IABC Be Heard Weblog

Yes. But it’s not the tag line attendees at yesterday’s luncheon chose to describe our city. Coming in at 53%, Houston should be known as The City of Opportunity, which you may recall from last month’s luncheon was Mayor White’s favorite. Second place at 23% was Houston’s Hot. Lots of creative types still like this slogan from the 1990s. Third place at 13% was The Energy Capital. Yawn. It’s Worth It drew 10% and the final choice–The Space City–had no takers. That one’s really so yesterday.

The survey was part of Ed Schipul’s presentation on the Mobile Web. The idea was to conduct the survey and announce the results in real time to show how quickly communication can move these days. Only problem was we were having lunch at Brennan’s which hasn’t quite joined the Internet-for-everybody-everywhere world yet. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. After all, the restaurant is supposed to be reminiscent of laid-back Southern comfort. And as long as they can keep producing desserts like yesterday’s pecan pie with vanilla Blue Bell, I’m okay with being Internetless. Brennan’s is getting there, though. The manager explained that they do have wireless Internet, but just for their business records purposes. They hope to have wireless public access in a couple of months.

So maybe Ed will seem less out of sorts when he speaks to our group again once Brennan’s joins the wireless age. Just kidding. Ed took it all in stride and promptly answered my thank-you-for-speaking email with three links to access the info he shared with us at the luncheon and afternoon workshop and a link I could use to email everyone who attended yesterday. Does the guy sleep?

Check out his info: Wrap-up Blog

Shel Holtz, is coming to Texas. An IABC international media guru, Shel is speaking at the IABC Austin monthly luncheon on Tuesday, Sept. 16. If you just can’t get enough of social media, and like a really entertaining speaker, then a drive to Austin to see Shel is worth it. Actually, a drive to Austin is worth it just about any time. Check out Austin’s site for details.

Emmy-winning journalist Bill Kurtis is now a grass-fed cattle entrepreneur. He will tell all about how he went from one manure-slinging business to another on the evening of Thursday, Aug. 28 at the 9th Annual Rice Alliance Kick-Off Celebration.  Registration begins at 5:30 p.m. at the McNair Hall at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Management. For more info on “A Very Special Evening with Bill Kurtis” contact Yanette Jimenez yanette@rice.edu.

Secrets of interactive marketing are about to be uncovered. The Houston Interactive Marketing Association will present its 2nd Annual Interactive Strategies Conference at an all-day event on Thursday, Sept. 18, at the Angelika in Bayou Place downtown. Registration starts at 8 a.m. Check out HiMA to find out more.

IABC Membership Month. If you’ve been sitting on the fence wondering whether to join this amazing group of communicators, now’s the time. The $40 application fee is waived for new and lapsed members. If you join as a corporate member (five or more per company) you get even more of a discount.

Or maybe you have a friend in the biz who you think could benefit from being a member. Bring him or her to one of our events in September to learn more about the Houston chapter. We have a networking happy hour planned for Sept. 18 and our monthly luncheon on Sept. 25. Check the Houston IABC Web site for details.

To learn more about what you get when you become a member of IABC, check out www.iabc.com/about/membership/ or contact our Member Services VP Robin Leeder at robin@griffincreative.com.

Rules from How to Create an Effective PowerPoint Presentation 101:

Large, readable type. One how-to source says nothing smaller than 24-point!

One idea per slide. Of course this could mean a slide presentation of 100 or more slides as one communicator on Ragan.com confessed to having to sit through. Another Ragan forum communicator shared how her CEO used a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation as a black-and-white brochure. Yikes! Another communicator quoted in IABC’s CW magazine reports of stuffing a five-page report onto one slide just to see if it’s possible. It is possible!

Minimal copy (if you can’t read it from the back of the room, it should not be on the slide). I attended a session at the international conference where the presenters kept apologizing, “I know you can’t read all of this, but…”

NO complicated charts, graphs, etc. Or how about the globe with all of your company’s locations plus a legend of all the little markers?!?!?

Okay. We all know what we’re supposed to do, but why don’t we do it? Because the software program makes it so easy to stick it on a slide and call it communication. It lets everyone in the company create their own show and no doubt having every page, chart and graph of their pet project up on the screen provides that comfort blanket as they make the presentation. What was supposed to be a program to help presenters highlight their talks has become the blob that ate the presentation as the audience stares at the screen trying to figure out what it says.

I offer this prayer–Please Lord, grant me the courage to explain to my client why putting an org chart that shows the company’s six worldwide divisions with manager mug shots and a picture of the globe in the background is not effective communication. And while you’re at it help me convince him that the company’s Web site links really don’t need to say, “Click here.” Amen.

For only $20, you can satisfy a UH communications student’s need for food and knowledge by paying his or her way to one of our monthly luncheon programs. For just a few bucks more, you could spring for a student to attend one of our workshops. It’s a great way to support a student’s journey to a degree in communications and bring recognition to your company at the same time.

That’s just one of the many and inexpensive ways to become an IABC/Houston sponsor.

Other opportunities include sponsoring monthly luncheons, networking happy hours, ESIG luncheons, YP events, Bronze Quill awards gala and special for this year is your chance to sponsor the Southern Region Conference to be hosted by Houston in the fall of 2009.

For more information on these opportunities to promote your company, contact our Sponsorship Director Tracy Torma at tracy@torma.com.

Task force follow-up–thanks to all of you who responded to my call to form a social media task force to meet Mayor White’s challenge to our chapter. [We Accept Your Challenge, Mr. Mayor 7/27/08] It was great to see so many of you as exicted about this opportunity as I am. Stay tuned to this blog for developments.