Brodie Fenlon

New Offering Alert! Executive Edge, Edelman Canada’s new offering focused on helping new-to-Canada leaders quickly climatize to our cultural, political and business landscape. Effectively managing an executive transition is critical to the business bottom line. According to research published in the Harvard Business Review, the amount of market value that is wiped out by poorly managed CEO and C-Suite transitions is close to $1 trillion per year among the S&P 1500 alone. In recent years, we’ve seen an increase in new-to-Canada leaders joining our top clients, which highlights the importance of getting ramped up on our market – quickly. Our new Executive Edge offering crystalizes our unique approach to helping these leaders hit the ground running.  Built in partnership with Edelman senior leaders from our corporate, earned media, financial communications, government relations, and data x insight teams – this is the best of Edelman in action 💙. DM me for details.  

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US Election Day. As a Canadian who has spent a good portion of her career working with politicians, I can't help but be fascinated. So, of course I read Dan Slee's latest blog post - US ELECT: 15 things communicators can learn from the Trump v Harris 2024 campaign. Some of the bits that stood out the most to me were: 📌Speed: "In 2016, Hilary Clinton’s team took up to 12 staffers and 10 drafts to write a tweet. In 2024, Kamala Harris’ team of five for TikTok can go from idea to execution to approval within half an hour." 📌Knowing the platforms & having people who can run them: "It works on TikTok? Great. Let it work there. It won’t work on X, formerly Twitter. So don’t try." 📌 Language: "We talk like you." Read it, you know you want to. https://lnkd.in/eHjVGDr3

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As I start thinking about long-term communications planning, this article from Sean Gibbons and Tristan Mohabir is energizing and motivating. It's time (frankly, it has been for a while) to move away from broadcast models and towards targeted community building. I'm looking forward to more from this series of articles from The Communications Network! https://lnkd.in/eVgS6raH

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#ICYMI, here's the recording of the Accredited Public Relations (APR) webinar by Canadian Public Relations Society. All tips, no tricks to assuage your fears of the #APR - just in time for #Halloween! 🎃 🔶 Do you only have #InternalCommunications examples for your work sample? Fear not. You can absolutely write up a robust work sample based on internal communications alone. Example: my APR work sample in 2021 was a communications plan for employee return to office during the #COVID19 pandemic. 🔶 No APR references for your application? The National Council of Accreditation can help facilitate connections. Email [email protected] 🔶 Want to understand how you'd be tested? Peruse the CPRS member portal for resources. There are past written exams and work samples for reference. More tips in this webinar presented by Tom Ormsby, APR, Alex Sévigny, PhD, APR and me. I welcome questions. ⤵ https://lnkd.in/gBTvyfwQ Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) - Hamilton

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This is such an abstract metaphor but your podcast is kinda like the Chinese bamboo tree. At point in its growth it's the fastest growing tree in the world. More than two inches per day. But it can take a LONG TIME to get there and if you give up on it before the growth spurt... you'll never know what it could have been https://lnkd.in/gyhjh3kK #podcasting #podfade

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Whatever other information you're hearing about podcasting there's one statistic at the top of the heap... podcast listening continues to increase. One in three people now have a podcast habit. And according to the Digital News Report 2024 “Podcasts continue to attract younger, richer, and better educated audiences." #podcasting #podcastproduction

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Journalists (or anyone that has experience with this)— I’d love your thoughts on this potential scenario: A company conducts an annual survey using one vendor for year one. In the *second* year, they switch to a different vendor but maintain the same parameters and sample size. Would this change matter to you? Does it compromise the data's credibility or comparability? Would you hesitate to write a story based on the results?

