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 and left in photo, 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 that what she looks for in an agency are “people who tell it like it is” and present her with ideas that are “channel agnostic.” To that point, said, the digital tools of today may not be the digital tools of tomorrow. She added that, given the changing nature of communications, “best practices” may not be the best way to prepare for the future.
In addition to the Q & A with Bernstein, one of the subjects raised during the session by Robert Udowitz, right in photo and co-coordinator of the event with Phil Rabin, editor of the Capitol Communicator and vice president at West Glen Communications, was whether there was interest in agencies getting involved in addressing common issues such as a salary and benefits survey, an internship bank or supporting the local PRSSA chapters.
This was the third such session involving senior-level practitioners and another subject up for discussion is how often these networking events should be held. The first two were at Susan Davis International and Hager Sharp.
PRSA-NCC produced the following video about the event at Ketchum: