NBC's television comedy series "Parks and Recreation," was filming sequences for the series’ season opener last week in DC ... Discovery Channel and Sapling Pictures teamed for a cross-promotional campaign supporting the network’s popular series, "Mythbusters", and new 20th Century Fox release, "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" ... and, in conjunction with Double R Productions' 25th anniversary, the firm hosted the premiere DC screening of “The Contradictions of Fair Hope".

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Peter Corbett of iStrategy Labs is featured in a Washington City Paper story ... Ketchum adds former Reuters correspondent Jeremy Pelofsky as VP and media strategist in the agency's public and corporate affairs practice ... Linda Roth Associates adds Megan Roberson as a senior publicist ... and, idfive in Baltimore adds Matt McDermott Read More »

Fleishman-Hillard announced the inaugural class of its China Masters Exchange program. Three students were selected to work in the agency's offices in St. Louis, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The 2012 recipients of the China Masters Exchange program includes Jing Kuai who will be working in the firm’s D.C. office.

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), a Department of Defense agency, announced that iostudio, a marketing agency with offices in Nashville and Washington, D.C., has been selected to receive the 2012 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award.

The Borenstein Group announced that it finished first in the Washington Business Journal-Capital One Social Madness Challenge; and is the region’s only creative agency to make it to the national round, outscoring over 20 area competitors in the “Companies under 100 Employees” category.

Design Army's Pum Lefebure has been named one of the 37 “Creatives Most Lusted After By Rival Agencies” by Business Insider.  According to the article, the “2012 Poach List consists of the creatives (worldwide) cited most often by rival agencies—art directors and copywriters that make agencies jealous.”

Linda Yurche joined the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) as assistant secretary for marketing and communications. In this role, Yurche will lead the agency’s efforts to promote economic development initiatives and oversee the agency’s marketing and communications team, which employs research, public relations, advertising, marketing, digital tools, social media and events to promote the State to companies that want to launch, expand or relocate their business in Maryland.

Microsoft announced that Mark Penn will join the company as corporate vice president for strategic and special projects, with an emphasis on key consumer initiatives.  Penn currently is the worldwide CEO of the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller and CEO of the polling firm Penn Schoen Berland LLC. Penn, who has been based in D.C

Washington Women in Public Relations (WWPR) named Olivia Doherty, Laura Hornbuckle and Jennifer Myers winners of the 2012 Emerging Leaders Awards (ELA). According to their submissions:

About 35 senior-level communicators attended a PRSA-NCC networking event at Ketchum/DC last evening. The event, hosted by Nick Ragone, director of Ketchum’s DC office, also featured a question-and-answer session with Ragone and Roxanne Bernstein, senior vice president, marketing, at Cessna Aircraft Company (which is one of Ketchum’s clients.)  Bernstein told attendees

Co-producers Capitol Communicator and Potomac Tech Wire announce the Fall Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit - Intelligence & Insights on the Future of Communications. The summit will be held in Baltimore on Oct. 18 at The Pier 5 Hotel, a preferred boutique venue nestled on its own pier with expansive views of Baltimore's Inner-Harbor. This conference, first held in McLean, VA, this Spring, is the region’s premier event in marketing, technology, communications and media. This one-day event brought together

Stephanie A. Marshall, former HHS communications director, joined Abt Associates ... Andrew Brenner joined Widmeyer Communications as a senior account manager in the firm’s Pre-K-12 Education practice ... RTC reports a number of promotions ... and, Fleishman-Hillard announced the inaugural class of Alfred Fleishman Diversity Fellows.

As Tampa Bay prepares for the national and international spotlight surrounding the upcoming 2012 Republican National Convention, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn is traveling to NYC and D.C. to promote tourism and business opportunities in Tampa Bay.

Agency veteran Howard Bomstein has been named executive marketing director of The Washington Times, washingtontimes.com and related media platforms within the news organization; and will head up a new, in-house communication group “attuned to the strategic needs of businesses, associations and charitable groups seeking marketing direction”.

A group of public affairs professionals has formed Agenda, a new national public affairs firm based in D.C. Agenda is directed by Craig Pattee, former president of Dutko Worldwide and pioneer of the practice of engaging governors on federal issues; Doug Turner, former chief executive of DW Turner, billed as the largest southwestern public affairs firm, and an expert on state and national political strategies; and Max Hamel, former partner at Allied Public Affairs, who, said Agenda, has a reputation as one of the most effective organizers of multi-state public affairs campaigns in the nation.

