Planning an in-person conference? Read our latest tips

Conference Tips & Takeaways

Last year, Scottie Public Affairs assisted with the planning and implementation of two in-person conferences for our clients. While some attendees continued to err on the side of caution, many were eager to return to in-person networking. We came away with some practical tips to help us ensure future events are as well-attended, accessible, and successful as possible, and we’d like to share them with you.

Our clients saw that many people were eager to return to in-person conferences in 2022

Accessibility Benefits Everyone

Disability advocates in the United States have been beating the drum of added accessibility options well before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Lockdowns and safety measures opened the door for businesses of all types to take advantage of livestreaming and virtual options to stay connected. The result? More folks from every walk of life could participate!

While it’s wonderful to have the opportunity to network in-person again, conference coordinators should not entirely abandon virtual options. Livestreaming can be costly but consider the diversity of thought you may be missing out on by ending remote options.

Tip: Allow plenty of runway in the event lead up to allow more time to plan for accessible options. Are there portions of the event you can record and make available? Set aside room in the budget for videographers. Also consider sign language interpreters and/or closed captioning.

Boost Your Social Network

All eyes are on your company and your respective social media pages during in-person conferences, so make sure you come prepared! In anticipation of your event, tap into the FOMO (fear of missing out) and get potential attendees excited for your offerings. Make sure they know it’s an event they can’t miss.

Live social media posting gains a huge amount of traction. For some of our clients, their in-person conferences result in the top-performing social media posts of the year and a boost of new followers. Hundreds of people can be talking about your content on their channels, engaging with your posts and other conference attendees. Take plenty of photos during workshops, pull snippets from impactful speeches, and post helpful links that will keep attendees engaged.

Tip: Before the event, pull together speaker handles and search for popular hashtags that coordinate well with your agenda. Draft social media content and schedule it ahead of time if possible (this is especially helpful during award ceremonies.)

A client conference in a convention center resulted in walking miles each day - don’t forget comfortable shoes!

Consider the Basics

If it’s been a while since you’ve attended or helped plan a conference or large event, we have a few more details to keep in mind.

 ·       Don’t forget the Band-Aids – Most events involve plenty of sitting and listening, but conference spaces can be quite large. Break in new shoes before hoofing it from workshop to workshop and make sure to bring Band-Aids for yourself or fellow conference attendees who may not have gotten the memo!

·       Be conscious of employee finances – Accessibility considerations come in many forms, including finances! If your employees are expected to attend an in-person event, consider that it may be a struggle for some to put flights, hotels, and food expenses on their credit card. Ensure reimbursement turnaround times are tight or offer to pay up front with a company card.  

·        Be mindful of comfort levels – For many folks, 2023 may be the first year since the start of the pandemic that they’re venturing out to a professional event. If fellow attendees choose to mask or maintain social distancing, be respectful.

6 Years of Scottie Public Affairs: Q&A with Abby Gardner

To celebrate turning six, the staff of Scottie Public Affairs turned the tables on Abby and asked her six questions about starting and owning a business.

Since you started Scottie Public Affairs six years ago, what have been some of your proudest moments as a business owner?

I came to consulting from campaigns, and the most fun part of campaigns was winning on election night. I still feel the same way, though our clients are issue advocacy groups and other kinds of organizations that don’t typically have election days. But they have big events that go off flawlessly, they have legislative victories, they have great profiles in the news, and those wins are my happiest moments and are what keep me going. 

Why did you choose Pittsburgh as a home for Scottie Public Affairs?

I worked in Washington, D.C. from 2008 to 2015, and while I loved my friends and coworkers there, I knew D.C. wasn’t going to be my forever home. In 2015, I reached a moment professionally and personally where it made sense to leave, and Pittsburgh, my hometown, felt like a safe place to launch a business. It was just a short flight to D.C., where many of my clients would be, but I could afford to take risks like opening an office in Pittsburgh, and that wasn’t  going to happen in D.C. 

Tell us about how you created Scottie. What smart moves did you make, and now looking back, what could you have done differently?

When people ask me about hanging out their own shingle, I have two pieces of advice: You need clients, and you need an accountant. 

When I started Scottie, I didn’t consider it much of a risk because I had established clients who were ready to work with me on day one. Having those clients lined up was probably the smartest move I made! And the second smartest move was getting a good accountant who helped me with bookkeeping, taxes, and payroll — all things that I could have sunk hundreds of hours into and never gotten particularly good at. I paid someone else for a few hours of their time a month and slept better for it. 

