Here’s an excerpt from what CBS legal analyst Andrew Cohen had to say:

“Show me a PR person who is ‘accurate’ and ‘truthful,’ and I’ll show you a PR person who is unemployed.”

The irony of an attorney making a blanket statement about another profession is in and of itself comical. That this attorney works for a news organization infamous for its own casual handling of “facts” and “truth” transforms the statement from merely ironic to absurd.

To illustrate how ludicrous it is for an attorney to cast blanket aspersions on all practitioners of another profession, I tried an experiment which you can do yourself at home. Google “all lawyers are” (be sure to use the quotes). Here are a few choice examples from among the some 57,000 results returned – and I only scanned through the first 30 results:

• …all lawyers are basically immoral
• …all lawyers are crooks
• …all lawyers are a- -holes
• …all lawyers are d- - - - -bags
• …all lawyers are evil
• …all lawyers are dishonest

I for one don’t agree with any of the characterizations above. For example, the corporate attorney for Mobility PR, Matt Lowe of O’Donnell and Clark, is one of the most honest, moral and ethical people I know. The last corporate counsel I worked with, Bruce Posey at iPass, raises ethical business practice to a new bar.

But here’s a news flash for CBS and Cohen, the vast majority of public relations “flacks” (as Mr. Cohen calls us) are likewise honest, moral and ethical. In our agency and at agencies large and small throughout the U.S., we counsel clients to tell the truth, urge transparency in online communications and to address problems head-on, “warts and all.” Show of hands across the PR profession of those of us who had such a conversation on these subjects with their clients in the last week? I was in two myself.

Imagine the fall-out from a situation where a company knowingly lied about a product or service and then was caught doing so. First, sue-happy ambulance chasers would no doubt take legal action. The company’s public perception would be substantially damaged, perhaps irrevocably. The hard-earned relationships forged with those in the media would be severed and the PR flack who suggested that strategy would probably be fired. Mr. Cohen, the PR persons who are “inaccurate” and “untruthful” are the ones who are unemployed.

Mr. Cohen, I don’t know you, but when I review the above list of adjectives I found for attorneys, I’m reasonably sure you aren’t immoral, a crook, evil nor dishonest. But I’m going to leave it at that.

We’ve been blogging quite a bit about Facebook and so we thought it would be appropriate to share this track from up and comer NSANE titled, you guessed it, “FACEBOOK.” The 17-year old artist is making it big on OurStage, a site for emerging musicians. OurStage has some pretty neat programs running for both emerging artists and the fans that support them which you can check out here: www.ourstage.com/about/news

WARNING: If you listen to this song all the way through more then once, you may have trouble getting it out of your head. You may find yourself humming, “I was on Facebook” at random times throughout the day. If this will get you in trouble at work, perhaps you should wait to listen to this song until you are home tonight. Seriously.

Check this out:

My favorite lines from the track:

“When I came across you, I knew instantly that you had to be my boo, and yeah it’s got to be real, I was on Facebook.” - - It really has to be real. I mean, he was on Facebook.

“This can’t be Facebook love, this gotta be true. I changed my status yesterday to say I’m in love with my boo.” - - He’s right, it can’t be ‘Facebook love”. Let’s face the facts. He changed his status for her. That is true commitment.

“I wanna get my hands off these keys and start feeling you” - - Nice, at least this shows that the youth of today do have the desire to transfer their experiences from a virtual world to the real world. There is hope.

In all seriousness though, this is a fun song and NSANE has done something as an artist that we are constantly counseling our clients to do in their own communications with their audiences - - BE RELEVANT!

NSANE took something (Facebook) that is extremely relevant to his audience and used it to communicate something he was passionate about (his Boo).

From blog posts to press releases one of the keys to good SEO and online pickup is the content’s relevance. In order to gain the interest of your audience, your message must be relevant in relation to something top of mind for that audience (an issue, a trend, or a question). When the major elements of your message have relevance to your audience they are more likely to pay attention to the rest of your message and absorb the details. And if you are consistently delivering relevant messages to them, they become more and more likely to align you (in their hearts and minds) with whatever the topic is that you are communicating about.

So will NSANE become the defacto rapper about Facebook? No. But because he was able to smartly leverage the hot topic of Facebook, he just might make a name for himself as a smooth R&B artist writing songs about the realities of modern day love - - which today, could very well start on Facebook.

In a world dominated by text message voting, is it any surprise that Americans are considering it for the presidential nomination? Samsung posed the following question recently:

Are you willing to vote for the next president by way of SMS text message?

An astonishing 61 percent of Americans 18 and older said yes.

