Great work deserves to be recognized, and that’s just what the local chapter of the Public Relations Society of America gathered to do recently.  Outstanding communications strategies as well as creative tactics of all kinds were honored as the best of the best for 2008.  

Every spring, our chapter’s Apex Awards program invites practitioners (both members and non-members alike) to submit their work from the prior year for judging and award consideration by another PRSA chapter. This year, awards were presented in 14 categories including traditional and not-so-traditional communications. In addition to excellence in writing and publications such as brochures and annual reports, awards were also given for emerging media tools including blogs, webcasts, Web sites and social media. 

I’m pleased to say we had some reasons to celebrate.  Mitchell Communications Group took home three awards including:

• Best social media campaign: “2008 Social Media Hunger Challenge” of Boston and the Bay Area in conjunction with long-time MCG client Tyson Foods, Inc.;
• Feature writing: “Finding Resources in the Rain” for Horizon magazine, the Southwestern Energy Company royalty owner newsletter MCG produces each quarter; and
• Press conferences: “Tyson Foods One-Million Pound Donation Kick-Off” in conjunction with Tyson Foods.
  

The MCG team also celebrated the naming of fellow team member, Cydnee Cochran, APR, as the 2008 Professional of the Year.  Cydnee’s 20 years of experience in public relations and her depth and breadth of experience gained throughout that time is an important part of the senior-level bench strength and strategic approach we bring to our clients every day.  We are delighted to have her receive this well deserved recognition, and we salute all 2008 Apex Award winners for their efforts in the name of excellence. 

MCG team members take home awards: Michael Clark, Cydnee Cochran, Holly Gilbert and Heather Ellington.

Congratulations to all the winners for the great work you do.

It’s Friday afternoon and I had a really interesting inbound cold-call from Matthew with http://locamoda.com/ He introduced me to a product they have named Wiffiti. So, I went online to check it out.

I have to say I’m usually pretty up-to-date on the SM side of our business, but this was a pretty interesting tool that according to Matthew and Locamoda, is a communications application that enables people to send messages directly to screens in live locations (digital screens) and online simultaneously.

They also say, organizations have used Wiffiti on large screens at their events and on their blogs and social networking profiles. So I set up a wiffitti test page to see how it works. Check it out and comment, please note that the tags I set up are feeding the river of news. 

Click http://wiffiti.com/clouds/1254 or in the lower right hand corner if you want to see it full screen, you can comment by TXT too if you like…BTW, I put a “G” rating on it, but who knows what the world might have to say about public relations. Have a good weekend!