LESLY SIMMONS, APR

Last weekend I had the great opportunity to take a trip to New York City for the first ever Institute for Media Professionals hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists. You may be asking yourself why is NABJ hosting an event for PR folks? What you may not know is that NABJ has a thriving Associate category for “media related professionals,” like journalism educators, and yes, even PR people! This event was a chance for Associates to meet in person, talk about Twitter, and encourage each other during this scary economic period. I think I can speak for everyone there when I say a good time was had by all. Yours truly had the added pleasure of sitting on a panel titled “Using PR to Give Back to Our Communities: Where Corporate Responsibility and PR Meet,” and I talked about some of the real ways volunteering or working with nonprofits can be a great benefit to anyone’s career path.

My friend and APR mentor Jill Kurtz gave me some space to chronicle the event on her blog, Communication in a Web Saturated World. Its a great site for anyone looking at the intersection of online communications and PR–this was a major discussion area at the Institute, and probably is for most PR folks in the industry today, so if you’re looking for resources Jill’s site is a great start.

Last month I went to a great conversation about making government more transparent through the Web and other technology, hosted by Wired Magazine, the New America Foundation, and Google. The panel was a who’s-who of technology savants, and with the event happening just before Obama’s inauguration, everyone was full of ideas of how he can change the world, starting with DC’s bureaucracy. This post for Black Web 2.0 springs from that event.

This was the second lunchtime chat hosted by the New America Foundation that I’ve attended, and I’m looking forward to more. If you’re in DC and looking for insights on technology and public policy, this is the place to go.

A post for Black Web 2.0 on Grey Goose’s online film series in honor of Black History Month. I took some extra time to watch these films and enjoyed them, especially “Electric Purgatory.” I’ll check back mid-month when the site switches over to interviews from The Black List. Should be interesting.

The Red Cross got a shout out in the episode of The Office that aired after this year’s Super Bowl, and I used it as a catalyst for a post about being prepared for emergencies in the work place. I also prepped the Director of Celebrity and Entertainment Outreach for an interview about the episode with Entertainment Weekly. I love The Office and I thought this episode was hilarious, so it was nice to have my work and personal life intersect on something I actually enjoy.