Public Affairs in the Digital Age: Real People = Real Results

The panel Public Affairs in the Digital Age: Real People = Real Results will be held at 10:00 a.m on Tuesday, April 21st, in the Ballroom.

Description
What we plan to cover:
 * Define Public Affairs.
 * Why the Hill cares what real people think: How a congressional office operates - a 101 on what an office does with incoming communications and lobbyists.
 * What a traditional public affairs campaign looked like pre-digital.
 * How impressive it is when digital is added
 * How corporations use digital
 * How public advocacy groups use digital
 * Overview of how government has become more (and less) transparent over the years

Speakers

 * Ben Clark (Moderator) - Benjamin Coffey Clark runs digital public affairs campaigns for Fleishman-Hillard and in the past pioneered digital operations for a premier consulting firm and a well-respected magazine. Ben was the first editorial director for the Washingtonian magazine's website. He was responsible for creating the overall tone and content of the online publication and email newsletters, as well the site's current design, which was launched in August 2007. He orchestrated a variety of business development, marketing and public relations strategies to grow the digital publication's yearly ad inventory by 39%, visitors a month by 80%, and page views a month by 63%. Ben first took on new media consulting challenges at The Harbour Group. There he helped a range of clients to develop effective online communications strategies. He initiated and conducted media outreach, issue analysis and investigative research to complement lobbying, legislative, legal and crisis communication-team operations. A former political reporter, Ben is a veteran of a wide variety of Democratic campaigns most notably Gov. Howard Dean's presidential campaign, the Running For Change Political Action Committee and a brief last minute effort in Ohio on behalf of President Obama. Prior to that, he was the lead political reporter for the Warwick (RI) Beacon newspaper.


 * John Wonderlich - John Wonderlich is the Sunlight Foundation's Policy Director. John heads collaborative examinations of government, and also works with both Congress and public communities, developing and implementing government reform policy for the Sunlight Foundation. He has a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Penn State University.


 * Michael Silberman - OneSky


 * Bill Black - William Black is co-chair of Fleishman Hillard's global public affairs practice. He is a skilled government and political affairs professional with more than 20 years of experience both inside and outside of government in Washington, D.C. His expertise spans a range of communications disciplines, including strategic communications counsel, policy advocacy, and crisis communications. Mr. Black has provided counsel to such organizations as Abbott, AT&amp;T, IMS Health, United Airlines, the American Ambulance Association, the Peres Center for Peace, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and many others. He offers deep expertise in the political and policy process helping clients deal with both opportunities and challenges. He has also assisted in achieving clients' goals in the regulatory arena. He is adept at using new communications technologies in the service of clients' broad strategic goals. Mr. Black's crisis communications experience has involved healthcare issues, food recalls and privacy issues. Before joining Fleishman-Hillard, Mr. Black served as director of political and grassroots membership at the American Medical Association, where he created one of the nation's most powerful grassroots armies, the 107,000 strong Physicians Grassroots Network. He conceived and launched the AMA's first public affairs Web site. In addition, he was responsible for building and maintaining the AMA's political action committee. Previously, Mr. Black served as chief of staff to the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus - now Minority Whip, Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland. His Capitol Hill career also included stints as chief of staff to Representative Jane Harman of California and Representative Jim Olin of Virginia. Originally from Boston, Mass., Mr. Black came to Washington, D.C., with Representative Barney Frank to serve as his legislative assistant, responsible for agriculture, banking, judiciary, and transportation. Mr. Black currently serves as president of the House Administrative Assistants Alumni Association, the organization representing former chiefs of staff to members of the House of Representatives. He is an adjunct professor in issues management at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management and serves on the board of directors of the Public Affairs Council.


