YouTube as battle strategy

The Israeli army is taking its public relations war directly to a global audience: It has created a YouTube channel to disseminate video that documents recent precision-bombing operations in the Gaza Strip as well as humanitarian aid distribution efforts.

"The blogosphere and new media are another war zone. We have to be relevant there," says IDF Foreign Press Branch head Maj. Avital Leibovich.

Although graphic content — including a clip showing an air strike on men who were apparently loading rockets into a truck — has since been removed by YouTube, "The intelligent audience watching the footage will know that people killed did not have peaceful intentions toward Israel," Leibovich had told the Jerusalem Post. "I don't believe they'll be disturbed. The important thing is to get the truth out there."

And on YouTube, there's this posting from Leibovich's office (note the last sentence!): "We are saddened that YouTube has taken down some of our exclusive footage showing the IDF's operational success in operation Cast Lead against Hamas extremists in the Gaza Strip. As the State of Israel again faces those who would see it destroyed, it is imperative that we in the IDF show the world the inhumanity directed against us and our efforts to stop it. It is also worth noting that one of the videos removed had the highest number of hits (over 10,000) at the time of its removal."

The IDF Foreign Press Branch has also delivered briefings to bloggers around the world, and staff members are preparing to start their own vodcasts — video diaries — to discuss their feelings about the conflict in English and Arabic. They rightly calculate that this personal approach will affect audiences very differently than traditional news coverage and pundit commentary.

Since the beginning of the Gaza air strikes this holiday season, Israeli politicians have held frequent press conferences to defend the attacks, but when their words are broadcast on the news over images of mayhem, destruction and crying children, it is hard to listen to speeches. The IDF is making a smart tactical move.

6: and tag you're it

The fabulous Suzanne Tobias, of Notes for My Kids' Therapist, tagged me in the latest blogger game making the rounds in Wichita and elsewhere. In typical fashion, I've put this off as long as I can, so here we go:

Here are the rules:

* Link to the person who tagged you.
* Post the rules on your blog.
* Write 6 random things about yourself.
* Tag 6-ish people at the end of your post.
* Let each person know he/she has been tagged.
* Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six random things about me:

1. Childhood pets included a dog named Puppy and cats named Kitty and Cat. And yet I went on to a career working with words. Go figure.
2. I like Wizard Rock — grassroots music inspired by the "Harry Potter" series. I was introduced to the all-musical-genres fan-based phenom last year by my teenage daughter (who has amassed a large collection of tunes by bands such as The Whomping Willows, Draco and the Malfoys, Obliviate! and The Hermione Crookshanks Experience). The Girl appears to be outgrowing her obsession for songs written from the perspective of fictional characters, but I'm still hooked. At least on mother-daughter roadtrips, we can agree on the playlist, and it doesn't include German Techno Scream anymore. Ugh.
3. When I was in sixth grade, I was a Safety Patrol crossing guard on the corner of Murdock and Edgemoor in Wichita, in front of what a short time later became known as The Otero House when four members of the family were killed by serial killer BTK. I grew up to direct my newspaper's coverage of the investigation after he resurfaced, and to lead a team that wrote the definitive book on the case.
4. I once crashed through a jungle at night without a flashlight to view Halley's Comet from the top of an ancient Mayan observatory. (Crawling up the pitch-black no-room-to-back-up double-helix stone staircase, which was covered in years of who-knows-what, was a very Indiana Jones moment.)
5. I am the world's worst penpal. If you write me a letter, chances are extremely high that I will eagerly write you back but never mail it. (Exhibit A: I packaged a Christmas present for mailing to a dear friend in the mid-1980s and still have it in a closet.)
6. My personal motto is: Take the Initiative to Make Things Better.

And now, who to tag? I think it shall be...

Dan, Lou, Andi, Daniel, Ron, Martha

Fun with words

Pop art, poetry and technology merge in Wordle, an applet that allows users to create a "beautiful word cloud" from a blog, RSS feed or copyblock with one click.

Fun to do, but even more interesting to people watch: The gallery includes everything from love poems to a master's thesis.

