Keeping it clean

Earlier this week, LP&P collaborated with Xconomy on a podcast with several participants in the 4th Annual Conference on Clean Energy. In the podcast, host Wade Roush asked the participants about the state of VC funding in the sector as well as their thoughts on what an Obama or McCain win means for clean tech. You can give it a listen here. UPDATE 11/3: Wade Roush published a post on Xconomy this morning with the podcast.

Things that Go Bump in the Day

My 15-year-old has been watching the marathon of "The Simpsons" TreeHouse of Horror episodes for days now. My spin instructor started his class this week with the theme from Halloween and ended it with Michael Jackson's Thriller. I saw a house the other night that was lit up with orange (and my husband swears pink) lights, as well as jack-o-lanterns and other Halloween decorations. People are certainly doing Halloween big these days. It's fun for the kids, including the big...

A chat with Groundswell author Josh Bernoff

There have been several books written about the impact that social media technologies can have on business, but to date the best I have read is Groundswell by Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li, formerly of Forrester and now with the Altimeter Group. I had a chance last week to sit down with Josh and ask a few timely questions about the Groundswell. We are posting this in two parts. Today's podcast talks about leveraging the Groundswell during tough...

Podcast: Shaky economy & IR pitfalls

We are happy to bring you the second part of the conversation between our in-house investor relations expert Christine Simeone and our partners Jane McCahon and Mary Conway of Conway Communications on how companies should think about IR during an economic crisis. In this part, Christine, Jane and Mary talk about what companies should avoid doing in such a challenging business climate. In the previous segment, they discussed why companies need to focus now more than ever on the second...

Refreshing bit of positive commentary

Like many, I've grown weary of the media pig-pile of the last month on the dour economic outlook. I've personally felt that the IT press and bloggers have been a bit more restrained than financial and mainstream media on the impact of the credit crisis and recessionary pressures. There's no doubt that companies across numerous industries are making cautionary moves to brace for a difficult market, but in some cases these moves seem to be extreme based upon how the...

The Amy Post of Twitterdom

What is proper Twitter etiquette these days? My colleague Ted Weismann blogged on an aspect to this a while back, specifically related to "following". After discussions with some of the other Twitter users at the agency, I'm adding some additional rules to the list. Think of this as “The Amy Post of Twitterdom.” If Twitter tells you someone is following you, you don’t have to follow them. Check their profile to see if their background and specialty would make them...

Why talk to the business press?

An interesting thing happened today in the early part of a session on upleveling the message that we conducted with a company that has a very complex story that is far away from the consumer, but who owns its market segment globally and is delivering great results in spite of the current economic concerns. The CEO challenged me and my training partner with the question: "Who is the audience for these messages? Because I really don't care if the U.S....

Blogging is not going away

On Monday, a blogger for Valleywag wrote a post on a Wired blog declaring that blogging is dead (or in Valleywag speak, "blogging is so 2004"). I enjoyed in particular reading the reaction to the post, and yesterday afternoon was asked for an opinion on it by one of our clients.I thought I'd share that response here. Of course, the article has generated voluminous commentary and reaction, all via blogging. The fact that he wrote this article in a blog...

PR/IR Podcast: It's all about "the R," part one

A couple of weeks ago I ran into two colleagues from Conway Communications at a NIRI event focused on communicating in an uncertain market. A portfolio manager and a veteran Investor Relations Officer offered us their perspectives -- the most notable of which was a comment that "the R" in IR is more important than ever right now. I was discussing this with Mary Conway and Jane McCahon right after the event and we thought it would be interesting to...

Agency Relevance in a Communications 2.0 World

I recently moderated a panel on global communications, which we hosted at the Zilker Botanical Garden in Austin, Texas. Here’s a link to some of the details. There were some good questions raised by an audience member: What is the relevancy of agencies in today’s world of communications? Has social media and the contraction of the traditional media landscape made agencies vulnerable? How necessary is an agency? Can all PR and communications be handled in-house? Clearly everything about public relations,...