My biggest regrets are when I saw red flags or had a gut feeling something was off early in the process with a client or otherwise, but I didn’t nip it in the bud. I lied to myself that things might get better. Turns out, they pretty much never do, and you should just listen to your gut immediately!

How has your business adapted since the COVID-19 pandemic hit? Are there any old office habits you’d like to see left in the past?

We were lucky and blessed during COVID, and I will never lose sight of that: most of our clients were able to keep going; none of our Scottie team members got sick, and close friends of the firm and clients that got COVID recovered.

That said, I think I had to come to terms with myself that we did almost all of our client work remotely pre-pandemic, but I still had the mentality that we should be in the office physically ourselves. COVID made me appreciate that it isn’t necessary. We’ve adopted a “the office is here if you want it” mentality, and I don’t see any pressing reason to change that policy. Luckily, I hate open-concept offices, so we have private offices if we want to use them, and I do feel vindicated right now about that preference. Of course, part of why that has worked for us is I have a talented and trustworthy staff that produces high-quality work wherever they are working from, and if that were not the case, we’d have a whole other set of issues. 

It has been interesting to watch bigger firms and other industries wrestle with their narratives about why they force people to come back in when they have successfully done their jobs remotely for a year. I think it comes down to people in charge who are not in touch with their employees and need to justify expensive office space that has sat empty for over a year. My perspective is that we are still in a pandemic, people are traumatized and some are barely holding on, and forcing them back in right now will lead good employees to quit and find flexible work somewhere else.

Lastly, I went from about 18 work trips in 2019 to zero in the last 16 months, which has also made me rethink my assumptions about the necessity of some of those trips. Some travel for me will pick back up, but I doubt it will return to the same level as before.

If you weren’t busy running your business, what would you be doing instead? Would you still work in the same industry?

I’m pretty sure I’d be baking, maybe still as a small business owner. Baking is my favorite thing to do right now, and since the pandemic started, I’ve certainly had a lot more time to do it.

Traditionally, a six-year anniversary is known for celebrating the sweetness, strength, and durability of a partnership. How do these symbols mark Scottie's sixth year? 

Well, that is a sweet premise for a question! This endeavor is a partnership, every day, between staff and me and our clients, and I have to thank everyone who has been a part of that journey. I hope the durability of this partnership will last! When I started six years ago, I just wanted to work for myself, with clients I like, on projects I found interesting. That trifecta is the sweet spot for me, and I’m just grateful that it has worked as long as it has, that our team has grown, and great people want to partner with us.  

How a Style Guide Can Improve Your Company Writing Culture

At Scottie Public Affairs, we recognize the importance of cohesion for successful branding. A corporate style guide can be a resource for your company to bring consistency across communication and make your words as much a brand as your logo. With a specific, uniform style, your company can have a consistent voice no matter how many people (writers) are on staff. 

Successful branding has steady messaging with a standard font and colors that create one story that sells. In literature, this is what we call style. Like what font and color do for branding, a style guide shows how words and their usage can embody your company values and be noticeable.

Read any writer enough times, and you will notice recycled vocabulary, syntax, and themes. Why? A writer uses what he knows works, and his style becomes characteristic the more he writes. The more you read, the more you won’t miss it. It is now as apparent as the logo of your favorite store. 

Your company can have a style that gets noticed. With a set of guidelines, your staff can follow preferences for word choice, punctuation, and usage and deliver cohesive work each time, saving time spent on editing. 

Creating a corporate style guide starts with choosing a foundation. Use an existing style guide as your primary resource. Common ones are “The Chicago Manual of Style” and “The Associated Press Stylebook,” both approved by a board that studied English usage. If there are exceptions to guidelines in your chosen primary style guide, include those. And incorporate industry terminology and usage, so your corporate style guide is unique to your company. 

See below for tips on creating your corporate style guide and improving your company writing culture.

1. List your company values and how you’d like to embody them in your writing. 

   Knowing your values can help you determine your company tone and voice and the industry terminology you’d like to include in your style guide. 

2. Embrace a collaborative approach. 

   The style guide is all about your company. Seek help and feedback from your team so the style guide is beneficial to all. 

3. Read and recommend the writer’s bible, “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White. 

   The pocket-sized book is a must-read for any writer. All the principles of English and style are in it. And it has wit. 

4. Find that creating the style guide is a journey of company discovery. 

   The style guide is an evolving document that develops as your company grows or changes. As your company creates new work or policies, the style guide may require updates to match. Embrace the process as an opportunity for insight into and improving your company’s performance. 

