Thursday, May 27, 2010

PRSA Paragon Awards: Proof of Passionate Professionals

This week, the Public Relations Society of America – Southeastern Wisconsin chapter presented the annual Paragon Awards.

The numbers from the banquet show a vibrant community of PR professionals:

n 95 award entries

n 48 recognized for achievement

n 190+ people in attendance

Individual awards recognized Rich Meeusen, CEO of Badger Meter, and Carolyn Bellin, APR, chief public relations officer of Froedtert Hospital—two well-deserving leaders who are tireless advocates for their organizations as well as the Milwaukee region.

They’re just two of the many talented, hard-working business professionals dedicated to promoting businesses and the quality of life in our community. As president of PRSA-WI, I just wanted to say what a pleasure it was to help recognize the great work they’re doing every day.

See the full list of Paragon Award winners.

Friday, May 14, 2010

News Flash: Adobe ♥ Apple

The escalating Apple-Adobe feud is fascinating and fun to follow.

But it isn’t really a fair fight.

The Adobe team must recognize that they have little chance of cajoling Steve Jobs into changing his mind about shutting Adobe’s Flash software out of Apple product development.

So if you can’t beat ‘em, and you can’t join ‘em, what’s Adobe to do?

The answer is a new ad that proclaims the company’s love for Apple. And creativity. And innovation. And so on. Kind of a kill-them-with-kindness approach.

It’s also a less direct message for the thousands of professionals who use Adobe software on Apple products every day (web developers, graphic designers, etc.).

OK, so Adobe isn’t going to win this battle. But the ad and its connected landing page are a good way to score some points by playing nice—or at least appearing to—in contrast with the scathing critiques of the big, bad bully.