I have just returned to Denver from the annual gathering of PROI Worldwide, which was May 9 to 11 in New York. MGA has been a member of PROI since 1992, and it was incredible to see how our network continues to grow in global reach and sophistication.

MGAers and representatives from our client, Vaisala, hit the red carpet last week at the annual PRSA Colorado Gold Pick Awards. MGA and Vaisala took home a Gold Pick for Media Relations – Business to Business and a Silver Pick for Advertorials for the Vaisala Across America tour. We were also honored to see our own Matt Rodriguez receive the Joe Fuentes Rookie of the Year Award.

My name is Jordan Dolph, and I was a PRSA Colorado Shadow Day student last week at MGA Communications. I am currently a senior at Black Hills State University, studying mass communications with a focus in public relations. I want share my Shadow Day experience with you.

A few months ago, I was going through the motions of a normal day of classes up at Colorado State University, where I am currently a junior double majoring in journalism (with a concentration in public relations) and apparel merchandising. As my teacher finished up the day’s lecture notes, he handed out a flyer for PRSA Colorado Shadow Day 2013. As a student in this field and member of the PRSSA chapter at CSU, I am always looking for new opportunities to expand my knowledge and real-world experience outside the classroom, so I jumped at the chance to shadow a professional at an agency in Denver.

MGA is proud to once again participate in PRSA Colorado’s annual Shadow Day, hosting two students today and sharing our knowledge about the public relations profession. To celebrate Shadow Day and promote resources available to them, we thought we’d also put a spotlight on resources available through the Council of Public Relations Firms.

How often have you said, or heard someone say, “I’m not a math person?” It’s a commonly used phrase often accepted at face value. Greg Whitney, founder of the recently-opened National Museum of Mathematics, or MoMath, in New York City, says it doesn’t have to be this way. Talking to a reporter from the New Yorker, he equates it to learning to drive. “It’s not as though some people just shrug and say, ’I’m not a car person,’ and then they have to take the bus.”

Having just spent a snowy Saturday reading Time magazine’s exposé on the cost of health care in America, “Bitter Pill – Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,” I am both horrified and encouraged.  I will address my sense of encouragement first; it’s easier. Whether you get your media in print or online, this article is proof positive of the continued importance of a strong media to an informed society. Thank you, Time, for giving this much space in your March 5th issue to an extremely enlightened piece on health care costs in America. Now on to my horror.

The largest public relations industry trophy—at least in terms of sheer enormity—has made its way to the MGA office. With a little help from our friends (and former MGA employees), our team, the Mike Gaughan Assassins, delivered the highest score in this year’s PRSA Colorado Geeks Who Drink Tournament.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports minority births are a majority for the first time in U.S. history. As of July 1, 2011, 50.4 percent of our nation’s population less than one year old was minorities. This milestone includes births among Latinos, blacks, Asians and those of mixed race.

Leadership can be trying. It can test you in ways you never realized and provide opportunities to learn and grow in ways that you might not otherwise experience. This year, I have the great privilege to serve as president of the Colorado Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. Through next May, I am also serving as president of my homeowner’s association. There are thousands of books written about leadership. I’m no Colin Powell or Deepak Chopra, so here’s a short version of what I’ve learned so far this year:

MGA recently embarked on a national media relations campaign for a client in the environmental measurement and monitoring industry. Even though MGA has done a lot of media relations over the years, our client was new to the process. The campaign was focused around a national product launch that consisted of a cross-country tour, Vaisala Across America, to over 40 cities in 16 weeks. The MGA team pitched media from Fargo to New York City and everything in between. For those of you new to media outreach, below are a few tips that we relied on throughout the tour.

Strange news caught my eye recently. Eaten face and severed limb news appeared simultaneously. They were ghoulish to the point of prompting the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to reiterate, with tongue in disease-free cheek, its “No Zombie Apocalypse” statement. From a public relations perspective, this was a clever way to re-broadcast and reinforce the mission of the CDC.

To me, summer isn’t only 90-degree weather or going to Jazz in the Park. Summertime also means summer reading. Ever since elementary school, I have always read during my summer breaks. Before the official day of summer (which for me is the first day I hear Will Smith’s Summertime playing on the radio), I write out a list of books I want to read and then go place them on hold at the public library.

Defining a brand can be challenging, but at MGA, we define it as how you feel about an organization. So how do you feel about the New Orleans Saints? If you follow football, I would imagine it is very different than how you felt about them two or three years ago.

I’ve seen a lot of posts lately about the need for public relations professionals to be curious and stay informed in order to succeed in their careers. But how do you cultivate curiosity? One way I do this is by trying new things. In recent years, this has included Spanish, English horse riding, triathlons, rock climbing, whitewater rafting, knitting, and crocheting. Earlier this month, I learned how to shoot a handgun.

Companies are continuously thinking of how to integrate their products, services and communications into giving and receiving information in real-time. Now, the road maintenance industry has found a solution to sharing data in real-time through a mobile system.

Each spring, Public Relations Organisation International (PROI), MGA’s international network of independent public relations firms, has its annual meeting. The meeting is a terrific opportunity to further both our global understanding of what is happening in public relations and continue building strong relationships with our colleagues from firms in major markets on six continents.

It was all smiles last night for MGA and its clients from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal at PRSA Colorado’s annual Gold Pick Awards, at which three of our client contacts were recognized as the 2012 Businessmen of the Year.

Imagine you are interviewing for a position at your dream company. You answered all the questions and solidified yourself as the best candidate for the position. However, the interviewer has one last topic to go over. They would like for you to give them your username and password to your Facebook account. What would you do?

Before an organization releases a product, it needs to know its audience, how to reach them and potential concerns they may have. But what happens when a tragedy makes an organization, through no fault of its own, appear insensitive, out of touch or worse – as if they are exploiting the situation?

Although MGA is not my first internship, this is my first time interning at an agency – and it’s been a whirlwind experience! While I have learned and built upon my skills through other internships and experiences to make me a better public relations professional, I can truly say this time around it is different.

Earlier this month, a few MGAers attended the annual Meetings Industry Council of Colorado (MIC) Educational Conference. It was interesting to attend a full day of professional development sessions for an area that MGA offers as a service (meetings and special events) and to be surrounded by professionals who do this full-time.

MGA was pleased to see PRSA’s op-ed last week in Roll Call, in which the organization urged the U.S. Senate to avoid actions that might diminish or severely restrict the federal government’s use of approved public relations and public affairs contractors. PRSA also issued a news release.

“Taking A Stand: Youth Against Genocide” was a statewide conference for high school students held recently in Denver and sponsored by the Colorado Coalition for Genocide Awareness and Action. I again led a workshop on Congress and the media and was heartened by the students. But this year’s conference topic, Sudan, gave my workshop specific focus and produced a bona fide strategy.

Author: Jennifer Watson

If you want to see a great example of public speaking, skip the upcoming Oscars broadcast and head to the movies for a lesson from George Clooney.