If you’d like help with creating a style guide, we’d be glad to work with you. Please contact us to discuss your style needs further!

Tips for Live Tweeting Your Next Event

Whether events are hosted online or eventually again in-person, live tweeting is a tool your organization can use to engage people in conversations about or significant to your work.

Live tweeting can break your organization’s news or position you in discussions. Events you are attending or hosting are a great entry point for expanding your audience or building your social media presence.

Last month, we helped the American Society of Civil Engineers with its virtual summit, announcing the 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. Our involvement included live tweeting the event from the handle @ASCEGovRel. After the six-hour event, the handle received over one million impressions and drove over 2,000 clicks to the infrastructure report card website. We love helping clients get the word out about their events, and live tweeting a six-hour event was a moment to let our Twitter knowledge shine.

Below are our tips for helping you meet your goals on Twitter, whether you’re tweeting from your organization’s account or as an event attendee.

Prepare in Advance 

Twitter as a platform can help you break news and document events in real-time. Preparing before live tweeting will help you stay organized during the event. 

• List out the speakers and their Twitter handles and the hashtags relevant to the event. 

Having this information ready before you live tweet will save you time and help you tweet out quotes and content quickly.  

• Gather photos, graphics, and links that can enhance your tweets. 

If you have photos or graphics you can use, save them to a folder so they are accessible. Have the URL for the event available to share later and URLs to publications produced by your organization that cover the event’s concepts. You can limit the characters with a URL shortener like Bitly.

• Craft a few tweets before the event. 

If you know the schedule of events, create a few tweets about anything you know will happen, including information on a speaker or an announcement. If videos of speakers are available, write out quotes before the event so it is easier to tweet when they air.

Below are some examples of tweets you could prepare.

• Quotes from speakers or presenters

• Questions, polls, or call to actions related to the event

• Photos and videos from the event 

• Retweets of event speakers 

How to Recognize a Good Quote

A good quote is succinct and says something that would resonate with the audience using one of the rhetorical appeals: ethos, pathos, or logos. Knowing the difference between the appeals will help you recognize a good quote and tweet it out in real-time. 

Below is a list of the appeals and an example of each.

Ethos: Using ethos, the speaker claims they have personal experience with the issue they describe.

•  “The federal government needs to know every utility needs funding for water infrastructure. I’ve worked with water utilities across the country, large and small, and their pipes are breaking.”

Pathos: Using pathos, the speaker supports appeals to the listener’s emotions through evocative words.  

• “Investment is increasingly critical. Thousands of people in the Navajo Nation travel miles for water and lug barrels upon barrels home. We should be embarrassed our fellow Americans are living in these conditions.”   

Logos: Using logos, the speaker supports an argument with solid facts, statistics, and logical evidence.

• “America must invest. If trends continue, the annual infrastructure investment gap will grow to $136 billion by 2039.”

When to Paraphrase a Quote

When you can, tweet a direct quote to keep the language of the source. But you might not always have space or can type word for word. Paraphrase by taking away unnecessary words for the core message. 

For example, a long quote would be:

President of Small Utilities Esther Small says, “I’ve always said this, and I will continue to say it, that despite the fact that small utilities are in dire need of funding and that water is essential to every single community and every individual, the federal government is not showing us it values water because it won’t give us the funding we need.”

Instead, you could paraphrase and tweet:

President of Small Utilities Esther Small says the federal government is not showing small utilities it values water because it is not providing the funding needed. She says water is essential to every community and individual.

After Live Tweeting

After live tweeting, take time to assess how it went. What went well, and what could go better next time? Review your Twitter analytics and note the best-performing content and what made them perform well. Keep your notes available for the next event so you can replicate success. 

Meet New Scottie Team Member, Jessica O’Keefe

Hi there! My name is Jessica O’Keefe, and I’m joining the Scottie Public Affairs team as a senior associate. As it did for so many others, COVID threw a wrench in the gears of my career almost one year ago. Although I kept busy freelance writing and volunteering for local politicians, I had the rare opportunity to take the time to gain some perspective and determine the next steps when it came to my professional life. Lending my seven years of expertise in communications and customer support to work for a woman-owned business was a no-brainer. I’m very much looking forward to getting to work, making an impact, and (fingers crossed) meeting clients in-person later this year.

A little Q&A about me…  

How did you come to Scottie? I learned about Scottie through a friend in 2020 and started following Abby on Twitter soon after that. I was instantly drawn to Scottie Public Affairs in due part to my experience working with public utilities in the past. After getting virtually acquainted with Abby in January of 2021, I expressed my interest in helping with her client caseload, and here we are today!

