Potomac Flacks

Lunch Bunch

Earlier this year group of DC-area communications professionals started getting together for an informal book group to discuss books relevant to our work.  The group started in February with a conversation about Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.  Participants discussed how they use new media, how it is changing the communications field and how new media can increase effectiveness in sharing messages with a variety of audiences. 

 

The group is made up of about 20 mid- to senior-level professionals including those working in public relations, new media, multimedia presentations, writing and other specialties as both consultants and in-house communicators.  A small group of the members (4 to 7) meet monthly downtown at lunchtime (some participants bring their lunches), generally in the offices of a new media company on 15th and L.  Meetings are free.

 

The next meeting, scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on June 17, will be to discuss Robert Schlesinger's White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters.  According to reviews, the book not only details the history of how messages have been developed, but “emphasizes how changes in the media (radio, television and the Internet) altered the settings and presentation of presidents’ words.”  One reviewer says “Schlesinger's coverage is wide, his research comprehensive, his pace fast, his prose light.”

 

For more information, or to join the group, please email the group’s organizer, Korey Hartwich at [email protected]. (PF Tipster)

The Hill Hires Tricia Barba to Help Generate Buzz

Betsy Rothstein at Fishbowl DC writes that The Hill's Editor Hugo Gurdon has hired Tricia Barba as a publicist who will work full-time to promote the paper's stories to TV, radio and the blogosphere. The publication has gone without a publicist for more than a year and has had two publicists in the past.

"I'm really pleased to be able to tell you that we've hired an in-house publicist; Tricia is currently a producer and booker at CSPAN, and before that worked in the communications shop of Sen. Amy Klobuchar, from whom she comes highly recommended."

Laura Burton Capps Joins Blue Engine Media

Laura Burton Capps, a veteran of the Clinton White House, Kerry presidential, Senator Edward M. Kennedy's staff and advocate for the oceans and climate, is joining Blue Engine Message & Media, a strategic communications firm led by Erik Smith and Kathy Roeder. Since 2006, Blue Engine Media & Message has specialized in providing strategic communications services to corporate and non-profit clients engaged in public affairs campaigns. Earlier this week, Blue Engine said goodbye to staff member Miti Sathe, who is joining the White House in the Office of Public Engagement. (Politico Playbook)

Christy Setzer Launches New Heights Communications

Strategic communications and campaign veteran Christy Setzer has launched a new communications firm, New Heights Communications. 

Christy brings more than a decade of experience providing communications strategies for elected officials, political candidates from the presidential to local level and progressive organizations– from 527 groups to major national unions. She also served three tours of duty as a presidential campaign flack, including as Iowa press secretary for Vice President Al Gore, spokeswoman for former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, and national press secretary for Senator Christopher J. Dodd.

As a direct mail and general consultant with the Strategy Group, Christy provided the roadmap to win several open seats in targeted state legislative races in Colorado and Wisconsin. Most recently, she oversaw national media for the Service Employees International Union. (PF Tipster)