The results are in

The informal survey of Twitter users (see post below) yielded some interesting stats:
— 9 in 10 of those responding said they had volunteered this year.
— 1 in 4 volunteer on a set schedule
— 3 in 4 volunteer as events or their heart moves them

Tweeples were most likely to split their time between:
— Mentoring and
— Sitting on boards and advising organizations
Half of the respondents chose those activities.
Next most-popular was political action — which makes sense, given that this is a presidential election year.
That was followed, in descending order, by:
— Fundraising
— Tutoring
— Faith promotion
— Other, which included: feeding the homeless through a church program, working in the arts, being a Compeer match, collecting items for battered women at the holidays, and working with at-risk kids at school (I'd likely have put that under mentoring or tutoring, but for the respondent it didn't seem to fit those categories so OK)

How often do the responding Tweeples volunteer? We are split:
1 in 3 volunteer monthly
1 in 3 volunteer randomly
1 in 5 volunteer weekly
and a very small set volunteer yearly (at the holidays) or never.

Why do Tweeples volunteer? Lots of motivations. Here's a sampling:
— "I believe in the causes."
— "I believe in humanity."
— "I makes me feel good, and I have skills to share."
— "To give back."
— "I am blessed with a little money and a little time — happy to help others."
— "Sense of civic responsibility inherited from my grandfather."
— "I think there could be a revolution, parents' overall inability scares me these days, the future is delicate."
— "To make a difference in the community."
— "Why not?"

Thanks to all who participated!

Tweeple in Action

Lots of chirping on Twitter in recent days about good deeds inspired me to create a survey on volunteering.

I'll compile the results and comments and here, so check back!

Express yourself

I've been focusing lately on microexpressions, fleeting facial movements that underscore or undo someone's spoken message. Microexpressions help us tune into the emotional truth behind the words. (A prime example from a few years ago: The pleas from Sarah Smith for the return of her allegedly kidnapped little boys. Investigators observed that not only did her carjacking story not add up, her serene face did not match her anguished words. She eventually confessed to their murder.)

A lot of folks have been talking in recent days about facial expressions made by the presidential candidates during last week's debate: John McCain seems "too excitable"; Barack Obama seems "smug"; both can seem genuinely in touch or arrogant. So I found it interesting to watch Colin Powell talking on "Meet the Press" about how he evaluated these men over the past two years, then decided to endorse Obama.

As you watch it, focus on Powell's eyes and mouth. Does he smile or frown inappropriately? Scowl when he is saying something positive? Or do his face, words and emotions seem to be in sync? I'll let you be the judge.

Standup candidates

It is wonderful to see smart politicians let voters in on their sense of humor. I wish they did it more often, because you can tell a lot about a person by what they find funny and how they tell a joke. (Kansas Sen. Bob Dole is much more likable and people-savvy than his stiff presidential campaign persona led people to believe.)

Thursday night's white-tie dinner bearing the name of Alfred E. Smith (a witty presidential candidate of the 1920s, not to be confused with Mad magazine's Alfred E. Newman!) was a great reminder that behind all the rhetoric, Barack Obama and John McCain are real men - with great writers! Check out these videos (and watch for Hillary Clinton in the audience, too!)

Contagious politics

With less than three weeks to Election Day, political signs are everywhere, with more popping up daily. Ever wonder why signs tend to be clumped in yards on one end of a block, or why next-door neighbors will publicize their disagreements to strangers driving by? If it seems that there's something more than politics going on, you're right.

Putting out a sign can be a powerful provocation to others — to rally to your candidate, or to declare their opposition. The phenomenon is called "goal contagion," explains Art Markman, a cognitive scientist at the University of Texas and Psychology Today blogger.

When someone puts out a political yard sign, the people who see it immediately understand the goal. This action leads others to be more likely to want to announce their own preference. This desire is likely to be particularly strong for one's neighbors, says Markman, because they see the sign every day.

You can also see the contagion at work in this story: When business leaders became vocal in their opposition to County Commission candidate Karl Peterjohn, "It inspired a backlash for Karl," Darrell Leffew told The Wichita Eagle. He recently put six pro-Peterjohn signs in his yard.