If you weren't working in communications, you'd be...? This may come as a surprise to some, considering my affinity for chaotic work environments, but I’d love to own a tea shop. I worked for Teavana right after I graduated college and loved every minute of it. I enjoyed chatting with customers, experimenting with flavors, and learning about the history of tea. Nothing would make me happier than to serve tea in a small ski town.

Favorite trip? Or, where do you want to go next when it's safe to travel? It feels like a lifetime ago, but my parents took me, my husband, and my three younger brothers on a trip around the state of Colorado in the summer of 2019. We took a dip in the hot springs in Buena Vista, biked from Breckenridge to Frisco, I may or may not have crashed a small boat in Lake Dillon, and then we spent the last few days hiking all over Rocky Mountain National Park. Colorado is one of those states that’s fun and beautiful all year round, and I’d love to visit when it’s safe to travel again.

What have you recently read? Admittedly, COVID seems to have broken the part of my brain that enjoys reading long-form articles and books. I do plan on revisiting an old favorite, the Uglies series, to attempt to reignite my love of reading. Anything post-apocalyptic and mysterious is alright with me. Next up on the docket is Stacey Abrams’ Our Time Is Now. Her activism is nothing short of inspiring and I hope to take lessons learned from her book and apply them to my local political activism. 

What are your hobbies? Lately, I try to get outside as much as I can. Whether I’m walking on the Montour Trail by my house or hiking around Peter’s Lake with my family, nature has been my sanity since COVID hit. I try to get down to Deep Creek, Maryland a few times during the winter to ski. I’m not that great at it, but I do love the rush. When I’m home, my husband and I lift weights together. It’s not my favorite activity, but it makes me feel better about my preferred hobby, sipping on Cabernet Sauvignon. 

A Look into Our past Year and the Year to Come

As 2020 comes to an end, we're reflecting on all our clients accomplished this year and the work we're so proud of doing together with you. Our clients are always trying to change the world for the better and take on really challenging issues. We're honored to be a part of their teams.

Joe Biden tells Wall Street Journal moderators his positions on infrastructure.

United for Infrastructure hosted a presidential candidate forum called Moving America Forward in February, where leading presidential candidates led conversations on their plans for addressing the nation's infrastructure issues. We managed the press for the forum and were so proud that the forum was covered by dozens of outlets and carried live on C-SPAN, reaching millions of Americans.

US Water Alliance CEO Radhika Fox introduces Imagine a Day Without Water 2020 National Forum.

US Water Alliance boldly pivoted its work plans to tackle COVID head-on, both in substance and execution of our work. We helped the team manage the move from in-person events to successful virtual events, including the sixth annual Imagine a Day Without Water.

In addition to those tentpole events, we've helped clients advocating for national paid family leave policies and clients rolling out a new report on the importance of investing in flood-resilient infrastructure. We're helping foundations lift up the stories of their grantees and leverage media to give a voice to some people who often aren't heard from enough. We're excited to celebrate all the accomplishments of our clients this year and looking forward to working with them to make the most of 2021.

Giving Back

This holiday season we’d like to invite you to give back to families who could use some extra support. Through the Adopt-a-Family program with Women's Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh (WCS), we are donating directly to families who are WCS clients. A donation to the program "adopts a family" by turning your monetary gift into gift cards for families who use WCS services. Then the moms use the gift cards to shop for their families this holiday season. It is a tax-deductible donation, and we appreciate the chance to help a local family directly who deserves a brighter holiday and hope you'll join us and adopt a family today.

Looking Toward 2021

We’ve missed seeing our clients smiling faces in person for most of the year, but we’re hopeful that we'll be able to gather again in person soon. In the meantime, our team wishes for a peaceful, restful break and a more equitable world in 2021.

Spread Information, Not Chaos

Friends and readers, I have two asks of you in this blog post. I hope you’ll read it carefully and to the end!

First, especially for my friends in the Keystone state, my first ask is: Do you have a plan to vote? I mean – have you REALLY thought through EXACTLY how you are voting this year? We are new to mail-in voting here, and there is a lot of confusion about the process. Here is what I need you to know:

• It is not too late to register or request a mail-in ballot if you want one. Please go to VotesPA.com and check your registration status. If you can’t remember if you already requested a mail-in ballot, check that too. But I need you to do this TODAY. Mail-in ballots are just going out in the mail now. Allegheny County has mailed about 85 percent of the over 300,000 ballots that have been requested.

