By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC With a vibrant community festival scene including the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, the Basilica Block Party and more, Minnesotans love to get together. Attendees at a recent Minnesota PRSA panel had the opportunity to hear from some local event planning organizers, including: Roseanne Bump, executive director of the St. Paul Winter…
By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC Given that the polar vortex has made this winter one for the record books, it comes as no surprise that Midwesterners already are booking their summers with fun vacations. You’ll get to hear excellent programming sessions. Jim Lukaszewski, APR, Fellow PRSA, also known as “America’s Crisis Guru,” will deliver the conference…
By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC Christian Toto is the assistant editor at Big Hollywood and the writer of the daddy blogDaddylibrium. 1. Could you recap your career to this point? I went to school to be an artist. I gathered three art degrees that I never have used. At the end of college, I did some freelance…
By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC Many job seekers are continually frustrated by applicant tracking systems. You know — the software that just about every company seems to use where you enter in your background, hit submit, and it feels like your information is just going into a black hole? Apparently recruiters aren’t enamored of the…
Although Target is still dealing with the fallout related to its pre-Christmas data breach, let’s take a look at how the company is doing so far in managing the crisis. I’ll use the eight laws of crisis communications that Jack Yeo and John Brooks presented at the 2012 PRSA Midwest District Conference in Chicago: Protecting…
By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC Those who love the outdoors probably would consider Bill Sherck’s job the position of their dreams. Sherck, known as “The Man About The Woods,” can be seen on some of the country’s most popular outdoor television programs, including: “Backroads with Ron & Raven” on The Versus Network, “Legends of Rod and Reel” and…
This is a guest post by David Jones. Way back in the 1960s, longshoreman, author and philosopher Eric Hoffer wrote, “When people We see this phenomenon every day in the business world, where companies compete by copying products — adding some minor feature or performance boost in the name of differentiation.are free to do as…
By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC When I was an elementary school boy growing up in Bloomington, Minn., the “KISS Super Special” comic was all the rage. After all, it was printed in real KISS blood! Or was it? In “Rock ‘n’ Roll Myths: The True Stories Behind the Most Infamous Legends,” authors Daniel Durchholz and…
By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC As the year winds to a close, let’s take a look at what the most popular posts on the Skogrand PR Solutions Blog were this year: What is a press release? Preparing for a newspaper or magazine interview Meet the media: Josh Rosenthal, content producer at KSTP-TV Behind the scenes…
By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC In 2013, I had the honor of serving as the chair of the Midwest District of the Public Relations Society of America. Throughout the year, Midwest District activities focused on advancing the district’s mission — to build stronger chapters throughout the district by providing a link between national and the chapters, fostering…