I've spent many a workday working through lunch, but my preference by far is to spend the lunch hour with a friend or two, talking about events of the day, laughing away a little stress and making plans to get
together again soon. That's why I enjoy Wichita lunch TweetUps, like the one Thursday that drew about 15 people. Some recent gatherings have drawn twice that many.

TweetUps inevitably are a dynamic mix of old and new friends and complete strangers who quickly become friends thanks to their online interaction via Twitter.com. At our long table were police detectives, graduate students, community group facilitators, a medical transcriptionist, a reporter, a couple of Web page designers, a couple of PR folks... A virtual community has become a very real one.

With a large group anchored to the table by food, it's only natural that the free-for-all conversation that is Twitter breaks down into a lot of 1-on-1s. Sometime soon, we're going to try a "SpeedTweetUp" that gets us moving around the table to talk to someone new every few minutes. Should be a hoot.

"WSTW:2" focuses on giving

Episode 2 of the new show "Wichita State & The World" hosted by provost Gary Miller debuts on Sunday evening, and reviewing the online excerpts today reminded me of how much I enjoyed sorting through video interviews with WSU engineering students to select material for it. (I'm the producer.)

Wow, what an impressive bunch.

Hearing college kids describe their experiences - the personal impact of scholarships, of mentoring from professors and professionals, of opportunities to work on real-world projects such as NASA in Kansas - made me proud(er) to be a WSU alum.

The episode, which focuses on how gifts to the WSU Foundation change lives, debuts at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 5, on WSU TV, Channel 13 on Cox cable, with repeats Oct. 16, 19 and 30.

Listen and learn

A lot of my job - as a communications professional, as a parent, as a friend - is reading between the lines. Or mores precisely, listening between the lines.

Often it's not the question that is asked, but the concerns behind the question that need to be addressed.

"What are you working on today?" might be mere small talk, or it could be a sonar ping: "Do you have time for me? Are you too busy to talk to me? Am I important to you?"

When you talk with clients, family and friends, do you hear them? Are you sure? Try focusing your full attention on them (not your work, not yourself, not the long to-do list that is calling your name), and think before you automatically respond to questions. Tip: Ask "Why do you ask?" or "What's troubling you about that?" then listen. You may have your ears - and your eyes - opened. I know I have.

Looking for work? Clear out online clutter

More Americans than ever are daily users of online social networking sites, and more employers are are plugging in, too. A new survey by CareerBuilder.com shows that 22 percent of employers search networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace to screen job candidates. Another 9 percent plan to start soon. In 2006, only 11 percent of hiring managers screened using such Web searches.

In the new survey, of the hiring managers who peruse social networks, 34 percent reported finding information there that caused them to pass on a job candidate. More than 3,100 employers took part in the survey.

Areas of concern included:
- candidate posted information about them drinking or using drugs 41%
- candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information 40%
- candidate had poor communication skills 29%
- candidate bad-mouthed their previous company or co-worker 28%
- candidate lied about qualifications 27%
- candidate used discriminatory remarks related to race, gender, religion, etc. 22%
- candidate’s screen name was unprofessional 22%
- candidate was linked to criminal behavior 21%
- candidate shared confidential information from previous employers 19%

But this doesn't mean we should all shut down our social sites. In addition to FB, I know many professionals who swear by LinkedIn, and I have found Twitter to be not just fun but a terrific way to connect with professionals of all stripes in Wichita - online and at weekly TweetUps, where friendships and business contacts are forged.

Indeed, the survey showed that social networking profiles gave some job seekers an edge. Of hiring managers who researched job candidates via social networking sites, 24 percent said they found content that helped to solidify their decision to hire the candidate.