And as the age decreases, the number increases to a whopping 80 percent. But not to worry, these kids can’t vote…yet. Isn’t it interesting to think that in the coming years, when this percentage of text messagers is old enough to vote, they may actually have this option!

The idea of text message voting is alluring to Americans, especially those who don’t want to drive to the polls or spend $0.42 (and rising!) on a stamp. In a country that prides itself on laziness (come on now…we did invent the TV tray), it’s absolutely no surprise that we are opting for a text message vote.

I must admit, I think it’s a pretty fantastic idea. But that’s exactly what it is right now. A fantastic idea, derived from the fantasy that someday we will all be able to text our presidential vote while watching the latest episode of The Office.

ABC News aired a story recently on Americans cramming 31 hours into a 24 hour day. The simple conclusion: Americans want to multi-task and are growing increasingly impatient. We want it all. Now.

Yes, the faults are countless. How would you verify the voter is who they claim to be? How can you tell the age of the voter? How can we ensure the voter is registered and even a US citizen? Isn’t there the chance that a system could crash, that votes could be spoofed, or the system hacked? These are all problems. In fact, I’m sure one could argue there are far more cons than pros for this imaginative idea. However, it’s still fun to think about. And can you envision the voter turnout?

So, I guess the question is: Would you vote for president via a text message?

And no, you can’t text us the answer - yet.

Have you stepped into some kind of Bizzaro World? Well, if you take a little closer look, you’ll see everyone has backpacks and every backpack has a red maple leaf. No, this isn’t Bizarro World, it’s Canada. And it’s important for Americans in public relations to understand that, at least in print media, your news stops at the border. Despite the American perception of Canada being a lot like the U.S., it is its own entirely distinct media market.

Before I get to the PR stuff, let me first offer a couple historical and political notes for background. Going back as far as the mid-1960s, the Canadian government has included in its policy for cultural protectionism – that is, a policy to keep Canada Canadian – regulations that made it difficult or at least expensive (tariffs) to bring foreign content into Canada. This policy helped the Canadian magazine market flourish while keeping many American publications out of Canada. Although this was good for Canadian publications, it’s debatable whether the policy was actually good across the board for the Canadian people.

For example, having just won the gold medal in the ‘96 Olympics for the 100 meter dash, Canadian runner Donovan Bailey was beaten out by U.S. runner Michael Johnson for the Associated Press’ “Athlete of the Year” title as he was shut out from balloting due to foreign news being stopped at the Canadian border.

Not too long after, lawsuits filed by U.S. media companies based on NAFTA and the WTO overturned much of Canada’s cultural protectionism policies with respect to publications. An influx of U.S. and other foreign publications, with advertising and content specific to the Canadian marketplace, were making their way to Canadian newsstands. Previously these “split run” publications – one run for the U.S. and a second run for Canada – had been taxed out of existence as part of Canada’s cultural protectionism. Today that’s no longer the case and you can find Time Magazine and Newsweek on the same newsstand as Macleans.

As the lawsuits loomed, there was panic from the Canadian Magazine Publishers Association (now known as Magazines Canada). In a 1997 article in Macleans, the association’s president, Catherine Keachie said, “What does Canada lose? Canadian writing and a Canadian point of view. Should the government choose not to defend this policy, there’s no question it will be a kind of death blow to the Canadian magazine industry.”

Well, despite the fact that U.S. publishers prevailed and the laws were changed, no death blow was dealt to either the magazine industry or Canadian culture. Canadian publications are still the favorite choice of Canadian readers.

Therefore it’s critical for U.S.-based PR practitioners to understand the differences in the media market. It’s not unimportant. Toronto (which is not the capitol) ranks right behind New York, Los Angeles and Chicago to be the fourth largest urban area in the English-speaking part of North America, and Calgary is North America’s fastest growing city. While Canadians love what’s home-grown, their proclivities are not so entirely different that they shun products from south of the border. Stated another way, Canadians love Lick’s and Harveys, but there are still lines inside McDonald’s Canada (where you’ll find poutine). That means that if you’re representing a U.S.-made product or service, you can find a market for it in Canada.

They key is to understand how to approach the Canadian media marketplace. Here are some tips:

Know Something About Canada
You probably don’t need to know that British colonies became the Dominion of Canada in 1867 or that Sir John MacDonald was the first Canadian prime minister. But you will be well served to know when Canada’s national holidays occur, that Canada uses the metric system, Canadians refer to their dollar as the Loonie (because the dollar coin has a loon on it), that the country is bilingual with English and French as official languages, and that its use of English is different from both the U.S. and the U.K. (Incorrect: my favorite theater is on the border with America; correct: my favourite theatre is on the American boundary. Microsoft Word has a Canadian dictionary built in to help you spell check).

