How the Federal Workforce Consumes Media

Last week I attended Market Connections’ unveiling of the 2009-2010 Federal Media and Marketing Study. In its second year, this study aims to uncover how Federal decision makers get their news and information. Some interesting findings (from my perspective):

• Respondents named 36 outlets that are key to daily news and information gathering. These broke out to 14 social sites, 28 federally-focused publications, and 12 general business and news outlets.
• Top ranking federal pubs (across the whole respondent base) were Government Executive, Federal Times, Federal Computer Week, Government Computer News, and Defense News.
• Top ranking websites were CNN, Govexec.com, MSNBC, Fox News, and the Washington Post.
• While 45% of respondents said they prefer to read trade news as a combination of print and online, another 34% said they preferred print as compared to only 13% preferring online only.
• Tradeshow attendance is skewing lower with only 46% reporting they attended a show in the past year.
• Social media continues to grow, with the biggest jump from last year’s survey being the usage of LinkedIn (up to 16% from 4%).
• Social media faces hurdles in becoming a business tool for government with 55% of respondents unable to access social sites at work.

-Piper Conrad

Walk the Red Carpet During Awards Season in DC

As we await the announcement on February 2nd of the official nominations for this year's 82nd Academy Awards, we can also look to this regional area, where we are awash with own awards circuit recognizing excellence in business, growth, leadership, employee development and more.

The awards season started out strong last week, with two of the hottest award celebrations in town, which (unfortunately) were on the same night, but both attracted sold out crowds.  SmartCEO held its annual SmartCEO Future 50 Gala, recognizing the fastest growing companies in the Washington, DC region over a three year period, and the Washington Business Journal held its annual Book of Lists party, recognizing all of the businesses, organizations and associations that claimed a spot on the top of each of their respective lists throughout the year.

In case you missed these two "See and Be Seen" galas, here are a few more hot tickets to explore that are right around the corner. It's not too late to nominate and be nominated...you can't win if you don't enter!  I've been to each of these in past years, and they are not to be missed. Here are the ones top of mind, listed in order of when nominations are due:

Apollo Awards 2010 / Produced by Helios HR

Deadline: February 19, 2010

The Apollo Awards has raised the bar in its annual recognition of a company's effort toward employee development and retention. Particularly in these troubled times, taking care of your company's biggest asset--people--never goes out of style. We entered this program last year and were proud to emerge as a finalist. This is a nomination process that enables one to truly your own practices of employee development and its importance in building great companies.  Awards Gala:  June 3, 2010.

Women In Technology - Leadership Awards Banquet

Deadline: February 19, 2010

Women in Technology (WIT) is holding its Annual Leadership Awards Gala in May which recognizes women in leadership in the categories of entrepreneurship, global impact, corporate excellence, government accomplishments and more. Last year, this Awards Gala inspired the book, No One Path, released last year with a special forward from Maureen Bunyan, co-anchor at WJLA-TV. The book highlights previous winners from over the past decade, sharing their leadership stories. Awards Gala: May 20, 2010.

Best Places to Work in Greater Washington 2010

Deadline: February 26, 2010

This award is cool to enter, not only for the accolades and bragging rights for finalists, but also because regardless of how you finish, you will receive a complementary employee survey administered by third-party Quantum Research, which can provide insight into your company's morale, retention, leadership, trust, alignment, etc. You need to apply online, and ask your employees to submit an anonymous online evaluation to augment your nomination. The WBJ is hosting a nominations "how to" webinar on 2/2/10.  Awards Gala: TBD.

SECAF (Small and Emerging Contractor Advisory Forum) 2nd Annual Awards Gala

Deadline: February 28, 2010
SECAF held its Inaugural Awards Gala last year, as a way to recognize the often overlooked marketplace of small, growing and emerging government contractors. Companies will be recognized in the categories of $0-$6M, $6-$12M and $12-$25M, and a special award will be given to a Small Business Partner of the Year (greater than $25M) and a Government Advocate of the Year. Last year's Gala was a sellout, so mark your calendars!  Awards Gala: April 29, 2010.

I am certain there are more out there that aren't on this succinct list, so please share and we'll keep you updated on deadlines!

--Elizabeth Shea

More LinkedIn Tips: Events and Groups

As a frequent event attendee, I'm always on the lookout for great upcoming events, and LinkedIn offers lots of ways to stay in the loop.  One of the best places to start is by downloading the Events application to your LinkedIn profile.  Once downloaded, popular events and those events recommended by your contacts are available.  Step by step instructions can be found here.

When LinkedIn events were first announced at the end of 2008, it was designed to recommend events that might be of interest based on your profile.  These events come from user recommendations and sources such as EventBrite and TechWeb.  This feature was further enhanced in the middle of 2009 to make it easier to see what events your contacts are attending and improve the interface.  As of today, there are almost 25,000 events listed on LinkedIn, including 467 in the Washington, DC area -- and about 75 of those are on marketing topics.  Other features include the ability to search, RSVP and promote events to your network.  Because this service is free, it seems like a no-brainer for those that regularly attend or promote events.

The event application becomes even more powerful when combined with LinkedIn Groups.  Group managers can send emails alerting their members of new events (this is especially valuable for members that don't frequently login to LinkedIn), or members can post events to the group's discussion board.

If you're interested in enhancing your personal profile using LinkedIn, check out this earlier post.

And if you're specifically interested in public sector events, be sure to check out SpeakerBox client GovEvents.

See you around town.