Top factors that influenced their hiring decision included:
- candidate’s background supported their qualifications for the job 48%
- candidate had great communication skills 43%
- candidate was a good fit for the company’s culture 40%
- candidate’s site conveyed a professional image 36%
- candidate had great references posted about them by others 31%
- candidate showed a wide range of interests 30%
- candidate received awards and accolades 29%
- candidate’s profile was creative 24%

My former newspaper colleagues refer to online as a publishing platform. It has unique attributes, but that's what it is: A way to publish, to reach mass audiences. In their view, it can be edgier than the mainstream paper, but it's not boundless. Newspaper editors know what it's like to have to handle phone calls from readers who are angry or upset by what seemed innocuous the night before.

Job candidates might learn something from The Gatekeepers, as editors used to be known. Because the price they'll pay for indescretion might be worse than difficult phone calls - it could be no calls at all.

A new series

I'm excited about seeing one of my big projects on the air! The fall season of "Wichita State & The World" kicks off on Sunday, Sept. 7, with an episode that features Associate Provost David McDonald of WSU and Paul Wooley of the Orthopaedic Research Institute at Via Christi talking about biomedical composites research and its impact on business and medicine.


"Wichita State & The World," hosted by Provost Gary Miller, is a series that examines how Kansas' only urban-serving research university is changing our community, our nation and the world. It's on WSU TV, Channel 13 on Cox Cable.

Episode 1 airs at 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7, with repeats at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18; Sunday, Sept. 21; and Thursday, Oct. 2.

You'll find more information about this and upcoming episodes at www.wichita.edu/provost.

Rover, Fido or Izzy?

Best friend adopted a shelter dog today - pre-named Izzy. Odd name for a girl, and a golden retriever, we think, tho my friend says "she kinda looks like an Izzy."
That's the fascinating thing about names: They have connotation and undefinable mojo. And they have the power to attract and repell. There is a certain boy's name that I could swear is a marker for ADHD -- I've yet to meet a child with this particular moniker who didn't exhibit the signs -- but it continues to be wildly popular with other parents, so maybe it's just me. Then again, the only Izzy I can recall was a pretty cool character in the novel "Fried Green Tomatoes," so that name is growing on me.

Understanding the risks

I'm a stats junkie, and I love to go to the source whenever there's news about research. The Web makes it easy to go deeper than the headlines and sound bites -- and too often, a little digging turns up the real news: That the reporter didn't really understand what the researcher had discovered. Oversimplification takes a toll.

That's why I like the innovative charts that accompany a paper published in the June Journal of the National Cancer Institute. They provide a broader perspective than most risk calculators, covering 10 different causes of death while differentiating between nonsmokers, smokers and former smokers -- at various ages -- and by gender.

With this method, it's apparent that a 35-year-old male smoker is seven times as likely to die of heart disease as a nonsmoker the same age. Of course, some hardy smokers will manage to survive into their 70s, and by age 75 smokers and nonsmokers have nearly the same risk of death from heart disease. For women who have never smoked, the magnitudes of the 10-year risks of death from breast cancer and heart disease are similar until age 60; from this age on, heart disease represents the single largest cause of death. For women who smoke, the chance of dying from heart disease or lung cancer exceeds the chance of dying from breast cancer from age 40 on (and does so by at least a factor of 5 after age 55). This is especially significant given that cancer risk generally increases with age.

Paper co-author Lisa M. Schwartz, an associate professor of medicine at Dartmouth University, said the the 10-year risk increments of the charts are especially informative. “Often numbers are presented as lifetime statistics, which make the risk look too large, or as one-year statistics, which make the risk look too small. The charts provide the information you need to understand a risk, and whether to consider taking some action to reduce it.”

Buzz kill: The waiting game

The wait is all but over - based on reading the tea leaves, Sen. Joe Biden appears to be Barack Obama's pick for vice president - but the wait itself became news Friday night as the hours dragged on and on and on.

