As my December college graduation approached, my excitement about what was to come increased, as did my worries of finding employment post-graduation.  Reading countless stories on job-hunting nightmares during a recession, not only from recent college graduates but also from seasoned and qualified candidates, was enough to put knots in my stomach.

I spent my last year of college immersed in my course work and tried to gain as much public relations experience from interning as possible, which, lets face it, is not easy.  These days most internships consist of doing all the tedious work no one else wants or has the time to do. During my numerous newspaper and coffee runs, I couldn’t help but wonder how prepared I was to go out into the “real world” and compete with overqualified candidates for a position.  Sure, I completed three internships during my college years, but does juggling six Starbucks drinks back to the office qualify as a resume-worthy skill?

I did all I could to stand out from the intern pack.  I volunteered for every task presented, stayed late to help finish reports and made it a habit to ask my supervisors if they needed help with anything if it was a slow day at the office.  Throughout all three internships I made many contacts but quickly realized it was all up to me to secure a post-graduation job.

A couple of months before graduation I began to scroll through job posts on various sites almost daily.  I did not want to miss a single opportunity to send out my resume.  Public relations in Miami is a rather small community, so genuine and serious job posts were scarce.

Early November, I came across a job post for a bilingual account coordinator position at Newman PR.  It sounded like the perfect position for a recent college graduate so I immediately knew competition for it would be big.  I stayed up that night to write a cover letter and sent it out with my resume.  My hopes diminished after a couple weeks passed and I had not heard back.

Two weeks before my graduation, after accepting the fact that a PR job was a hard thing to find in Miami, I was prepared to start applying for non-PR positions.  That is, until I received an email requesting an interview at Newman PR.  I was ecstatic.  I went home that night and researched the company to familiarize myself with as much as possible before my interview.

Walking into the office for the first time was nerve-wracking, to say the least.  I usually do not get nervous before job interviews but this one was different.  This was not another job to get me through a year or so of school, it was the first stepping-stone of my career in public relations.

At the end of my interview I was informed that I needed to complete a writing test.  I knew this test would make or break my chances of being hired.  Being finals week at school, this was one more test to add on to my schedule.  I completed and returned the test as soon as I could and, to my delight, received a call back for a second interview.

A couple days and a revised press release later, I was offered the position.  Just one weekend shy of college graduation, I had a job in my career field.  It was more than I could ask for.  While out with friends, a stranger overheard me sharing my new employment news and offered me her congratulations.  She proceeded to tell me about her current situation as a recently graduated nurse struggling to find work.  As if I did not feel fortunate enough, this perfect stranger’s congratulations and words of encouragement made me feel even more grateful.

After mentally preparing myself for a tough couple months of job-hunting, I had to change gears and instead start reading up on the clients I would be working with.  It was now time to put my acquired PR skills and work ethic to the test as I entered the “real world.”

Seven Ships to Sail 100 Departures to 162 Ports of Call

Seattle, Wash., Jan. 25, 2010 — Holland America Line’s 2011 Europe season will feature the newest Signature-class ship, ms Nieuw Amsterdam, on popular Mediterranean sailings and more round-trip and seven-day itineraries than ever before.

Seven ships — Nieuw Amsterdam, ms Eurodam, ms Noordam, ms Rotterdam, ms Prinsendam, ms Maasdam and ms Ryndam — will be based in the region with the first voyage departing April 3 on the Nieuw Amsterdam and the final trans-Atlantic sailing departing Nov. 7 on the ms Prinsendam.

“In 2011, we are catering to a broader range of interests as the appeal of cruising Europe continues to grow,” said Rick Meadows, CTC, executive vice president, marketing, sales and guest programs. “By expanding our cruise opportunities — both in new ports and varied itineraries — we expect to entice both first-time and seasoned cruisers.”

The 2011 season has something for everyone. Featuring 15 maiden calls and offering overnight visits at 16 diverse ports, it marks the debut of several new European itineraries including two commemorative nine-day historical trans-Atlantic crossings aboard Rotterdam in July.

Two Signature-class ships, Nieuw Amsterdam and Eurodam, will both sail European itineraries during the 2011 season. Eurodam, the line’s first Signature-class ship, will start the Europe season with two seven-day Mediterranean sailings before continuing a series of mostly northern Europe itineraries. Nieuw Amsterdam, the newest ship, will sail the popular 12-day Mediterranean Romance, 12-day Tapestry and 12-day Empires itineraries as well as two seven-day Mediterranean cruises mid-season.

Additional round-trip itineraries, which allow time to explore a departure city before or after the cruise, depart from nine European cities — Tilbury and Dover (London), U.K.; Rome and Venice, Italy; Barcelona, Spain; Athens, Greece; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Additionally, the line will offer a round-trip sailing to the continent from Boston, Massachusetts, aboard the Maasdam in July.

