The buzz around the office today is about tonight’s first-ever Nashville PR Flacks Meetup. Come 5:30 p.m., we’ll be walking down to Riverfront Tavern for happy hour with Nashville’s finest public relations and communications peeps.

The idea for this PR flack happy hour came from former-Hall Strategies principal and stellar-PR flack Margie Newman. When Margie moved to D.C. a year ago, she created DC Flacks through www.meetup.com as a way for communication pros to get together, meet and network. Over the next year, the D.C. group grew from a dozen members for more than 250 and Vocus even signed on as a sponsor. From the success of DC Flacks, the idea expanded, and tonight, Nashville communicators will be getting together for the first Nashville PR Flack meetup.

The meetup group was organized by Margie with the help of PR locals, Cindy Wall, Mary Beth Ikard, Rob Robinson and me—Jena Locke. We will be getting together once a month to talk shop, share beverages, laugh, learn and meet our fellow PR and communications peers. Be sure to join the group to stay in-the-know about our upcoming events.

The Hall Strategies gang will be there, and we hope you will too!

In my 13 years as a public relations professional, I finally broke down today and submitted some of our projects and clients for the annual PRSA Parthenon Awards. I’m not sure why I have always been resistant except to say that I’ve been too busy to focus on it. (Too busy? For 13 years? How lame.) So, today, with most all the coordination led by Hall Strategies’ in-house-organizational-genius and stellar-PR-professional Jena Locke, we finally entered to win a prestigious local pr award.

It all started few weeks ago when I sat down with Jena and talked about the award categories and which clients we should enter. The selection process was a challenge because the possibilities were many. We restrained ourselves, quite frankly, because a bunch more all nighters was just not what we were looking for. So, we made some decisions and pared it down. We’ve got great clients and great projects. One thing about our work is certain: we are 100 percent committed to what we do on behalf of our clients. In fact, to say we own our projects is just an understatement. So, in light of that, I’d like to note some of the work that we didn’t submit for an award, but we certainly could (and probably should) have:

FELD ENTERTAINMENT: Feld is producer of the greatest family-entertainment shows on earth including Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Disney On Ice and Monster Jam. In less than one year of working with Feld, we’ve made significant impact on their publicity and ticket sales in the Nashville market. Our approach has been to further weave Feld productions with our community. Through our relationship with business and organizations through the years, that’s been fairly simple. Who doesn’t love Disney and the circus? Just by introducing ideas to the right people on how this community partnership might take place and we’re off and running. Look for more news about FELD around Nashville in the coming years. We just might be sending Mickey or a clown to your door soon!

SOLAR SYMPOSIUM: Last year, working closely with the Tennessee Economic Partnership (TEP) as I have for many years, we set out on a new direction in order to address a problem that kept arising. As background, TEP is an organization of leading economic developers from across the state that are committed to marketing the state as a great place to do business. Early in 2009 TEP members began to express concern that there was a lot going on in Tennessee and in the world around job creation in the renewable energy sector, but as leaders in economic development we had a lot to learn about this emerging industry. We wanted to speak intelligently to industry leaders about their industry and all the opportunities and activities in Tennessee that would benefit them. So, in October of 2009, TEP hosted the first ever Solar Symposium. It was a day that brought together economic development officials and solar industry leaders in educational sessions and dialogues. What came from the event was a series of important next steps for our state to keep the renewable energy momentum that we have seen over the last several months.

I could go on and on about clients that I love, but these are just a couple that I’d like to throw props to as I was contemplating great projects over the last year.

All the best,

Abby

Last week as I drove to work, I passed a beautiful eco-friendly trash truck. That darn thing nearly brought a tear to my eye. Now I know you’re thinking “how can a trash truck be (a) beautiful, (b) eco-friendly and (c) a tear jerker?” I’ll have to admit, it was my first time to look at a trash truck and smile. It was no ordinary trash truck. It was a Red River Service Corporation household waste collection truck, proudly displaying the winning artwork from Red River’s annual “Go Green to Keep Nashville Clean” art contest.

The art contest, now in its fourth year, is open to all Metro 3^rd and 4^th graders. More than 100 students from 46 elementary schools entered their creative interpretations of what it means to go green and keep our city clean. I had the honor of seeing each piece of meticulously colored artwork, and let me tell ya…these kids have talent!

Both the winners’ and finalists’ artwork from the contest are displayed on Red River trucks for the next six months as part of a citywide campaign to promote recycling and city beautification. I don’t know about you, but I would be pretty excited as a third or fourth grader to have my artwork splashed on the side of a big truck.

It was the excitement of these winning young artists–along with the help of some hot chocolate and hot Krispy Kreme Original Glazed ® doughnuts–that kept us warm on a recent wintry December morn for the public viewing event. Eighteen Red River trucks lined the street on Titans Way down at L.P. Field as the proud winners, parents, art teachers and principals came out to see their art on display. Each winner was also honored at the event with a certificate presented by Mayor Dean and passes to local art organizations such as Cheekwood and the Nashville Children’s Theatre. Grand prize winners even earned cash for their schools’ art departments! Big props to the Beautification and Environment Commission, Nashville Arts Coalition, Metro Council members, Public Works, Metro Nashville schools, and of course Red River for putting together such a stellar program!

