Public Affairs Management Seminar

7:30 a.m. Networking breakfast

8:00 a.m. Welcome and Logistics

8:15 a.m. Setting the Stage: Public Affairs During Turbulent Times

Our principal audience – those we need to move with our public affairs efforts – is changing. Trust, authenticity and a commitment to social issues matter before stances on issues. Personalization and mobile-based communication are defaults: They want content delivered to them, wherever they are, on their terms. Power and influence flow from the bottom up.

In this session, we’ll talk about how to meet the evolving expectations of our audience:

• Why public affairs matters – and how to make it matter;
• Overview of structure and traits of leading public affairs departments; and
• Macro public affairs challenges: High expectations for engagement in social issues, public affairs in times of high partisanship and more.

9:00 a.m. Philosophy and Approach: Creating Business Opportunities

It’s important to be a good tactician. It’s essential to be a great strategist. In the private sector, every part of an organization is responsible for achieving the company’s bottom-line business targets. Having a “license to do business” is not a guarantee. This session will help define public affairs’ critical role in defending and growing a company’s freedom to operate.

We’ll discuss how to create a clear link between public affairs strategies and tactics and an organization’s bottom-line goals:

• Apply fundamental and sophisticated techniques for managing issues, recognizing and capitalizing on opportunities, and preventing or countering threats;
• Map and identify the landscape, spotting or anticipating conditions that presage issues or issues themselves before they arise;
• Design a strategic public affairs approach rooted in organizational opportunities and/or needs;
• Identify and network with traditional and non-traditional partners for maximum issues impact; and
• Assess and communicate the effectiveness of public affairs internally.

10:00 a.m. Networking Break

10:15 a.m. Philosophy and Approach: Minimizing Business Risk

Whether your organization is facing complex legal, public policy, reputational or even social issues, it’s important that you have a strategic issues management process in place. We’ll take an in-depth look at:

• Mapping your organization’s issues of importance;
• Understanding, assessing, planning and executing on them; and
• Evaluating your performance.

11:15 a.m. Operations: Staffing, Budgets and More

We’ll offer solutions to the unique challenges that companies and associations face when building and maintaining a public affairs function.

• Benchmarking staffing, budgets and structure;
• Integrating government, communications and CSR strategies; and
• Overcoming employee or member distrust of politics.

12:15 p.m. Lunch

1:15 p.m. Trusted Advisor: Meeting the Needs of Company Leadership

One of the most common challenges in public affairs is getting the ear of company leadership and, once you have it, making a convincing case that your way is the right way to proceed. This session is designed to help you understand the expectations of your organization’s leaders – and how to exceed them:

• Speaking the language of your executives and demonstrating ROI; and
• Anticipating what organizational leadership needs and delivering on it before asked.

2:15 p.m. Strategy and Tactics: Managing Controversies and Crises

We can have a plan to minimize challenges and tough situations but they will nevertheless arise. When they do, organizations need a method of managing them that minimizes their impact and causes the least disruption possible to existing strategic plans. In this session, we’ll explore core strategies and tactics needed to managing controversies and crises:

• Developing and deploying a rapid response plan;
• Educating and deploying spokespeople;
• Understanding public sentiment and tolerance; and
• Knowing when to return to normal ways of working.

3:15 p.m. Networking Break

3:30 p.m. Strategy and Tactics: Digital Media and the Bottom Line

A recent tweet sent by Kylie Jenner criticizing the popular social network sent the company’s stock tumbling, resulting in the loss of nearly $1 billion in market value. How do organizations use social in a time where it affects the stock? When should you engage or stay silent? What’s your plan when something goes awry? In this session, we’ll talk about:

• Crafting a digital engagement plan that’s related to business goals;
• Having a contingency plan for when an external actor impacts your organization; and
• Getting buy-in from internal stakeholders outside of public affairs (convincing your organization’s leaders that digital social media shouldn’t be an afterthought).

5:00 p.m. Networking Reception