By Paul Ryan I was honored to be nominated and selected as an American delegate to the 2010 American-German Young Leaders Conference that brought together almost 50 promising American and German professionals from August 29 to September 2 in Munich and Berlin for a series of intense discussions on the...

by Julie Germany How do you know if a social media tactic worked? How do we define return on investment in the world of digital public affairs? These questions were addressed by a Social Media ROI panel at one of my favorite events each year – the Women Who Tech...

by Amanda Phraner Congratulations to all of the triathletes, especially my fellow DCIers, who participated in the Nations triathlon last Sunday. Each of us had our own adventure, challenges and triumphs during the triathlon.  Here are some of our stories. Aaron Gardner It was nice to see that hard work...

It’s burn out time inside the Beltway. For the rest of the country, September means back to school, and back to school means a fresh start. Autumn feels like the New Year. In politics, autumn means twenty-hour work days and no weekends, with the lingering, back-of-the-mind fear that in a...

6 Tools that Help Public Affairs Firms Make the Most out of YouTube Social media is like fried chicken – the tastiest part is usually not the chicken itself but the batter that surrounds it. Services like Twitter and Bit.ly make using social media such a convenient experience. YouTube is...

A week from Sunday Washington D.C. will host the Nation’s Triathlon.  I’ve been a runner for quite a few years, but just recently got into triathlons this year.  When I came on board with DCI a few months ago one of the first things I heard about was the Magic...

A 1980s hip-hop group called Whodini had a hit song called “Friends” The lyrics go like this – Friends how many of us have them?  Friends, the ones you can depend on? Many of my peers in the public affairs industry are probably tired of hearing this, BUT relationships and...

I took part in an interesting conversation last week at a Department of State event called Celebrating our Caribbean Heritage. The session focused on using technology to organize Diasporas. It was part of a larger Department of State focus on working with Caribbean Diasporas, people who left their homes in...

Ponder the saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Typical digital video formats play at 30 frames per second. A frame is essentially a picture. By the same formula, a minute of video is worth 1.8 million words. Video, this highly effective tool of communication, was for a long...