 * Pat Cleary - Pat Cleary joined Fleishman-Hillard in June of 2007 after ten years at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). A lawyer, he began at the NAM as its principal workplace policy leader and lobbyist on healthcare, OSHA, and other human resources issues. During his tenure at the NAM he was responsible at various times for the organization's association relations, board of directors, small and medium manufacturers, sales, and public affairs divisions. Since late 2004, he was in charge of the NAM's internal and external communications. In 2004, Mr. Cleary launched and wrote the NAM blog, ShopFloor.org, growing it to one million readers by 2006. He also launched CoolStuffBeingMade.com, the Internet's largest collection of manufacturing videos. The site has had almost 4,000,000 video iPod downloads since its inception and has been seen by over a half million viewers online. ShopFloor.org has been cited in the Washington Post, US News, The Hill, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Influence, PRWeek, and a host of online publications. It was named one of the “Best of the Blogs” by Association Management Magazine. Also, while at the NAM, he started a weekly pro-business radio show, America's Business. The show is now heard in 70 markets and has enjoyed several hundred thousand podcast downloads. Mr. Cleary served in the Labor Department in the Reagan Administration, as deputy assistant secretary for policy. He served in the Bush Administration as member and chair of the National Mediation Board, the federal agency that governs labor management relations in the airline and railroad industries. In early 1997, he was named to a congressional blue ribbon panel to study the future of Amtrak. He served on the Bush-Cheney Transition Team for the U.S. Department of Labor in 2001. Mr. Cleary has appeared frequently as a media spokesman for business. These include CNN, all the major networks, the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, NPR the Washington Post, New York Times and Wall Street Journal. He has lectured on the topics of negotiation and dispute resolution at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is the author of The Negotiation Handbook.


 * Dan Horowitz - Daniel M. Horowitz is the senior vice president and senior partner leading the Fleishman-Hillard's digital communications group in Washington, D.C. Mr. Horowitz has more than fifteen years of interactive experience with expertise in the areas of online planning and strategy, social media consulting, search and online advertising, mobile marketing, and online research and measurement. Mr. Horowitz leads a group of nearly 50 digital strategy, marketing, Web design, and Web development experts. The Fleishman-Hillard Washington, D.C., digital team is part of a larger, global interactive practice area at Fleishman-Hillard that comprises more than 150 staff members. Mr. Horowitz's background in both traditional as well as online communications allows for a unique approach to our client assignments. As important as digital strategies are to a comprehensive communications campaign, Dan knows that the Web is only one part of a diverse and complex communications environment that requires consistent management of relationships, reputations, and messages across all channels - old, new, emerging, and in-between. Mr. Horowitz's team engages with clients to serve as a trusted partner to help organizations achieve bottom-line results in navigating the new world of non-traditional communications. The interactive team that Dan leads has received numerous industry awards, including a 2007 Webby Award for best health Web site (www.thatguy.com) and 2006 Webby award for best youth Web site (www.abovetheinfluence.com). Mr. Horowitz is a graduate of Indiana University, where he received a bachelor's degree in political science and a minor in meteorology.
 * Dr. Horowitz is board certified by the American Board of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of numerous local and national medical organizations including the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons and the Los Angeles, Orange County and California Medical Associations. In addition, he is a clinical instructor of surgery at the USC School of Medicine. He has performed thousands of cosmetic surgery procedures including breast enhancement, reduction and lift, face lift, forehead lift, upper and lower eyelid surgery, laser skin resurfacing, chemical peel, nose reshaping and reconstruction liposuction and tummy tuck.His hospital affiliations throughout Long Beach and Orange County have included Memorial Medical Center of Long Beach, Long Beach Community Medical Center, St. Mary's Medical Center, Los Alamitos Medical Center, Hoag Memorial Hospital and St. Joseph's Hospital. He is a member of the Cleft Palate Team at the Children's Hospital of Memorial Medical Center performing reconstructive surgery on children unfortunate to have been born with cleft lips or other birth defects. Dr Horowitz has contributed to several published articles in local and national medical journals and literature and has presented topics in plastic and reconstructive surgery to fellow physicians at the Southeastern Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons annual meetings. He has been recognized by The Best Doctors in America; Pacific Region a book published by Woodward/White, a South Carolina based research firm who asked thousands of fellow physicians in the Pacific Region which specialists they would feel comfortable sending a friend or loved one to for medical care. He has also been included in editions of the publication Who's Who in the West.

From Ben

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From John
A wiki page on Open Congress we're organizing to track new media projects from Congress.

From Michael

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From Bill

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From Pat

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From Dan

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General/from discussion

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