• Once you have a mail-in ballot, decide: are you going return it in the mail? If so, complete the ballot, put it in the inner “secrecy” envelope, and put that in the other mailing envelope. Sign the back of the outer envelope in the declaration space and send in the mail – postage is already paid! See this helpful graphic from PA Dems:

• You can also return the mail-in ballot in person instead of via the mail. In Allegheny County, you can go to the County Elections Division downtown (542 Forbes Avenue, Room 601). The office is open from Monday to Friday and during the last three weekends in October. They also opened satellite offices around the county where you can drop ballots off securely on the weekend.

• Now, this is the tricky one so read closely – did you request a mail-in ballot but want to vote in person? Totally fine. But I need you to HOLD ON TO YOUR MAIL-IN BALLOT. You need to take your ballot and the inner and outer envelopes to your polling place on November 3rd. Otherwise, you will cast a provisional ballot, which is better than nothing but not ideal. I know people are thinking about voting this way, and many don’t know this procedure (I don’t blame them! It is new to all of us!), but if we end up with 30,000 provisional ballots in Allegheny County, Election Day is going to last a month, and no one wants that.

• If you avoided the entire mail-in process and are voting in person on Election Day, check your polling place here, and you’re ready.

If you aren’t in Pennsylvania, check this tool from The New York Times on how to vote in all 50 states, and hopefully that will answer your questions. Or google your county board of elections website. Or ask me, and I’ll google it for you because I’m that serious about making sure people have answers they need to vote this year.

My second ask is, will you spread the word? Like when you’re on the plane and the flight attendants tell you to put your own oxygen mask on before assisting others, can you learn the basics of voting in your area and commit to spreading the word over the next 30 days? You may own a shoe store or bookstore, run a non-profit or law firm or water utility. Some of you have huge email lists and social media followings. Or you have five friends or relatives in a swing state who you can text or pester on social media. What can you do in the next 30 days to reach out and educate people about voting?

If you want help to figure out how to do an email blast, social media series, or some other communication about voting, Scottie Public Affairs is offering pro bono services for the next 30 days in the name of educating voters. Just email me what you want to do. Want a custom email like this for your county? We’ll help you. Want a custom video or graphics? I know some people who can do that (it probably won’t be free, but freedom isn’t free, so just keep that in mind). As a communications professional, I believe we must over-communicate for the next 30 days. We need total saturation on this message. And it isn’t even partisan – it is just civics! We can spread information, not chaos, but it takes all of us. Will you join me?

How can we support you during Covid-19?

At Scottie, we recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed how we work and communicate. The pandemic has caused great uncertainty, and it reminds us of  the adage “May you live in interesting times,” a curse disguised as a blessing. We are all living through interesting times in 2020, but we have the blessing to support you so you can rise above any challenge.

Like many of you, we at Scottie have transitioned to working from home. We’re doing our best to look after each other, our clients, and our communities. As communications professionals, we know how challenging it can be to navigate this crisis and want you to know we are here to help. Below, you’ll find a few examples of how we are adapting our work to help you during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Translating In-Person Events into Virtual Gatherings

Several of our clients were in the middle of planning in-person events for the remainder of 2020 and have quickly pivoted their efforts online. In-person events can serve so many needs, and when we could all easily gather, we didn’t have to name every function of a gathering. Now we’re helping our clients think through the nuances and opportunities of how to take meetings, advocacy events, fundraisers, conferences, networking opportunities, peer-exchange, seminars, workshops, and trainings online. 

Outreach via Video, Digital, Mail, and More

With COVID-19 forcing everyone around the world indoors and online, you absolutely need solid strategies for reaching people where they are. Our team can create targeted plans for developing and distributing content to your key audiences wherever they are and with whatever strategies make the most sense to reach them. Whether this means hosting online events, creating digital video content, building out microsites for COVID-19 or other resources, or some more analogue strategies like direct mail and telephone town halls, we are working hand-in-hand with our clients to find solutions that build, engage, educate, and unite your audiences.

Crisis Communications

We can partner with you to navigate and map out your responses to and during the COVID-19 crisis. Our team’s mission is to provide our clients with creative solutions for message development, media relations, strategic scenario planning, and targeted audience engagement regarding changes to your business as usual due to the pandemic. At Scottie, we are helping you prepare for all possible scenarios, having responses ready before you need them, developing a plan to engage and mitigate any potential negative situations. 

Connect with us to chat about how we can best support you.