About
Communicator’s Conference: Cultivating Since 1996
Remember 1996? Besides the birth of Portland’s annual Communicator’s Conference, let’s put that year into brief perspective and clear communicators’ cobwebs.
First, the good: The NBA’s TrailBlazers played its first season in the Rose Garden and made the playoffs for the 14th straight year.
The bad: Torrential February rains led to flooding in the Willamette Valley, Oregon Coast and Cascades. The aftermath: $500 million in damage, eight deaths and the Willamette River came within inches of exceeding the seawall and flooding into Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park.
And the ugly: “Macarena” reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts.
Fortunately, things have improved. They had to. This includes, of course, the Communicator’s Conference, which has gradually built on its success since its inception nearly 13 years ago.
Over the years conference attendees have typically numbered around 100, although the locations have varied, as has the schedule. The initial conference was a full day, but after polling attendees, founding members Tom Unger and Julie Piper Finley learned many people had time constraints. Thus, it was changed to a half-day. This year, it is scheduled for just over a day-and-a half, May 7-8, and organizers anticipate record attendance.
“The national conference is very expensive, in terms of registration, plus the traveling and the hotel,” Unger said. “This conference is very ambitious. I’m thrilled. You get the chance in a short period of time to learn from a number of speakers, to pick their brains and learn from the best.”
The Beginning
Like any new venture, there were potholes on the road to success.
Unger vividly remembers when Tim Moore, director of communications and public relations for Cleveland’s Rock ’n’ Roll Museum, flew into PDX, sans luggage. Tim delivered his keynote speech in jeans and a T-shirt he borrowed from a PRSA-Portland chapter member.
Conference co-founder Julie Piper Finley recalled another airline-related incident. A Southwest Airlines PR executive came to the podium with a box of the company’s famous bagged peanuts, which she tossed to audience members as if they were passengers. Then the catered lunch arrived in vice-like clamshell plastic packaging that couldn’t be opened.
“Once people got it opened, everything inside was wrapped in something noisy,” effectively drowning out the lunchtime speaker, Piper Finley said.
But she said the beauty of embarking on any such adventure is “you may screw up, but you learn and you do better next time.”
Organizers have had a while to work things out: According to Unger, the conference began after members realized a monthly lunch meeting wasn’t enough to meet their needs. Unger, now Wells Fargo’s regional communications manager, then was executive vice president of OCIABC, and Piper Finley, now the director of marketing and communication at Loaves & Fishes, served as Vice President of OCIABC’s professional development.
Neither OCIABC nor PRSA-PDX had sponsored a local conference for a number of years, Piper-Finley said, although there had been some joint efforts in the late ’80s. Spurred by IABC’s suggestion that local chapters host their own conferences, Unger and Piper Finley began to consider their options.
“We talked with the folks at PRSA and decided we wanted to host a cooperative event between the two associations and really give it a business twist,” Piper Finley said.
They made it happen. The conference was launched at Portland State University’s School of Business, where it took place for the first few years.
“At that time, the PSU School of Business had a special communications program, so we contacted them and the three organizations jointly formed a task force to put together a small conference,” she said.
Initially, PRSA was geared more toward agency folks, Piper Finley said, while IABC was for professionals who handled internal communications for their own companies. She believes, though, that technological developments have blurred that line over time.
Unger said the conference’s original goal was to bring in public relations professionals as keynote speakers, experts whom local members wouldn’t ordinarily get a chance to hear. PSU supported the conference idea and gave organizers a price break on space so they could book more well-known names.
Historically Speaking
Over time, speakers have included Judith Cushman, a PR headhunter who, Unger said, was for many years the only one of her kind in the Pacific Northwest; broadcast journalist Lars Larson (speaking on media ethics); Lee Remmel, head of PR for the Green Bay Packers football team (and uncle of a Portland PRSA member); Oregon Public Broadcasting Corporate Communications Director Susan Thomas (covering crisis management); Starbucks Community Affairs Manager Lois Maag (addressing corporate social responsibility), among other local and national PR executives.
Organizers strive to schedule information sessions with speakers following their keynote addresses, Unger said. Strategies, trends and problem-solving in the PR industry have been among the conference’s countless topics.
Additionally, organizers offer information about accreditation through PRSA and IABC.
Unger, accredited by both, likens it to becoming a CPA: “It shows you’ve reached a level of skill and a knowledge base.”
In planning the event, organizers eventually discovered the need for a separate conference for freelancers as well, and started the offshoot group, the Self-Employed Creative Professionals in 1997. SECP has since staged its own conferences, which, Piper Finley said, have grown bigger than the original.
Whichever conference people attend, she feels there is much to be gained:
“You’ll meet people who do things kind of like you and others who do something totally different,” she said. “In this business, people are curious by nature, and there will always be something that’s going to stretch you. You’ll find new techniques and expand your knowledge of the business and what’s out there. And that’s useful, because nobody stays in the same job forever any more.”
One thing is certain—the Communicator’s Conference has provided public relations and communications professionals the education and tools they need to succeed.
Floods, pro sports and dreadful top-40 music notwithstanding, it’s time to make the 2008 conference memorable.
Meet the Founders of the Communicator’s Conference
Julie Piper Finley, ABC
Julie Piper Finley, ABC, is the director of marketing and communications for Loaves & Fishes Centers, The Meals-On-Wheels People in Portland, Ore. One of the five largest senior nutrition programs in the country, Loaves & Fishes Centers serve 5,000 hot meals daily and more than 1.3 million meals annually to seniors in Multnomah, Washington and Clark counties. Julie has spent over 25 years in corporate communications and public relations, working in both the public and private sector. She was previously director of communications for Regent Assisted Living and has worked in both the life insurance and financial industries as well as for a major regional retailer.
Julie volunteers as communications director for the Portland Metro Pipe Band. She is a past trustee for the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Research Foundation, the past director of the IABC Pacific Plains Region, a past trustee of the Portland Highland Games Association and a former board member of Insights Teen Parent Program. A journalism graduate of the University of Washington, Julie has been accredited by IABC.
Tom Unger, ABC, APR
Tom Unger is a vice president and the manager of corporate communications for Wells Fargo & Co. in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Based in Portland, Ore., he is responsible for communicating externally and internally the people, products, achievements, activities and community involvement for all product groups at Wells Fargo and its subsidiaries. He also advises senior management regarding public relations issues and strategies and writes speeches for senior officers. He has been in his current position since April 1995.
