Breakout Sessions: Set I
1:45–3 p.m.
"Working Together: Employee Retention is Just as Important as Client Retention"
Room Fez A/B
Retaining clients might be the primary focus for senior-level counselors, but employee retention should be a close second. Keeping dedicated and hard-working employees results in retaining clients. With a public relations firm in business for 20 years, Rob Adler will share her hands-on approach to retaining employees. You will learn how to:
Speaker:
Rob Adler is senior vice president and partner, Vantage Communications. Adler joined Vantage Communications in 2002, after a career in management. Adler manages accounts in wireless and mobile, enterprise/SMB, IP communications and social media. Adler has successfully led award-winning campaigns that have been recognized by the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards, World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers, 2011 Bloomberg New Energy Pioneers and Mobile Star Awards. One of his client’s press coverage increased more than 1,000% within the first nine months of the PR campaign. Adler and his team have also won their own accolades from the Bulldog Reporter, the Mobile Star Award for Best Mobile Public Relations Firm and MarCom Awards Platinum. Adler has a B.S. in Economics from Wharton, and a J.D. from NYU.
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"Crisis Proofing Your Agency and Client Support"
Room Kenitra A/B
When Xenophon Strategies’ senior vice president had a heart attack in August 2009 during one of the company's busiest periods, the team never skipped a beat. Jay Silverberg will describe how Xenophon structures crisis response and client support to ensure — no matter what, no matter when — business continues as usual. You will learn how to:
Speaker: Jay Silverberg is senior vice president, Xenophon Strategies. Silverberg joined Xenophon Strategies ten years ago after seven years with GCI/Kamer Public Affairs in San Francisco. During his tenure with Xenophon and GCI/Kamer Public Affairs, Silverberg has guided businesses and not-for-profit organizations through issues relating to crises and crisis planning, public policy, the media, employee and labor relations, mergers, corporate social responsibility, government and political affairs, executive communications, social activism, product liability as well as community relations. Clients have included Airbus, the Air Transport Association, BHP Copper, California High-Speed Rail Authority, California Highway Patrol, Crystal Geyser, DHL, Kaiser Permanente, Levi Strauss & Co, Macy’s West, Osher/Marin Jewish Community Center, Marin General Hospital, Nestlé, Rolls-Royce North America, The Salvation Army, SeaWorld, Sonoma County Regional Parks, TIMET and Williams-Sonoma. He has personally directed communications training programs for more than 5,000 corporate executives, physicians, lawyers, Salvation Army officers and others seeking assistance with media communications. Silverberg received his Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Missouri in 1975. He and his wife are the parents of two grown children, a son working for a technology start-up in New York City, and a daughter now working as an analyst in Washington, DC. His family has lived in Petaluma, CA, since
1986.
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"Counselors are Made, Not Born: How to Grow Counselors, Not Tacticians"
Room Rabat A/B
In a marketplace where someone is always available to do a job for less, how can you set your agency apart, grow revenue and secure your future? The answer is to develop a group of counselors that can build trusting relationships, gain client confidence and provide the high-level counsel that C-suite executives want, and for which they will pay top dollar. Listen as 25-year veterans Roger M. Friedensen and Raymond J. Hornak share tips and techniques they have used to develop dozens of high-performing strategists. You will learn how to:
Speaker: Roger M. Friedensen, APR, is president and CEO of Forge Communications. Before co-founding Forge Communications, Friedensen served as senior vice president of client services at Epley Associates and The Catevo Group. His specialties include strategic planning, executive counsel, reputation management, crisis communications, issue management, media relations and spokesperson training. Friedensen has helped a range of organizations manage a wide array of complex and controversial issues and projects. He has worked extensively with pharmaceutical, healthcare, waste management, environmental, chemical, agribusiness and transportation organizations as well as state agencies, non-profit professional groups, museums and community colleges Friedensen was a visiting instructor in the Department of Communication Studies at North Carolina State University and is a frequent guest speaker at local and national conferences and forums. He earned masters and bachelor's degrees in speech communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from which he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Active in the community, Friedensen is a steering committee member of and counsel to the Regional Transportation Alliance and has served on the boards of many other local and state organizations. An accredited member of PRSA, Friedensen serves on the executive committee of the Counselors Academy of PRSA and is past president of the Raleigh Public Relations Society.
Speaker: Raymond J. Hornak, APR, is chairman of Forge Communications. During his 36 years as a public relations professional, Hornak has planned, implemented, directed and managed a variety of strategic and crisis communications. He served as senior vice president of Epley Associates and president of The Catevo Group before co-founding Forge Communications. As a principal crisis communications consultant with both Epley Associates/ Public Relations for more than 20 years and with The Catevo Group following a merger of the company, Hornak has developed national crisis communications programs and trained senior executives for companies such as Corning Incorporated, John Deere, Burroughs Welcome (GSK) and GE. A graduate of Wheeling Jesuit University, Wheeling, W. Va., Hornak is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America and is a past president of the Society's North Carolina Chapter and national delegate to PRSA. He was recently honored with the Watt Huntley Lifetime Achievement award in public relations by the Raleigh PR Society (2009).