Impatient supporters and journalists I follow on Twitter (and I'm writing about two distinct groups here) had become rather cranky by bedtime. Some, even earlier:
As @jeffbutts Tweeted about 6 p.m.: "Re: obama's running mate. there's suspense. And then there's just plain annoyance. Get it over with."
After a daylong vigil, CNN reported Friday night that senior campaign officials said Obama's choice would not be announced to supporters in a text message until Saturday morning.
By 11 p.m., ABC News was reporting that the Secret Service had been dispatched to Biden's home.
As @nickjungman wrote at about 11:15 p.m.: "I am beginning to feel that I will *not* be the first to know Obama's VP pick. FALSE ADVERTISING!"
By 11:45 p.m., CNN flat-out declared Biden to be the guy.
Minutes to midnight, social media maven @toddblog summed up the feelings of many: "You can't promise that people will receive a text message "first," send a release to the news and NOT send the text. LAME Obama. Lame."
So maybe the promise was too good to be true. An interesting lesson in the buzz biz, nonetheless: Follow through and pay off matter.
PS: And seriously, is my phone network down? Because I still don't have a txt msg, and it's Saturday on the East Coast....
Addendum: It's now 8:02 a.m. Saturday. Bleary-eyed, I reach for my phone and see The Text. Sent at 2:38 a.m. today. Hmm. Shortly after midnight on the West Coast. Ah, well. It's a big country. Maybe the challenge of sending millions of simultaneous txt msgs was bigger than anticipated. Or maybe the campaign didn't want to be blamed for crashing Twitter when the news hit like a tsunami. That would have been a fatal blow to yesterday's buzz.

Buzz update

Just back from WichiTweets lunch, where cell phones vied for space on the tables with the chips and salsa. Several of us kept one eye out for The Txt Msg from the Obama campaign, announcing his vice presidential pick. Some checked their phones a little more than was necessary (obsessively?) considering that when the time comes, a cocophany is sure to ensue.

But the txt did not come over the lunch hour. So anticipation spawned speculation over the timing of the announcement: Before the evening news? During the evening news? During tonight's Olympics coverage? (My money's on breaking in during prime time tonight, though Old School thinking would aim for the start of the network news shows, 5:30 p.m. Central.)

Stay tuned.

PS: Is my phone working? I haven't gotten any txts all day! Better test it....

Building buzz by building a social network

Cable TV pundits are abuzz this morning, speculating on who Barack Obama has chosen as his running mate. Will it be Biden? Sebelius? Bayh? Clinton? Heightening their anticipation is that the news will break via text message.

I imagine that there were plenty of folks debating whether to shower this morning, for fear they might not hear their phones and thus miss The Moment.
Now, in the scheme of American Politics, this 3-second interaction between voter and cell phone is no Gettysburg Address. But there is an intimacy, a sense of inclusion in something important - which the Obama campaign has used cold, hard technology to create.

First came the e-mails: Be the first to know who has been chosen! (Who doesn't want to have and share "inside" knowledge?) Just text VP to a 5-digit number from your cell phone. (What could be easier for the under-50 crowd?)

How did the campaign get their e-mail addresses? Months ago, anyone curious to see the senator speak at an event was asked to RSVP via e-mail. In return, they'd get an "electronic ticket." The tickets didn't ensure entry, but they did allow organizers to anticipate crowd size and collect millions of e-mail addresses from across the nation. Simple and sweet.

Obviously, not everyone who signed up is a supporter - I'm maintaining political independence as I write this - but there's no doubt that Obama's contact lists of potential volunteers and voters is every candidate's dream.

BTW, I just checked my cell phone - again. No txt msg yet. Feeling kinda antsy. Can't recall **ever** feeling this way about a VP announcement. Can you?

Wil U b my VP?

Barack Obama's campaign sent Social Media e-mails Sunday evening inviting folks to "Sign up today to be the first to know" who his running mate will be.

Those who register online at http://my.barackobama.com/vp "will receive an email the moment Barack makes his decision, or you can text VP to 62262 to receive a text message on your mobile phone."

As campaign manager David Plouffe points out: No campaign has done this before.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate John McCain "apparently has figured out the younger generation just fine," according to The Washington Times. The newspaper reported Aug. 8 that in the past two weeks, his "celebrity attacks" have stomped Obama in YouTube hits. You'll find him @ www.johnmccain.com.

This truly is the first 21st-century presidential race.