For those short on time, 18 seven-day sailings provide an array of cruises exploring the Mediterranean, Norwegian Fjords or the Baltic.

The season also will feature three new itineraries aboard the Ryndam. A 21-day Mediterranean Adventure offers a comprehensive tour of fascinating Mediterranean ports as well as the less-visited Sète , France , and Sardinia , Italy . The 14-day North Cape cruise features a crossing of the Arctic Circle and a sail by the North Cape and Norwegian ports. And an 11-day Canary Island Explorer sailing round-trip Rotterdam visits the Canary Islands, Morocco and Spain .

More ambitious cruisers looking to expand their port collections can combine itineraries for a Collectors’ Voyage, which range from 14 to 45 days and are perfect for true explorers who seek an in-depth experience at an exceptional value.

Fares start at $999 per person, double occupancy, for a seven-day voyage. For guests booking before June 1, 2010, there is an Early Booking Bonus of a choice of dinner for two in the Pinnacle Grill or Tamarind, or a welcome bottle of champagne on embarkation day.

For more information or to book a 2011 Europe cruise, contact a professional travel agent, call 1-877-SAIL-HAL (1-877-724-5425) or visit www.hollandamerica.com.

# # #

About a month ago, the electricity suddenly went out in our Miami-based office and stayed off.

Some calls to clients and media outlets in South Florida and the Florida Keys revealed the problem was widespread throughout the state.

We quickly learned that much of the southern half of Florida was experiencing a massive blackout, due to a problem at Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point power plant.

Fortunately, for residents and visitors in the Keys, most electricity in the island chain was restored within 30 minutes.

Despite our own power issues, I wanted to make sure that media points knew the Keys had electricity because South Florida’s power problems had quickly become a national story. So we started pushing out news releases with the aid of a battery-powered laptop computer and my Blackberry, which also functions as an Internet modem for the laptop.

I also began calling media outlets to reinforce the release verbally. When I called the CNN Miami Bureau, the producer there suddenly said, “Andy, we want you to go on live via phone.”

So as I was finishing up the interview with CNN anchors Don Lemon and Betty Nguyen, Don asked me if the power outage caused any serious problem in the Keys. I said that I was not aware of anything major, but the most important thing was that the margarita machines were once again in full operation. That evoked a chuckle from the anchors.

I completed my conversation with CNN and then my cell phone rang. It was a national Associated Press picture editor in New York, wondering if I had any available photos from the Keys showing the power outage. I explained power had quickly returned to the Keys, but we didn’t have anything that showed “lights out.” But then I remembered my margarita comment to CNN.

“Mike,” I said, “I’ll have a photo to you in less then 90 minutes to tell the story in the Keys.”

I called Rob O’Neal, our ace photo stringer in Key West.

“Rob, I need a picture that shows people at a bar in Key West, with someone making a colorful margarita,” I said. “And I’d love to have boats and/or water in the background and, by the way, I need it now!”

An hour later Rob sent the photo to me and after some toning and captioning, the image that moved around the nation of Schooner Wharf Bar owner Evalena Worthington pouring a red frozen margarita was the only still national media photo that showed a scene of electrical restoration in Florida.

When I made the big leap from magazine editor to public relations executive lo, those many years ago, it was with a great sense of relief that I would never again have to produce a daily newspaper. The publication I worked for was a business and management monthly aimed at owners and managers of travel agencies.

One thing I learned early on is that travel agents like to go places and hold meetings. One thing our publisher learned early on was that advertisers would pay to be in small publications produced and published at the site of a meeting. As a result, I worked on dailies in such far-flung places as Cairo, Egypt; Nassau, Bahamas; Memphis, Tenn.; Miami, Fla., and New York City. I thought that I had left all that behind when I evolved from hack to flack.

Unfortunately, due to some particularly egregious sin in a past life, I apparently am destined to be a part-time newspaper editor in perpetuity.

For the past 14 years I have been editor of “Seatrade Today,” the daily newspaper we publish on site during the Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention, the cruise industry’s largest and most significant annual gathering. For three months leading up to the event, I am inundated by PR types, marketing directors and ad men seeking to place stories in the paper.

Of course, given the international nature of the convention, much of the copy submitted is in some only partially Anglicized dialect in which the finer points of semantic meaning are bludgeoned to a pulp by an incomplete grasp of the basics of English grammar. Then there are the telephone conversations with anonymous pitch persons with impenetrable accents. And don’t even get me started on the amazing diversity of photo formats that have as much in common with “high resolution” as a cat and a hammer.

