What Makes Austin Perfect for Tech? Austinites Speak Out! #LPPOH

This week is the week! Our LPP Austin Open House is this Thursday, and we're looking forward to seeing LPP alumni, LPP clients, high-tech professionals and Austin-area tech influencers gather under our brand new roof on West 6th Street. Not only is our space more decked out, but we're stepping up our game to make sure our guests get the chance to participate in some fun activities (one of which may or may not involve a bingo-scavenger hunt hybrid), pose...

What Makes Tech PR So Unique? The Pros Speak Out! #LPPOH

Our LPP Austin Open House is next week, but we have been celebrating the high-tech industry and tech PR all week long on the #LPPOH Twitter hashtag. But no one knows the field more than those of us who live and breathe tech 24/7 – at the office, on our mobiles while we wait for the train, on our tablets while we wait for dinner to pop out of the microwave oven, and some of us even in our sleep....

Austin’s Tech Scene: A Vintage–wearing Hipster with an Old Soul

There is no denying that startups and hipsters are “so hot” right now. And while Austin is certainly a trendy city, its roots are far deeper than they seem to go when it comes to tech. Austin is home to many of our clients including CleanFUEL USA, LANDesk, Lumension, National Instruments, RADVISION (Avaya), Scuderi Group and Skyonic. Moreover, the city’s tech core (pun intended) is comprised of chip makers like Freescale (client!), Samsung, AMD and 3M. You may have heard...

New Austin Office: Still At The Center Of It All

The Austin LPP team has spent the past 5 years in the Bank of America Building at 6th and Congress, which is arguably the center of downtown Austin. We were a few blocks from the Texas Capitol, the infamous East 6th street party zone, and the new entertainment districts that have cropped over the past 8 or so years. We took full advantage of the location and our clients enjoyed it, as well. Our new Austin digs and our front-door...

Social Media Content and User Conferences: A Match Made in Heaven

I've heard it said that content is the fuel that keeps the social media engine humming. That's a nice simplified view of the importance of content creation. To break it down some more, content is the refined gasoline (or generated electricity if you're into green vehicles). Like the companies that provide that end-product, you have to invest in content exploration projects to get the raw material to refine into your high-octane content. A great source of content raw material: Your...

Client - PR Agency Relationships: It's a Matter of Trust

It seems like everywhere you turn these days you read about another breach of trust between some commercial or goverment institution and the public. The recent revelations regarding the manipulation of the Libor rates by Barclays is just the latest in a disheartening series of cases, including Facebook's IPO mess; JP Morgan's bad derivative bets and subsequent disclosure that its traders have been hiding losses; Penn State's mishandling of the Sandusky child abuse case; and many more. It feels like...

Lakers or Celtics? -- The Importance of Setting Aside Competing Differences

When starting out at any new organization, it’s important to fit in. Not just feel like you’re meshing, but to fully and totally become a part of the team. It helps to do research on the organization -- whether you will interviewing with them, outreaching to them for new business, or pitching them on a story. When I was going through the interview process with Lois Paul and Partners, my research on my future employer and colleagues led me to...

Realizing A Job Well Done

There are plenty of joys that people find in their everyday lives. Love and friendship, for instance. Or marriage, watching your child graduate. And don’t forget candy bars. Who doesn’t like eating a candy bar? No one – candy bars are inherently joyous. But well near the top of that list of joys is the idea of a “job well done.” It’s one of the cornerstones of life, and essential when it comes to work. No one wants to do...

Social Media Managers Are From Venus -- And So Are Corporate Lawyers

You may be thinking that this post's headline doesn't make sense, especially if you have tried to push social media initiatives through legal approval. But it probably got you to read this, so bear with me and let me know at the end if you still don't agree with it. I'm just back from SXSW in Austin (and dried out as well). The conference is so large now that it's had to spread out over hotels a half mile or...

You Say Goodbye, but I Say Hello

Last Friday we said goodbye to one of our Boston employees in our kitchen over cupcakes arranged by her manager who was Skyped into the gathering, as she works remotely on Fridays. One of the people reminded this employee that she's now officially an LPP alum. The good will in the room as people shared fun moments with this individual and looked forward to connecting with her in the future as an alum and -- who knows -- maybe some...