A long and sociable day

Up early today to make the morning Wichita Tweetup @ 7:15 a.m. in the back room of the Hillside & Central Panera. This was the second get-together for the early birds, an interesting blend of folks primarily with Ad/PR interests, though all Tweeters in the area are welcome. The group is growing, and it was great to see some new faces, including two with Wichita State connections. (The night owls will Tweetup next Thursday @ 6 p.m. in the back room of The Anchor on East Douglas; many of us put both on our calendars.)
Next it was off to meet with the in-laws at the Wichita Clinic and have lunch afterward, because sometimes the most important thing you'll do all day is sit in the radiologist's waiting room and let someone cry, then let them buy you a hot fudge sundae. With pecans.
Afternoon was mostly split between making small talk with new acquaintances, talking about projects with collaborators, touching base with several people via phone, e-mail, txt and Twitter - and focusing on actual work.
Stayed late at the computer to make up for "lost" work time - but looking back on the day, I wouldn't give up any of the "live" interaction. If anything, tonight I crave a bit more. Time to go hug The Girl and The Husband. Maybe I'll just check Twitter first, tho....

Flocking to the Tweetup

Judging from the noise level, Thursday night's Wichita Tweetup was a rousing success. It drew roughly triple the people of the first, thanks in part to the pebble effect: Many of the seven people who attended the first spread the word about the second, then those ripples extended further out....

The result was a lively mix of folks at a long collection of tables, some meeting up with old friends, all making new ones, introducing themselves to strangers and making connections - "tweeting" in the Real World.
That microcosm included people from advertising and PR, the news media, higher education, non-profits, small business, Web design, IT, and beyond.
Conversations ranged from the highly technical to the highly personal to the downright hilarious. You had to be there.
Next is a morning Tweetup, date TBA. We'll keep you posted.

Investing in research

Do you know your audience or customer? Really? When was the last time you looked at sharply focused market research? Given the current state of the economy, is your inclination to invest more or less on understanding the people you need to reach?
Radio One recently commissioned and shared the Black America Study, which helps us understand the texture and diversity of this community. Consider these findings about black Americans ages 13-19:
Technical Savvy
• 71% are online
• 30% listen to iPod/MP3
• 20% watch music videos online
• 23% play video/computer games
• At least half have cell phones
• At least half use text messaging
Household and Family
• 52% are being raised by a single parent
• 22% are already parents
• Only 3% are single parents
• 55% are very stressed by school
Business and Finance
• 69% believe that they will own their own business someday
• They are impetuous in spending – heavy spenders on clothing
• They are brand conscious – highest percent (24%) that buy for brand
Understanding the daily lives behind these numbers could translate to better marketing strategies, larger markets, and more loyal customers.
What do you need to know about your current customers - and the people you'd like to attract as customers?

New media converts demand usefulness

It's fascinating to watch people who are initially resistant to new media become enthusiastic about it. Generally, the barrier is internal: They are limited by their own imagination, asking: "What's the point? What would anyone use that for? Isn't it just a way to waste time?" Once they come to understand exactly how it can benefit them, however, they come around. Before long, a social medium such as Twitter is no longer "boring" or "stupid." New converts brag that it's "a great way to make business contacts" or "an easy way to keep up" with what family and friends across the country are doing. Useful and personal adds up to powerful - 140 characters at a time.

Don't know what you've got till it's gone . . .

The power of social media was brought home this morning by two very different events: A Tweetup and a computer catastrophe.
Twitter users got together at 7:15 a.m. for the first Wichita Tweetup (and large doses of caffeine). It allowed us to socialize beyond our tweets' 140-character limit, and talk about how microblogging has become integrated into our work and personal lives.
Afterward, many of us discovered that last night something had rolled through Twitter like an F-5. The virtual twister wiped out about half my contacts, but I was among the lucky; one of my Tweeples lost more than 1,000. It wasn't only the tedious work of rebuilding a social network that proved painful, however. The sense of disconnection - of missing out on something important, inspiring or funny, news from people we've come to care about - was disconcerting for many tweeters. We've quickly become a community.

If you were a car . . .

