program Presentation: How Public Relations Practitioners Can Help Organizations Adapt to COVID-19

Click here for our latest virtual program from this month’s presenter – Julie O’Neil: PRSA COVID 19 Presentation O’Neil.

 

 

Now and Then: Are we living through an unprecedented time … again?

Written by: Jeff Rodriguez, Historian

These are unprecedented times, which call for extraordinary actions – including another pandemic-themed column. This month, we present some random notes on our nation’s history with economic and health crises. Depending upon your perspective, this will either make you feel much better about our current situation or much worse. Either way, it might add a little historical perspective for PR pros as we advise their clients.

– From 1636 to 1698, Boston endured six epidemics of smallpox. The one in 1721 was so bad that most people fled the city.

– The country’s first significant financial crisis began in 1785. Four more followed quickly, and 16 of the next 25 years would be marked by economic turmoil.

– In 1835, the Bank of Maryland collapsed. Citizens, convinced they had been scammed, attacked the houses of the bankers. The state militia was called out, killing some 20 people and wounding many more.

– In 1837, the Great Plains suffered through a smallpox epidemic, one of several that contributed to the decimation of the Native Americans. That same year, the Panic of 1837 occurred.

– The Panic of 1837 was horribly misnamed. In fact, the recession lasted for about seven years, during which time more than a third of the banks failed, millions of people were unemployed, and civil unrest was widespread. The difficult time is more accurately summed up by the historian’s book titled, “America’s first Great Depression: Economic Crisis and Political and Disorder after the Panic of 1837.”

– 1837 also saw the Flour Riot, and no, it was not any fun.

– There have been multiple cholera epidemics around the world and in the U.S. Groups held responsible for starting the various outbreaks include Jews, gypsies, Indians, Filipinos, the Irish and the poor. Some American scientists blamed African Americans for causing cholera, while Tunisians blamed Europeans. Whoever was to blame, President Polk is believed to have died from it, along with millions of others.

– The Panic of 1873 lasted about four years, with the New York Stock Exchange closing for 10 days.

– Yet another panic occurred in 1893, again lasting about four years. In some states, the unemployment rate topped 25 percent, and the supply of gold reserves fell so low that J.P. Morgan had to give the government a bailout.

– The big picture: If you were born in1835 and lived to be 65, you would have lived through 16 recessions.

– Although smallpox has largely been eliminated in the U.S., there have been numerous epidemics. The last major domestic event occurred in Boston between 1901-1903, and had an estimated a 17 percent fatality rate.

– In 1920, Edith Wharton published what many consider to be her masterpiece, a book about the flu pandemic of 1918. It was titled, “The Age of Innocence.”

– In 1929, the Great Depression – ah, never mind.

– From 1949 to 1960, there were four recessions.  Although the 1960 one was brief, Nixon, who was vice president at the time, believed it cost him the election, because voters blamed their woes on the Republicans.

– There were two recessions between 1980 and ’82. Unemployment reached almost 11 percent, and for six quarters, the GDP was negative.

– In 2013, CBS ran a program on the JFK assassination; it was titled, “When America Lost its Innocence.” The Orange County Register also called the event  “the weekend America lost its innocence.” The ‘60s, they added, were “a time Americans came to question almost everything we had once taken for granted.”

– After the September 11 attacks, a senior Time magazine essayist, (among others), declared the event marked “the end of the age of irony.” Before the attacks, he explained, “the good folks in charge of America’s intellectual life have insisted that nothing was to be believed in or taken seriously.”

– Not to be outdone by her elders, a 25-year-old journalist wrote of the attacks, “Maybe a coddled generation that bathed itself in sarcasm will get serious. Maybe we’ll stop acting so jaded.”

– In 2012, a movie titled, “The Age of Deceit” was released.

– Earlier this month, the Fort Worth Business Press’  Robert Francis wrote an insightful column noting the sudden surge in the use of the words “unprecedented” and “uncertain.” Just for fun, I typed “unpr,” and sure enough, Google’s third search response was “unprecedented times.”

– In March, author and speaker Simon Sinek released a video out titled, “These Are Not Unprecedented Times.” It’s has more than more than 270,000 views – and just wait until we’re able to start holding conferences again.

Unprecedented or not, these are definitely difficult times for many. Please be kind to one another.

COVID-19 Update

#FWPRSA: Due to the latest COVID-19 developments, the following changes have been made to the chapter’s upcoming events:

• March 19: GFW PRSA Health Care Special Interest Group meeting – postponed

• March 26: PR After Dark Happy Hour – postponed

• April 1: PRSA April luncheon – will be turned into a virtual event. Watch for details.

• May 6: PRSA May Luncheon – will be turned into a virtual event. Watch for details.

We are thinking of you & your teams and feel that keeping this group of PR professionals in contact will be beneficial as we all navigate this unprecedented time.