Client Panel: The New Definition of PR
Social media is revolutionizing communications, traditional media is in upheaval, the economy has increased demands for PR accountability and crises are 24/7. These powerful forces are creating difficult challenges for PR practitioners but they are also creating unprecedented opportunities. A panel of well-known clients will share their insight on the state of PR in 2011 and beyond.

Moderator: Carol Levine, President, energiPR
Speaker: Martha Cass, Head of Public Relations, PayPal Canada
Speaker: Barbara Haynes, CEO & President, DAS Canada
Speaker: Julia Oosterman, Director of Communications, RSA
Speaker: Wendy Rozeluk, Communications Manager, Google

1A. Keeping Clients Happy: Juggling Relationships and Managing Expectations in Good Times and Bad
The client / agency relationship is constantly evolving. Hitting rough waters is inevitable and dynamics shift for many different reasons. So, how do you find the solutions to get the relationship back on track and keep the client happy while managing expectations in our new PR reality?

When meeting the client half way becomes more than a challenge, we need some tools to get us on the same page. During this one-hour seminar we will present / discuss our relevant point-of-view, success stories, and an interactive case study.

Key take-aways will include: Principles and guardrails for effective client relationship management; top 10 tips / tools for dealing with clients in challenging times; ideas to how to turn a challenging client into a favourite client; suggestions to help your agency team be the ideal PR partner

Karen Krugel, Vice-President, Praxis PR
Liz Luzza, Senior Account Director, Praxis PR

1B. Pitching To Win
Winning pitches is the lifeline of any good PR firm. The Pitching to Win program has been developed over the past 30 years using techniques and principles that have been successful with some of the largest pitches around the globe. This seminar will outline what it takes to win a pitch and will help participants understand what clients are looking for at a deeper level, how to connect with them and how to create content that is more persuasive and powerful than your competition.

Ken Johnston, President and CEO, FreshAire

2A. Presenting with Impact
You don’t deliver a presentation, you perform it. A successful presentation is one in which the presenter builds rapport, inspires confidence and emphasizes the key points. This session will focus on determining the right content for your presentation, and how to truly bring the subject matter to life. From this session, you’ll learn how to structure your presentation creatively for maximum impact, as well as techniques to engage and persuade your audience.

Lisa Kimmel, General Manager, Edelman Toronto

2B. CREATIVITY: Seeking Inspiration Without Losing Grip on Reality
Clients often ask for creativity as a key skill set from their public relations agency partners; are usually challenged to define it; and are quick to tell you when you don't have it.

This session will explore two key elements of creativity for PR agency practitioners - the art of being creative and finding inspiration; and the reality of anchoring your ideas within the client universe.

Participants should expect a thorough discussion about being creative in the public relations agency environment and some tips on finding their own creative muse.

David Gordon, Managing Partner, Cohn & Wolfe

Lunch and Keynote Presentation: A Daily Newspaper goes 27/7
John Stackhouse, Editor-In-Chief, The Globe and Mail
Interviewed by Susan Reisler, Vice President, Media Profile

3A. Managing and Motivating Your Team
Deadlines. Quality work. Staying on budget. Delivering the very best you can in a demanding and challenging industry. It is hard enough to do it yourself - but even more complicated when you are leading a team of your colleagues to create award winning work without either micromanaging - or leaving them with a lack of direction. While every manager needs to develop his/her own style, there are fundamental challenges we all face along the way. Panel members, responsible for managing large national teams, offices, and multi-agency projects will share their experience and their own trials, tribulations and triumphs to provide the audience with some best practices they learned along the way.

Participants will leave with tips and tools to help them overcome some of the most frequent challenges associated with building and managing teams, and techniques to motivate colleagues to excel.

Judy Lewis, President, Strategic Objectives
Mark Nusca, Managing Director, Porter Novelli
Greg Power, President, Weber Shandwick
Ilyse Smith, Senior Vice President, Hill & Knowlton

3B. The Strategic Vacuum: Bringing Meaning Back to Strategic Planning
Strategy development was once a universally understood process, but today it means different things to different people. Some continue to see it for the complex manifestation of objectives that it is, while others often mistake it for the simplest of tactics. It is incumbent upon us as public relations practitioners to guide strategy development back to its origins.

In this session, we will define strategy and its purpose and offer a simple and practical model that will help ensure that you have a genuine strategic framework from which to build effective plans each and every time.

Ken Evans, Senior Vice President, APEX Public Relations

4A. Social Media In the PR Mix
Facebook, Twitter, blogging, podcasting and other self-publishing technologies have democratised media and created a new class of citizen journalists with the power to disrupt well-scripted messages, push back against PR spin, and publicly fact-check every statement your spokespeople make. Understanding how to use, manage and monitor social media has become an expected part of the skill set for the modern communicator. Proven expertise, however, can be hard to find. This panel brings together four of Canada’s leading thought leaders in social media to share their best practices, insights, valuable tips, and real-world examples drawn from direct experience.

While not a 101-level discussion, this panel will help participants understand the role and importance of social media, offer practical advice on incorporating social media tools into communications strategies, and demonstrate the value of strengthening relationships with key online audiences.

Alex de Bold, VP Social Media & Digital Marketing, MSL Canada
Mark Evans, Senior Social Media Strategist, Media Profile
Michael O’Connor Clarke, Vice President Media Profile (Panel Moderator)
Joseph Thornley, CEO, Thornley Fallis
Martin Waxman, Managing Partner, energiPR

4B. PR Means Business: Selling Our Value to Senior Management
Using research and thinking from the Canadian and global public relations communities, this session will examine ways to frame public relations most effectively with CEOs and senior-level clients. The discussion will focus on three major scenarios: (1) the persuasion phase -- when a potential client is deciding whether to hire an agency; (2) the justification phase – when your client needs to show the value of what you do to senior executives within their organization; and (3) the partner phase – when you need to earn that elusive seat around the business decision-making table.

Participants will learn research-tested ways to make the case for public relations more effectively to senior executives – both in content of the message and the way it’s delivered.

Dan Tisch, President, Argyle Communications