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Starting a podcast is not for everyone. There are some real reasons not to. Here are the pros and cons https://lnkd.in/gWaF8PKQ #podcasttips #podcastproduction #storiesandstrategies

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Having fun in East-West Gateway Council of Governments' Briefings newsletter. Have you subscribed? 😎 https://lnkd.in/gyE-k6ZN An Ode To Our Central Time Zone Say what?! Last week, the high-brow Atlantic magazine found itself in low-brow territory when it published, "America's Worst Time Zone," and described our central standard zone as a place "where the clocks are off in both directions." The author, an academic transplant to St. Louis, decried that explaining the time difference to coastal friends was like "acknowledging a terrible skin condition or an inconvenient food allergy." Clearly, the author has not lived here long enough to absorb the healing and soothing vibes of a free zoo, nor is he old enough to appreciate the restorative power of watching Saturday Night Live an hour earlier. How many East Coasters actually make it to the final credits? Actually, Central Timers don't either, because we choose to retire before the skits nosedive after "Weekend Update." But we make the choice, because we are region of choice. The author argues we live on others' borrowed time. The reality is, we choose to be centered and reasonable regarding time management. For example, the driven Eastern Centralite may be logging into work an hour earlier (OK, maybe two), but we are sleeping in, and that is #winning. Sure, we'll get up for their business calls, but we'll be out by four and home soon after for dinner thanks to short commutes. Transplants to our Central Time Zone already understand the personal advantages—such as responding late to the family group text that originated back east before our sunrise. By the time you tune into these texts, the drama is over, and it's already decided where you're going on that big family vacation. (And it's not Destin—as if you really had a say.) But what about the Pacific Coastal Timers? Might they have it better two hours behind us? This is truly a non-issue. Californians and such don't really do time. Time as a concept, evaporates, because most of the Pacific time zone is steeped in an aura of movies, video games, slopes, waves, palms, redwoods, painted deserts, giant ferns, fog, wine, and cacti. They dream, because the reality of their time continuum is truly too hard to fathom. They will never reach the outer limits of paying off their mortgages. The author of this Atlantic magazine piece is himself a scholar of dreams and fancy, studying video games, and "the pleasure of limits, the uses of boredom, and the secret of games." Nope. We Centralists like the rhythmic, predictable way time rolls on by. It's our time. Ted Drewes is perfect at any time. The corn grows. The cicadas will die. The river flows. In his song, "Central Time," homegrown musician, Pokey LaFarge put it best: "Well, I won't worry if the world don't like me I won't let 'em waste my time 'Cause there ain't nothin' gonna change my mind I'm feelin' fine Gettin' by on Central time

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Fascinating read in The Information on the inherent tension between rapid growth in AI and AI companies — and what that means in the classroom. Featuring aiEDU.org's own Alex Kotran. Check it out!

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Here’s the unspoken problem with Crisis Comms planning: it doesn’t actually matter if everyone is too nervous to execute it when the time comes. Planning generic safety messaging for a natural disaster? Easy. Pushing out information that directly impacts the lives of people without the time for that “extra check”? Nauseating. Writing a preplanned, “our thoughts are with the…” statement to check a box you feel like will be required? No sweat. Suddenly executing your preplanned strategy for a reputational crisis with an hour of notice? Terrifying. You can have the best copy/strategy in the world written out - it won’t matter if your org gets cold feet. I can’t tell you how many plans have gone in the garbage the second something actually happens because what WAS approved in blue skies is now too risky for gray skies. Part of your crisis comms planning should be mental preparation with your leaders during the planning process and the actual event. Crisis comms, inherently, means risk. Risk is scary. If you leave out space for mental preparation, questions, voicing concerns, and working through those issues with the people whose names will be attached to the words…actually using the plan you slaved over will be a nightmare. I’ve been called dramatic for looking at a room full of leaders and saying, “while I’m doing [insert comms thing], I need you to take that time to mentally prepare for [really bad outcome]. This is what [really bad outcome] looks like. I want [really bad outcome] to be your expectation.” Does the [really bad outcome] always happen? No. But pleasant surprises are much better than confronting unexpected monsters. You can’t make crisis comms strategies in a bubble, put it on a shelf, and hope it works when things get ugly. Oh - and as I always say when prepping strategy and people - “what’s the worst case scenario we need to realistically plan for? Okay, now worse. No, worse. We’ll start there.”

