Past Events
Identifying influencers in social media
February 8, 2012 | Gus Fosarolli, Senior Client Relations Manager at Marketwire
Social media has grown significantly over the past few years. The growing number of social media tools and networks comes with a growing number of people who express their opinions and have conversations via these new channels. Some voices will resonate more loudly than others, and whose opinions will be heard by a larger group of people. Identifying these key people, or influencers, can be crucial for your brand and/or cause.
Gus Fosarolli, Senior Client Relations Manager at Marketwire, offered practical tips to help PR enthusiasts learn how to identify influencers and to leverage them in support of a cause or brand.
Navigating through rough waters: How to communicate when your organization faces the ultimate communications challenge
January 31, 2012 | David L. Hahn , CEO of BC Ferries
During his eight years as CEO of BC Ferries, David Hahn has addressed many communications challenges. From his much-publicized starting salary to his controversial pension plan, Hahn has had to deal with reputations management on both a personal and professional level. No CEO has been tested more than when the Queen of the North struck an island and sank under very questionable circumstances. Two passengers died as a result. Mr. Hahn faced off with Premier Christy Clark when she was a talk show host over the issue of free ferry rides for employees and their families.
In his capacity as CEO he has helped steer the organization in a new direction and has been credited with resolving complicated union negotiations. On Tuesday, January 31 he shared his experiences with CPRS Vancouver and provided his insight and guidance on how organizations can prepare for significant and difficult communications and address any problems as they arise.
Know Your Public Relations Professional
January 19, 2012
At the first CPRS Vancouver Student Event of 2012, five of Vancouver's leading public relations and communications professionals will present, each with a different type of role and from a wide range of organizations – including representatives from NATIONAL Public Relations, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, Popcorn Social Media Consultants, CBC, and TeeKay Shipping.
PR students were able to meet, greet, and learn from each of our star presenters, who talked about how they got started in their careers, what their job really entails, and what the particular demands are of working for their own unique organizations.
CPRS Vancouver's Holiday Party: December 7
December 7, 2011
When December rolls around you just know it's time to ho, ho, ho your way through the whirlwind of festivities that mark the holiday season, right?
With so much to see and do, PR professionals spent a night out at CPRS Vancouver's 2011 Holiday Party on Wednesday, Dec. 7 at the Kingston Tap House and Grille.
They enjoyed a relaxing evening of food, drinks and networking with other PR peers in a casual setting that's got everything required to make a little magic: a few games, exciting door prizes and great conversation.
Building culture through storytelling
November 16, 2011 | Karen Berkhout, Vancity
Telling stories is easy: everyone is a storyteller. Telling an organization’s story can be complicated. The combination of the beliefs, stories and experiences that Vancity’s employees and members have is what builds the organization’s culture and differentiates it. Which stories have value to your customers and your employees? How do you go about gathering and sharing them in an organized way? What are the ins and outs of building a storytelling culture?
Karen Berkhout, Director of Communications + Engagement at Vancity, shared with her PR peers how the credit union is using stories in its internal and external communications.
To tweet or not to tweet … that is the strategic question
October 19, 2011 | Della Smith, Q Workshops Inc.
There are plenty of good reasons for organizations to tweet as well as a multitude of reasons not to tweet. Della Smith, Principal, Q Workshops Inc., gave her perspective on situations or environments that make Twitter a good part of your communications strategy and where it does not. She shared effective tweeting through local case study examples and provided practical tips and tools to make sure tweets are working for those who attended the workshop held at Metropolitan Hotel Vancouver. Della also threw in a couple of Twitter program goof-ups to make communicators think before entering the Twitterverse.
The objective of this session was to help communicators become more Twitter Savvy and avoid Tweet Regret.
CPRS Vancouver's Season Kick-off Socializer
October 12, 2011
It was the summer that almost wasn't. A riot signaled unrest, the HST came undone and the financial markets rocked and rolled. With so much to talk about, PR peers mingled at CPRS Vancouver's 2011-12 season kick-off at George Ultralounge in Yaletown. After a night full of lively conversation, delicious food, and door prize giveaways, CPRS Vancouver reveals what they have in store this year.
Learn how to engage with reporters in the digital age through social media from Gillian Shaw - the Vancouver’s Sun’s Digital Life writer
September 21, 2011 | Gillian Shaw, Vancouver Sun
Dickens, when he was a parliamentary reporter for the Morning Chronicle, was armed only with a pen and a notepad. Today’s journalist comes equipped with the potential of a full production TV studio in a device hardly bigger than a cigarette pack – an iPhone or other smartphone. For newspapers in particular, this has revolutionized the way news is collected and disseminated.
Gillian will be talking about a typical day in a digital newsroom where the barriers between journalists and readers have been all but erased creating dialogues that never existed before and opening a flow of information that was not dreamed of barely five years ago.
The rules have changed for everyone and are constantly evolving. While you might know what they are this week, next week might be different.
Learn more: http://cprsvancouver.com/gillian-shaw-explores-how-social-media-has-changed-newsroom
Learn how to steer clear of legal potholes facing those communicating via the Internet
May 26, 2011 | Marko Vesely, one of Vancouver’s top media lawyers
Marko Vesely, a partner with Lawson Lundell LLP, is the head of the firm’s Defamation and Media Law Group and has worked on a wide variety of class actions, defamation, copyright and intellectual property disputes. Last year Lexpert recognized him as one of Canada’s Leading Lawyers under 40 and he regularly is invited to lecture at Langara College’s Publishing Program. Vesely is also regularly featured in the media as an expert on online defamation issues and has been quoted on News 1130, CKNW as well as in the Vancouver Sun and the Globe and Mail commenting on current legal issues around online defamation.
CPRS Vancouver's Spring Social
May 4, 2011
On the heels of the royal wedding and amidst the Vancouver Canucks’ drive to the Stanley Cup Finals, CPRS Vancouver hosted its spring networking event at Guilt & Co., downstairs from Chill Winston in Maple Tree Square. More than 30 local communicators made it out to the Gastown venue to enjoy a few drinks and the great food available at one of Vancouver's new hot spots for live music and entertainment.
Student Membership Year-end Networking Event
April 26, 2011
It has been a great year for our student membership. We held three great career development events and hooked up over 15 student members with industry mentors. To celebrate, PR students joined us at Steamworks Brewing Company in Gastown for an evening of food, drinks and friends. They wrapped-up a great year of CPRS events and made some new connections with other up-and-comers in the public relations industry and some seasoned pros.
Learn how social media technologies have altered crisis and issues management
April 20, 2011 | Mat Wilcox, one of BC's most experienced PR professionals
Social media enthusiast, entrepreneur and PR veteran Mat Wilcox shocked the communications industry by shutting down her successful practice in August 2010. Her decision to close her firm, once one of BC's largest, was a result of her belief that social media technologies had altered the practice of crisis and issues management public relations.
A capacity crowd came to hear Mat talk about where she sees the public relations industry heading and what she thinks about the evolution of social media. She talked about how social media is firmly changing our industry and how it dramatically altered her business model.