So, from a staff of one (me) we grow to a staff of two when Andy Newman starts laying out pages (Andy likes to give himself a new title every year, and in 2008 elevated himself to “executive editor,” while I remain, humbly, “editor.”), to finally a staff of four during the actual convention.

Over the years, “Seatrade Today” has grown from a two-color, 8.5-inch by 11-inch, four-pager to a 16-page, four-color, tabloid-size daily. Despite technological advances, publishing the paper remains a challenge, but one that so far we have been able to meet every day for every year.

We have developed a couple of mottos for our publication: “All the News that Fits,” which refers to the fact that no matter what, there will always be a disappointed PR person who promised what we did not deliver, and “If You Have Food or Booze You Have News,” which refers to our quid pro quo practice of providing editorial coverage in exchange for libations and/or comestibles delivered to the newsroom.

Working on “Seatrade Today” does not engender feelings of nostalgia for the bygone days of publishing. On the contrary, the only positive emotion I associate with the daily is the sense of relief I feel when we pack up our computers and return to the office at the end of the convention.

Before Miami and Miami Beach became year-round vacation destinations, resort operators made strong efforts to boost off-season bookings.

The late Morris Landsburgh, who at the time operated four or five oceanfront hotels, once staged a mini circus in cooperation with Eastern Airlines and numerous South Florida attractions and ground operators to target travel agents throughout North America.

Our client, Greyhound’s South Florida conglomerate of airport shuttle, sightseeing buses, rental cars and limousines, asked us to create a venue for them, and we developed “Greyhound’s Sideshow of Vacation Transportation” to familiarize the 2,100 travel retailers attending the event with the product.

By promising on-site exposure for the attraction, I persuaded the Lion Country Safari operators in Palm Beach County to lend us an elephant as the highlight of Greyhound’s exhibit area. The pachyderm proved to be the main attraction of the day and the client reaped the lion’s share of attention.

Hotel managers try to educate themselves as much as they can about their property’s products and services. They seem to know everything from how many people they can accommodate to what the newest amenity at their hotel is.The test comes when escorting media through the property.

I had the opportunity to lead a luxury press trip through the Florida Keys. We had a couple of site visits, which the journalists seemed to enjoy. At the first resort we were greeted by Thomas, the guest services manager. He began to walk us through his property telling us all about the history and the architecture. As he walked us into the rooms, he informed the journalists of all the amenities, rates, special offers, activities, services and facts about the place.

As the group was walking back through the lush gardens, one of the journalists asked, “What kind of tree is that?” Poor Thomas knew every other answer except that one. The only one he had not studied! He quickly said, “Let me make a call and let you know.” He reached for his cell phone, pretending to call someone who would know and seemed to ignore the question, which didn’t matter because the group had moved on to more interesting things.

At the next property it was Tiffany’s turn to answer the media’s questions. While in one room she described everything from the kind of kitchen counters and appliances to the latest addition of a flat plasma TV. One of the journalists, who was standing next to the dinning table looking at a work of art on the wall, asked “What is the name of the artist who painted that?”

Tiffany was perplexed! She had been asked the only thing that had nothing to do with the resort’s latest and greatest amenities.

No matter how much you study or read, you will always have a journalist who asks a completely random question to which you do not know the answer. The true test is in how you handle it.

At the start of the new year, we thought it might be interesting to see what some of our PR colleagues think will happen in the public relations industry in 2008. So we sent out a query on ProfNet and received some interesting prognostications.

One of the more far-out predictions came from Tina Kicklighter, vice president of public relations for the Robin Shepherd Group:

One of the major trends driving the public relations industry in 2008 will be virtual worlds. With Fortune 500 companies pouring billions of dollars into metaspace, public relations will be integral in transporting the virtual realm to mainstream consciousness.

Already market leaders like Domino’s Pizza attract customers who order a virtual pizza — and get a real one delivered! Nascar offers fans the chance to drive virtual cars around a virtual racetrack, ‘Playboy’ tempts with virtual ‘bunnies,’ Harvard offers real students virtual degrees, and the list goes on.

It’s interesting to note that both Reuters and CNET set up virtual news bureaus in Second Life in 2007.

For Wayne Schaffel, president of Public Relations Network, the more traditional practice will be emergent in 2008:

We will see strategic public relations come back to the forefront. Right now, there is a certain “placement at any cost” mentality. I see a return to objectives-based, results-oriented progams that help establish a company’s credibility and reputation rather than simply creating the next fad.

The technological advantages of cell phones, laptops and e-mail has run its course. Look for a return to real-world press kits with hard-copy releases, real photographs, real samples, real information, real envelopes and real stamps. Those who really know how to create news must re-learn the best ways to disseminate that information.