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20 years ago, a landmark study on the state of public relations in Québec marked a turning point as it unveiled a detailed portrait of a practice that was rapidly entering the era of modernity. Providing a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of public relations over the previous 10 years, this pivotal report painted a vivid picture of an industry on the cusp of modernization. It was 2004, and PR was in full metamorphosis. Although not yet the age of social media nor of smartphones, new information technologies were changing how PR worked, as we moved from the 20th century to an era of ease... In fact, we had just said goodbye to fax machines and word processors still so popular in the 1990s. Worth noting, many elements can reflect broader Canadian trends, as Québec's trajectory often also illustrates practices observed across Canada. And at the dawn of the new millennium, many shifts were palpable in Québec, and ethics had become a central value. A world of information to explore for educators, researchers, students, and of course, PR professionals. To recall key changes and better envision the future, firmly anchored in concrete foundations, just click here. ►► https://lnkd.in/eRQgYc-b ... This research benefited from the support and participation of all the Québec associations − Société québécoise des professionnel(le)s en relations publiques (SQPRP), IABC QC, Association des communicateurs municipaux du Québec, Alliance des cabinets de relations publiques du Québec, Forum des responsables de communication du gouvernement du Québec − major allies for professionals who were able to better define their priorities.   Building this first major reference on the practice of PR in Québec with Danielle Maisonneuve, then founding holder of the newly created Chair in public relations (2001) and our late colleague, André A. Lafrance, was a true privilege. Such wonderful memories. Our thanks once again to UQAM | Université du Québec à Montréal for its support throughout this long process. To all our colleagues from the professional and academic communities for the active links nurtured over the years. And to all those who contribute to keeping this vitality alive today. #publicrelations #communications

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What did our Mid-Year Conference Manager Survey say about elections, AI and conference activity? 🎭 Avoiding the drama –13% of respondents said that they were avoiding sessions that focused on the U.S. Presidential election, but a quarter of all respondents said that they were moving the location of their flagship event to avoid the election. 🛫 Moving around & Hopping the pond – 43% of respondents said that they were changing the dates and location of their flagship events this year. Several added new geographic markets. 🦾 AI case studies wanted – 69% of conference managers responded that, so far in 2024, demand for AI content is greater than last year. BUT… there is a preference for AI case studies instead of sessions discussing the general impact of AI. Read more here: https://bit.ly/45HHOSn #execvisibility #speaking #conferences

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If you're not harnessing the strategic power of your comms person or team, you're missing out on incredible opportunities to elevate your organization. When mentoring other professionals, I hear very similar sentiments, and many leave this profession or their organization because their organizations treat their work as transactional. Anybody can make a flyer, powerpoint or other simple media--your comms person/team can let you know if it's the most effective way to deliver your message, and whether it fits into the larger strategy. And if it doesn't, they'll let you know what will. Listen to them. Heed their advice. Respect their professional expertise.

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As PR professionals, we need to be more aware of what is happening in terms of news outlets. See the latest on BNN Breaking. Not only are the outlets using AI but PR professionals are as well. AI-generated content could get you and your client blacklisted from publications. Most run AI checkers, so if you use AI to generate content, it is best to run it through a checker to ensure your content is "100% human". #aicontent #pr #content #bylinedarticles #writing

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A really interesting read from CBC News about the safety and wellbeing of journalists covering disasters - especially ones that are unpredictable. While there is certainly credibility in being on site - and the ability to see things not captured on camera and speak with people in real time - with technology there are ways of covering disasters like wildfires and hurricanes that come with less risk. Would you feel differently if the video footage was from a drone with voiceovers/commentary coming from a studio, presumably from an expert or local reporter? How can comms professionals help journalists to safely tell stories? #journalism #pr #media #mediarelations https://lnkd.in/gZXqS-Q2?

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