Neil Dhillon, managing director of MSLGroup in D.C., held an staff meeting last week “to reassure staffers at the PR agency that the proposed class-action sex discrimination lawsuit filed against the company is false,” reported Business Insider.  A source told Business Insider that “Dhillon told his staff he was really sad and upset at the negative publicity generated by the suit.” According to the Business Insider report:

Students from the Virginia Commonwealth University Brandcenter were among the winners of the AKQA Future Lions competition at the Cannes Lions 59th International Festival of Creativity held in Cannes, France.

Christopher Sheldon, Marybeth Ledesma, Nadia Hyder, Matthew Runde and Nick Maschmeyer were honored in the Future Lions contest at the festival, which attracts thousands of members of the global creative communications industries and honors the best advertising work from students.

West Glen Communications is offering nonprofits that have Spanish-language TV public service announcements the opportunity to participate in a free satellite feed in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. The offer includes a 15-minute satellite feed of PSAs in mid-August with Spanish-language notification to Spanish-language networks and television stations currently accepting PSAs.

RP3 Agency is the new agency partner of Facing History and Ourselves. The selection, following a review, is part of the Brookline, MA-based organization’s efforts to raise its profile and promote its curriculum and movement, linking history with moral choices today in order to create a more informed citizenry.

Dan Gerlach has been named Capitol Communicator's Baltimore correspondent and connector in the greater Baltimore region; including Annapolis, Columbia, Southern Pennsylvania and Delaware. He also is a partner with Storyfarm New Media in Baltimore.

Debbie Friez has been named Tech Editor of the Capitol Communicator. She also is vice president, Major Accounts for BurrellesLuce, the largest media monitoring company in the world. Friez has a broad understanding of the technologies that are transforming the marketing and communications profession.

SmithGifford launched a TV and online campaign for Lindsay Automotive ... MWW announced that Deana Perlmutter will join as deputy general manager of the PR firm’s D.C. office ... Crosby Marketing Communications hired Raycheal Proctor as a digital connection planner ... The Martin Agency announced that Jorge Calleja has joined the Richmond agency as senior vice president, group creative director ....and, OmniStudio moved.

Washington Women in Public Relations (WWPR) announced six finalists for its third annual Emerging Leaders Awards (ELA). The award honors rising stars, ages 23-30, in PR and communications. The 2012 ELA finalists are:

Abel Communications in Baltimore adds STX, CoPilot Live and Presbyterian Senior Living ... Maroon PR based in Columbia names Marlene Alvarez and Steph Deishaer as account coordinators ... and, Vizual, Inc., adds Lindsay A. Mensch as director of account services.

The D.C. Office of Motion Picture and Television Development named Adrena Ifill, award-winning documentary filmmaker and founder of DoubleBack Productions, as its July 2012 Filmmaker of the Month.

BurrellesLuce, the leading media monitoring firm in North America, acquired the U.S. print monitoring operations of Cision. Robert Waggoner, CEO, said, “Our U.S. based production is perfectly positioned to deliver comprehensive and timely service to the Cision print monitoring clients. The PR community has made it clear that the image of the article is very important in showing ROI on their initiatives, which text alone doesn’t provide.”

KB Concepts P.R. has joined A Billion + Change, a national campaign to mobilize billions of dollars of pro bono and skills-based volunteer services from corporate America to build nonprofit capacity. In less than a year, 200 companies have pledged an estimated $1.8 billion worth of skills-based services to nonprofits, keeping the campaign on track to inspire 500 companies to create or expand a skills-based volunteer program in their workplace by 2013.

WTOP 103.5 FM announced that Program Director Laurie Cantillo was named as one of the “Most Influential Female Programmers in Radio” ... Joan Melner has been appointed director of marketing at The Endocrine Society ... and, MGH adds six employees

MRB Films joined with Porter Novelli in DC to create an awareness campaign for the Alzheimer's Association with revealing portraits of caregivers that are intimate, emotional and at times, funny. Director Bryan Elsom did preliminary interviews with potential participants, collaborated on a working "script" and then spent hours filming each caregiver, eliciting their story and shaping it into a short web film.

Wal-Mart and a PR firm with a DC office have parted ways after an employee of the firm posed as a reporter at a Los Angeles event staged by the store's critics, reports The Huffington Post. The Huff Post piece stated that the move comes after it was revealed by employee group Warehouse Workers United that Stephanie Harnett, an associate at Mercury, showed up at one of their news conferences posing as a reporter.