 -- Katie Hanusik

The ‘Fish at CES 2010

The beginning of January marked my first trip to geek nirvana (not to mention Vegas), as I attended CES 2010 to help SpeakerBox client Cernium launch their newest consumer product: Archerfish Solo, the world’s first Thinking Camera. Being a CES virgin, I was completely blown away by the scale and the lengths that many companies go to just to drive booth traffic. Never mind the nearly naked models hawking Ed Hardy gadget accessories – Marvell, a semiconductor company, had Stan Lee at their booth…because nothing screams semiconductors like the father of Marvel comics, right?

At any rate, the show was successful from Cernium’s perspective: The overall response to Archerfish Solo was positive and came with a lot of media interest. Walt Mossberg and Katie Boehret from the Wall Street Journal even stopped by the booth for a demonstration from Cernium’s CEO, Craig Chambers!

Being that this was my initial experience with the technology wonderland that is CES, I have some thoughts for PR folks and their client companies looking to get through the noise that surrounds the event.

1. Press events are your friend. Seriously. Even though this pre-show activities cost extra (and some aren’t even produced by CES, like ShowStoppers), they are well worth the price from the exposure alone. Events like Unveiled and ShowStoppers are press-only, so you are ensuring that you’re getting your product in front of the media you care about. And they’re more intimate (Unveiled was about 50 companies this year), so the odds of a high-profile journalist stopping by for a chat are much greater than during CES itself.
   
   
2. Treat everyone who comes to your booth as important. I always stress this in every post I write, but it’s never more important than at CES. Often attendee badges, particularly for the media, don’t reflect who they actually work or write for. Someone registered as press for their own, low-profile blog might actually be a columnist for CNET, so give all visitors respect, no matter who they are.
    
3. Make time to see the floor. It’s important for both you and your client to get out to the show floor to see what other vendors (and competitors) are doing. Maybe it will give you ideas for next year or you might even run into some key press or industry contacts at an unrelated demo. At the very least it gives you some insight as to what the rest of your industry and your competitors are up to.

--John Terrill

New Year, Growing Team

2010 is off to a great start at SpeakerBox! We're hiring and looking for smart, happy people to join what we consider a powerhouse team.  If you are a senior to mid-level communications expert, we'd love to meet you or anyone you know that might fit the bill.

I'm approaching 8 years here (February 18), so can personally vouch for a great workplace, inclusive of talented and fun people and amazing opportunities to contribute to our dynamic client base and SpeakerBox as a whole.

We look forward to meeting you and your friends!

- Lisa Throckmorton

Know a Woman in Tech that is Blazing her own Path?

Women in Technology has opened their nominations for the 2010 WIT Leadership Awards.  These annual awards honor DC-area women who have exemplified the core WIT values of Connect. Lead. Succeed. through their professional lives.

The first ten years of award winners were chronicled in No One Path, a book produced by a tenacious team of over 50 WIT volunteers. The book, featuring the story of over 40 award winners (including our own Lisa Throckmorton and Elizabeth Shea), has enjoyed brisk sales since the October launch.

The next decade of Leadership Awards ushers in some changes with new categories, opening the award to even more deserving women. Categories include: Corporate Commercial Small Business, Corporate Commercial Large Business, Corporate Public Sector Small Business, Corporate Public Sector Large Business, Entrepreneur, Government, Health IT, Global Impact, Unsung Hero, and Rising Star.

Nominations are due February 19th. Winners will be honored at the Awards dinner on May 20, 2010 at the Ritz Carlton Tysons.

-Piper Conrad

Green Energy and Green IT: Change is Coming

Yesterday's Women in Technology event on Green Energy and Green IT featured three knowledgeable local speakers:

Hank Dearden of Virsant
Bill Lyons of Seneca Creek Partners
Marco Luzuriaga of Limeleap

The come from different perspectives, but all three agreed that we can't rely on social responsibility alone to drive environmental policies and change.

Bill set the stage by explaining the macro factors that are driving interest in green energy:

• Fossil fuels are becoming increasingly scarce and increasingly difficult and expensive to extract.  Many experts predict that we'll run out of oil in 30-50 years if we continue consumption at the current rates.
• Global interest in energy security and independence -- especially given the locations of the world's remaining oil reserves
• Cost savings
• Global mandates for clean/renewable energy and fuel efficiency
• And the environmental impact of current practices

Marco and Hank turned the conversation to Green I.T.  The first strategies many people think of are cloud computing and virtualization, though Marco pointed out that Green I.T. also means decreasing the hazardous materials in computer equipment, increasing energy efficiency and designing for recyclability and biodegradability.

Hank was quick to point out that though cloud computing is a green I.T. strategy because resources can be shared -- there are many social networks that are only available because of cloud computing that are tremendous energy hogs.  Facebook has 30,000 servers supporting its operations, the equivalent of five power plants.  In Hank's words, "every time you tweet, you kill a butterfly," which helps remind us all of the delicate balancing act between the habits of the modern day world and environmental stewardship.

On the topic of virtualization, Hank explained that there are five to six reasons to virtualize a data center or desktop -- only one of them is green; "virtualization is good I.T., and you essentially get the green for free."

The speakers agreed that a paradigm shift is necessary and inevitable, and that we'll see increased technology innovation over the next decade.  The cost savings are just too significant to ignore, which should keep everyone seeing green.

- Katie Hanusik

Photo 1: Speakers - Hank Dearden, Virsant; Bill Lyons, Seneca Creek Partners; Marco Luzuriaga of LimeLeap
Photo 2: Event Attendees - Royela Kim, Boscobel; Toni Townes-Whitley, Unisys and WIT President; Gina Pagliaro, Boscobel