As a self-labeled “green girl” (I love recycling, reusable grocery bags and supporting all things local), as well as art junkie (I love funky interpretations of just about anything, and if you tell me a piece of art is done by a local artist, I’m 10 times more likely to buy–or at least covet), this art contest speaks to my soul on multiple levels. You can imagine my excitement when I heard I would get to help with the logistics of this contest upon joining Hall Strategies this past June. I’ll have to admit, it turned out even more exciting than I imagined. And the fun is just getting started. The trucks will be going on tour to the participating elementary schools each Monday of the spring semester.

Keep your eyes peeled. These artful trucks are on their routes around town each day serving as a “rolling canvas”, and you can see for yourself what these talented young Nashvillians created from their brightly colored crayon boxes. Trust me, you’ll be impressed!

We’re pleased to announce that Hall Strategies has been chosen as a national finalist by PR News for its Twitter social media campaign on behalf of Humanities Tennessee and the Southern Festival of Books. Hall Strategies is one of five finalists in the Social Media category of the 2009 Nonprofit PR Awards by PR News, the leading trade publication among communicators.

“Social media has become a vital part of public relations for every organization in every sector, and we’re honored to be recognized nationally for the creative work we are doing with our clients,” said Hall Strategies’ founder Joe Hall.

Humanities Tennessee, which held its 21st Annual Southern Festival of Books last weekend, said the award-winning social media campaign built awareness and excitement in the weeks leading up to this year’s Festival and helped grow and engage the Festival’s social media network.

The 11-week social media campaign gave the Festival’s Twitter followers (@sofestofbooks) daily clues about featured authors who would be appearing at the annual literary festival in Nashville. Weekly winners received VIP treatment at the event, held Oct. 9-11. Over the course of the campaign, individual Twitter followers increased by 15 percent.

Contest winners with their Speed Reader passes, which bumped them to the front of the long line of fans awaiting Author/Astronaut Buzz Aldrin's signature at the 21st Annual SoFest of Books

“It seems that 140 characters can tell a story and this one is about how Festival patrons and authors connected to this year’s event through the digital world in which we now live. The Festival is a celebration of the written word, not necessarily the printed word, and that’s the story behind the story that makes this award so extraordinary,” said Humanities Tennessee President Robert Cheatham.

According to PR News, the Nonprofit PR Award is a “highly competitive program (that) showcases the most talented communicators and teams in the nonprofit sector.” Hall Strategies is among five finalists in the Social Media category and is the only local public relations firm chosen. It will compete for the top award, which will be announced at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 3.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my short time here at the firm, it’s that Joe and Abby are rock stars when it comes to planning and execution. It’s also a well-known fact that Joe can pretty much tell you the best restaurants and sights in any given city. Forget Fodor’s. When in doubt, just ask Joe.

True to form, our fearless leaders had a serious game plan for our day-and-a-half of team building in the Windy City. It started with a Cubs game, ended with a Chicago River Architecture Tour and included plenty of food, beverage and culture in between.

We learned a lot about the city and about each other. I learned, for example, that the Chicago Cubs have won every game that Abby Trotter has ever attended (note to self: Abby on team = big win). Her good luck carried through on this particular Team Hall Strategies trip to Wrigley Field.

The Cubs beat the Reds 5-2, and we’re pretty sure our heckling of Reds left-fielder Jonny Gomes played an important role. We were inspired by our consumption of Chicago dogs and a few cold beers. Boy is that Budweiser tasty on a perfectly warm day at the baseball field! Plus, we felt pretty good about supporting our client in such a demonstrable way. Now that’s what I call walking the walk, which is something we take pretty seriously in the hallowed halls of Hall Strategies.

Peter, our resident Public Works expert , taught me the phrase, “The solution to pollution is dilution,” as we learned about the reversing of the Chicago River and the damming of its entry into Lake Michigan. This led to a  conversation about Nashville’s main water feature, the mighty Cumberland River. Who knows more about city infrastructure and stormwater management than Peter Heidenreich? Not many. The man knows his (expletive deleted).

And don’t get Joe and Pete started about the machinations that have made Chicago’s core grow and thrive. Suffice it to say that its 129 TIF (Tax Increment Financing) districts have been a major economic development tool for the city and its neighborhoods. It’s a topic that makes Joe nearly break out in a Lee Elia rant.

Me, I was nearly brought to tears on the topic of the Sears Tower no longer being the Sears Tower. But, to progress we have to change, and ultimately it’s just part of the history and the fabric of a city, am I right?

Calesha kept us all on task, following our itinerary and keeping up with reservations, tickets and whatnot. Let’s hear it for organization! Which leads me to Jena, our newest member of the team. Belmont University graduated a good one, and boy were we lucky to get her! This lady is as organized and on task as they come… and as pleasant and fun as she is professional.

I wish I could say the same about some of the Chicago cabbies we encountered. They could use a lesson in good ole’ Southern hospitality. I mean, they are ambassadors for the city, are they not?

Perhaps Southwest airlines could teach them a thing or two about customer service and pleasantries. Which leads me to a good ending taken from the beginning of our trip.

Clarence, our flight attendant, keep us all in good spirits, but I was particularly fond of his joke as we were taxiing toward the runway at BNA.

“We apologize for the bumps,” Clarence said. “It’s not my fault. It’s not the pilot’s fault. It’s the asphalt.”

The moral of this story, I think, applies well to life and to business: Have a great team. Plan well. Follow your plan, but stay flexible. Learn as much as you can about the people, the places and the history of those you’re working with. Deliver good results. Leave ‘em laughing. And remember, it all starts with a good team.