But Shel Horowitz, author of “Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First,” suggests using new media tactics merged with tried-and-true PR skills to get your message across:

More and more, consumer-journalists such as bloggers as well as social networks will shape the way our entire society frames news and feature stories.

Creative pitches that focus on the story behind the story will get more coverage, and traditional press releases will get less. Example: instead of “Electronic Privacy Expert Releases New Book” (Quick trip to the delete key!), “It’s 10 O’Clock — Do You Know Where Your Credit History Is?” (Tell me more!)

For Gina F. Rubel, Esq., president and CEO of Furia Rubel Communications, new technology breeds new business:

More and more consumers of products and services are turning to the Web. As a matter of fact, about 50 percent of our clients are referred through word-of-mouth or direct public relations outreach and the other 50 percent have come to us via the Internet.

Patty Briguglio, president of MMI Associates, Inc., suggests we seek to counterpoise old and new approaches:

In 2008 PR firms will need to create an effective balance between traditional PR and new media tactics. It is important to take advantage of the new media tools, such as podcasting and blogging, and to convey the value of these applications from a PR standpoint to your clients.

So there you have it, the future as PR practitioners see it. We’ll revisit this post in December to see who was the true oracle of 2008.

Photo by Andy Newman

My son, Alan, called me Dec. 30.

He was in Raleigh, N.C., on his way back to Boone, N.C., after spending a week with me and my wife.

“Dad, I’m going to spend New Year’s Eve watching an acorn drop here in Raleigh,” Alan said. “And you’re going to be in Key West watching a drag queen drop!”

He was absolutely correct.

It was my third consecutive New Year’s Eve in Key West working with our account executive Carol Shaughnessy to assist CNN’s live broadcast of the Big Red Shoe Drop at the 801 Bourbon Street Pub complex on Duval Street.

Eleven years ago, bar owner Jimmy Gilleran came up with a crazy idea for female impersonator Gary Marion who portrays “Sushi.”

“I had this vision to put ‘Sushi’ in a huge facsimile of a woman’s high heel and lower her to Duval Street as the clock strikes midnight,” Gilleran said. “Only in Key West could you do something like this.”

Each year the crowds get larger and the media attention grows. New Year’s Eve 2008 featured the fifth consecutive time that Sushi has appeared on the 90-minute CNN New Year’s Eve show anchored by Anderson Cooper. And the photos we shoot and release immediately after the drop are well received by various news wire services and other media venues.

“In Times Square, they drop the ball,” Sushi quipped. “In Key West, they drop the shoe, with Sushi in it.”

Keeping pace with the increasing professionalism of the public relations discipline, almost all college level courses today recognize
the craft as a bona fide segment of the journalism agenda.

It was not always that way, however.

During my undergraduate years at the University of Florida — in the early 1940s — the JM 201 textbook attitude toward public relations was reflected in the following cavalier treatment in its chapter on public relations:

The grizzled vet slid onto a stool at the Busy Bee diner, next to a newly hired cub reporter and selected the 35 cent blue plate special.

When the waitress brought their orders, he noticed that the young reporter was served a minute steak with a side of asparagus — in those Depression-era times a lavish lunch, indeed.

“Ah-ha,” he exclaimed, nodding sagely, “doing publicity on the sly!”

Today, the public relations department at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism, where we sponsor a PR scholarship, is on a level with the college’s journalism, broadcasting and advertising departments, demonstrating the recognition the discipline has achieved.

Knowing your history sometimes can pay off in public relations.

Although more than a quarter-century has passed, the mock “secession” — and resulting founding of Key West’s “Conch Republic” — remains a classic example of turning potential disaster into opportunity.

When the U.S. Border Patrol established a surprise roadblock on U.S. Highway 1 at the entrance to the Florida Keys, trapping tourists as well as drug runners and alien smugglers, Keys tourism and government officials went ballistic.

Key West had refused to join the Confederacy; I suggested that this time the city should secede from the Union.

In response to a call from the city’s mayor to “do something before tourist business collapses,” I remembered
an incident from the Keys’ history during the Civil War when Key West refused to join the rest of Florida in the Confederacy and proclaimed allegiance to the Union. The real reason: a garrison of Union troops at Fort Zachary Taylor in Key West.

Harking back 150 years, I suggested that this time the city should secede from the Union. The mayor was shocked until I explained it would be a mock secession. The Key Westers, who love nothing more than a reason to throw a party, caught on quickly and came up with the Conch Republic, and the rest is history.

The spoof attracted national and even international media attention, and a sheepish Border Patrol folded up its roadblock at midnight.

Not only the wire services and U.S. networks, but even BBC television covered the event, which lives on today in an annual Conch Republic Independence Day anniversary celebration that has become a significant tourist draw for the Southernmost City.