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	Phil's Blogservations Tuesday, October 24, 2006 Posted by philgomes 9:59 PM I'm Out I'm Out This Friday, I'm going out of the country to get some sun on these pale, gangly arms. Between the vacation and the hit-the-ground-running exercises that will likely take place afterward, don't expect anything on this blog until around Thanksgiving. Technorati rankings be damned. "The weather is here. Wish you were beautiful," I once heard someone say. I'm out... Technorati Tags: vacation, phil gomes Wednesday, October 18, 2006 Posted by philgomes 7:10 PM Wal-Mart Wal-Mart Richard Edelman and Steve Rubel have weighed in. I'm not really writing here to discuss Edelman or Wal-Mart. Suffice to say, I am an employee of Edelman, I'm part of a team focused on online communications, and I have a duty to do my part to make things right from here on out. Most of my readers know what I do here at Edelman. For everyone else, there's my archive. So... Why am I really writing? A lot of people — publicly and privately — have staked my personal credibility on whether or not I would post something about the events of this past week. Unfortunate. I'll answer for things that I am responsible for if that time comes. To repeat what I said above: I am an employee of Edelman I'm part of a team focused on online communications I have a duty to do my part to make things right from here on out Soon, I'll be going back to regularly (if infrequently) scheduled programming. Then I'm going to leave the country for two weeks. Any "net connection" available to me while on vacation better have something to do with a fishing boat. That is all. Technorati Tags: edelman, pr, public relations Sunday, October 08, 2006 Posted by philgomes 8:51 PM Edelman, Year One: The Reaction Edelman, Year One: "The Reaction" As many of you know, most of my career history tends to range from medium-sized (pre-IPG Weber Group) to very small (three-person consultancy) and points in between. Moving from a group of three to a group of over 2,000 is, as you might imagine, a pretty incredible experience and not one without its potential bumps. Every so often, the big-agency-versus-small-agency meme flares up. (Usually it's the latter serving as the antagonist. I know, 'cause I was one of them for a good long while.) The best article I think I've read on the topic was in ExpertPR by Ed Cafasso, then of Morrissey & Co. (I reference Ed's article in this post, but MediaMap is no longer hosting the original text. Thus, Wayback Machine to the rescue.) When I announced I had moved to Edelman, it quickly became pretty clear who my friends were. Most emails and blog comments were highly supportive. In some rare cases, there was uncharacteristic silence (stunned?) from longtime colleagues. In one case, I received a pre-emptive "C&D" notice (Krempasky's two favorite letters) just in case I were to consider republishing anything I published while under another payroll. (Not a word since and, besides, I've done pretty okay having never dipped into that well.) The moving-to-a-big-agency thing sparked a bit more of a debate when Jeremy Pepper moved to Weber Shandwick. As I was writing this, it was fun to reminesce. Why bring all of this up now? Because I'm finding that the core thing that gets me out of bed every workday morning — the opportunity to continuously learn about communications, codify that learning, and share it with companies and colleagues alike — really hasn't changed all that much in the year after my move. This is why my lecture gigs at SFSU and GGU were rewarding as well. As Dustin Hoffman said in Wag The Dog, "It's just a change of wardrobe." Is there more general scrutiny applied to what I write here? Sure. Is there more at stake when you work for the world's largest independent agency and happen to blog? Definitely. And that last part is really the core of it... I'm a communicator who blogs, rather than a blogger who plies his trade in the communications industry. Big difference. The blog is only the thing that most of you get to see. Stream of consciousness on a Sunday night... Technorati Tags: edelman, pr, public relations Thursday, October 05, 2006 Posted by philgomes 12:08 PM Edelman, Year One: "License To Operate" Edelman, Year One: "License To Operate" Like I mentioned, I tend to maintain a pretty vigorous travel schedule. Having spent 31/32nds of my life in the Bay Area and with the love of my life living Chicago, I find that I don't necessarily like LA quite that much so as to miss it. In any case, I remember my second trip to the New York office more vividly than my first. Both took place in my first month or so. I came back from that first trip — your basic meet-and-greet-o-rama — late on a Thursday night. I know because, no sooner had my ass hit my LA chair the next Friday, I received a call. "Hi, can you be in New York on Tuesday?" the pleasant voice on the other end asked. "You mean this coming Tuesday?" "Yes." "Why?" "Well, I'm from Michel Ogrizek's office and he'd like you to present to our corporate communications summit about blogs." "Um... Who's Michel Ogrizek?" "Um... Our vice chairman in New York..." "Oh..." You really stepped on your own p3n15 that time, didn't you, Gomes? I thought to myself. After recovering from this first of many n00b moments, I said "Sure." I mean, I still didn't know who Michel Ogrizek was, but he had a title like Vice Chairman, so I guess it was time to fire up Expedia. There were a number of things that were unusual about this particular meeting. (One thing that stands out is that, during our de rigueur pre-meeting introductions, most people indicated that they had been at the company at least a decade. And, then... There was... Me... One month...) Michel started the summit off by describing what the companies he was talking to wanted most from their PR programs. And what do you think it was? "Increased marketshare?" "Coverage in so-called 'top-tier' media?" "Higher share price?" "Depositioned competitors?" "Perceived technical superiority?" Nope... Companies told Michel that they wanted to "preserve their license to operate." *gulp* Wow... Having "grown-up" career-wise in Silicon Valley, I had to admit that I had never heard that particular turn of phrase before. Sure, I tended to work with smaller companies that, perhaps, had a different set of concerns, but I'm willing to bet that "help us preserve our license to operate" never quite made it into an RFP. Have the likes of Intel, Sun, and HP ever used that phrase? (Certainly, HP is adding it to their vocabulary now.) Have you ever used it? Did I miss this memo? Technorati Tags: pr, public relations, edelman, phil gomes HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes[[dot}]com SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.