With the onset of the global pandemic, one of the world’s most popular video conferencing services, Zoom, has seen a nearly 2,000% increase since last December. This means that those of us who can work from home and need to “meet” are likely using conference calls for audio only or video technology when we need...
Category: Community Relations and Communications
Why City Managers Need Communications Professionals
Being a city manager is a tough job. He or she is expected to be a virtual expert on a myriad of subjects, depending upon the day. Everything from budgeting, the Brown Act and building, to politics, public works and policing. It’s been suggested in jest that the title “city manager,” might as well be...
Communications and Emergency Response: Where Do I Start?
If you work in local government then, chances are, you are going to be part of an emergency response. Having led communications for 11 federally-declared disasters in my former municipality (and helping out on a few more as a consultant), I can attest that working through a crisis is one of the most stressful, time-demanding...
The Mystery of Media Relations Revealed: Top 10 Media Rules to Live by
When I was the public relations manager in the 1980’s for an L.A.-based hospital, media relations was my world. No one in the organization talked to the press without first talking to me. Doctors, nurses, administrators—everyone sent those press calls my way. Life was good. Then I went to work for local government where the...