It's said that we Americans ARE what we drive. And though I have been brand-loyal to Honda ever since my 1980 Chevy Chevette ("The Last of the Stone Age Cars") was towed off to the scrapheap, the Tomorrowland car quiz says I'm a Corvette.

Well, at least that's a decent step up in the Chevy line. And I must say, the assessment isn't half bad:

"You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do."

Quizzes can be a fun and effective way to reach your audience. See for yourself: Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz for a spin.

Thanks for sharing

One of the perks of my work is making contact with so many smart, interesting and curious people. Invariably, they are a generous lot - happy to share what they know, and eager to learn from the people they encounter as well. So, to everyone I've talked/networked/Tweeted/e-mailed/blogged/and otherwise communicated with this week: Thanks. You're the reason I'm in a great mood today.

Social media in action

Social media experiment moving forward: Reached out to Tweeple @jdecesaro, we conferred, then we spread the word at a PRSA meeting today. Now it's set: Our first social media TweetUp is set for Thursday 7/24, 7:15 A.M. Panera @ Central & Hillside. That's mighty early (I was rooting for 7 PM @ a bar in OldTown), but it's a start!

Working lunch

Happy to report that the media panel at the Wichita PRSA luncheon today delivered what one should expect from public relations and news/media professionals: a top notch presentation.

The four panelists - including a dear friend and former Eagle co-worker, Deputy Editor for News Tom Shine - kept the tone conversational, the content informative and the pace lively. And it was great to talk to my Tweeple @ToddBlog - Todd Ramsey of GretemanGroup, whom I'd previously "met" only via the social networking site Twitter. My old, new and virtual worlds converged.

Presenting a better presentation

A Twitter acquaintance asked today about the worst presentation I'd ever endured. I had to admit: It was one I gave back in '05. I was unprepared; I tried to wing it on too little sleep and too much caffeine. Lesson learned.

HERE ARE 5 MORE TIPS for improving your presentations:
- Know your audience. Ask plenty of questions when you accept the gig about what is expected by the organizers, then arrive early and get a sense of the room. Tweak your comments if necessary.
- Dial back on the caffeine. You can count on a jolt of adrenaline to carry you through.
- Get away from the podium. Unless you are giving the State of the Union Address, you'll benefit from closing the distance between you and your audience.
- Talk to people, not things. Humans came to see you, not your notes, mic, laptop or PowerPoint screen.
- Lead the pack. Don't allow a "Jack in the Box" to ruin the experience by popping up with off-topic comments. Suggest you take up that discussion afterward (or by e-mail), then focus on other audience members.

Today's to-do list

Wrapping up post-production on Episode 3 of "Wichita State & The World" today, on public health, to air this fall on WSU TV, Cable Ch. 13. Also meeting today to get going on an episode that documents the rebuilding of Greensburg. I love the eclectic nature of this show.

Know who you work for

In my years as a newsroom editor, I had two major goals in mind as I worked: I wanted to meet the readers' needs, and I wanted to make the reporters I worked with look good. The first goal was obvious, the second more subtle. It meant helping reporters think about what their audience expected from each story, and teaching them to be not just better writers but better self-editors. It also meant going beyond expectations, and delivering more than was asked of us.

Loving work a little too much

Not that long ago, I didn't think of myself as a workaholic. I wasn't the sort who'd get up at 5 a.m. to hit the gym for a pre-power-breakfast workout or take a briefcase crammed with documents to the beach. But I loved my work more than anything. I'd put off lunch till 2, 3, 4 p.m., then go back and stay as long as I was needed - and there was always something else to do. It took a real toll on my health & my family. A lot has changed since then. I still work hard and I love what I do, but now I build a little down time into my day. I walk more, pace less. I'm out of the office and into life.

Reinvention vs. evolution

As journalists find themselves downsized in staggering numbers across the nation - and sadly, close to home as well - it's clear that industry evolution is a painful, lurching and brutal process. Luckily, reinvention is in the hands of individuals. We can become who and what we want to be through education, retraining, networking and hard work. It's what this country was founded on. Reinvention embodies hope and a sense of control - something all journos need right now.