Learn the Canadian Publications
A good place to start is the list of Canadian publications to which Businesswire, PR Newswire and Marketwire send press releases. You can find Canadian media contacts in Vocus and other media directory services as well.

Find the Canadian Angle
Canadian editors are more than willing to write about American stuff, but – no surprise – they need to make it relevant to their readers. If you can include some Canadiana in your pitch, you’ll be off to a good start. Do you have any Canadian customers? Are any spokespeople from Canada? Does the company have a physical Canadian presence? Try to make your pitch to Canadian press as Canadian as possible. Without a Canadian angle, your news could be a hard sell.

Look at a Map
Canada is North America’s largest land mass, but that’s not why you should look at a map. It’s because news that is interesting in Western Canada may not be of interest in Eastern Canada. Just as a story that’s interesting to New Yorkers may not have the same caché in Pocatello, a story that plays well in Montreal may not find an audience in Saskatoon (look at a map).

Perhaps the biggest key to working with Canadian reporters, editors and bloggers is not to take for granted that news important in the U.S. will likewise be important in Canada, just as news from outside the U.S. may not be important here. By spending a little time understanding the market, the media and the culture of Canada, your PR efforts north of the border can pay big dividends. And if you’re lucky enough to go on a press tour in Canada (likely Toronto and Montreal), don’t pass up having poutine. Good luck with your PR in Canada.

Her wiki lists some big names in PR she says have continually sent pitches to her personal email address to which she specifically requested that no pitches be sent.

Like the list made last year by Wired editor, Chris Anderson, Trapani has added repeat offenders to an email blacklist that gets delivered directly to a spam folder.

And once again, the entire PR industry is being painted with broad brush strokes and labeled as “spammers” intent on making editors and bloggers lives miserable.

Happily, MoPR is absent from both Trapani’s and Anderson’s blacklists. We like to think it’s because we have tremendous regard for bloggers, whether they are journalists by profession, corporate CEOs or anyone else with enthusiasm and a brain who takes the time to write something meaningful.

We’re bloggers ourselves and have also been pitched by PR practitioners, and as such we’ve learned that working with bloggers takes some extra care and feeding that is a bit different than more traditional, news-oriented media.

As more businesses and PR agencies recognize the importance of social media and blogs in reaching their audiences, we are likewise noticing online anti-PR chatter getting louder while more blacklists keep cropping up. While it may be true that many PR pros need to sharpen their skills when dealing with bloggers, we also want to urge some practical thinking for these frustrated bloggers.

Believe it or not, bloggers, PR people play a vital role in the information value chain. Virtually everything being reported today in mainstream press, trade press or blogs – particularly in the tech world – was handled first by someone in public relations. Even though they may be biased toward the clients they represent, responsible PR people are deeply entrenched in the markets, technology and trends affecting their clients. Once you decide to work with the people in PR, you’ll quickly understand how valuable a resource they can be for you. And no, I’m not kidding.

Most bloggers are not Chris Anderson, who has assistants, a staff of researchers and another staff of writers who can provide him the information he needs, when he needs it, so he can write on the topic he wants to cover.

Most bloggers we work with are individuals (or small teams) who do everything on their own and are passionate about what they write. It’s simply not possible for the individual blogger to know everything about a market, a trend, a technology or anything else. PR people are devoted to providing that information to people who will write about their clients.

If you need a market stat, an interview, an analyst reference, a customer, a picture, a copy of a white paper, who better to turn to than someone in PR? Good PR people will know that providing market and trend information on background, even when their clients aren’t mentioned, is also good practice.

Many bloggers are experts in the subject they cover. Likewise, PR people need to be experts in the subjects they represent. And, chances are if you have been pitched by MoPR, then we’re reading your blog. Not just to ensure you’re a good fit, but to learn from it for our own education. It’s a two-way street.

On that note, we’d like to offer some tips to bloggers on getting the most from their interactions with people in PR. Here are some ideas to get a conversation going:

Include an “about us” page.
A quick paragraph describing what your blog’s mission is and what your content is about can help you in preventing needless pitches that waste your time. Experienced PR pros won’t take the “about us” at as a standalone descriptor of the blog, but will also read posts before pitching to ensure that whatever information we have to share is in fact a good fit. But not all pitches come from experienced PR pros, so the more information you can provide in your “about us” page, the better your interaction will be from the outset.

Let us know how you want to be pitched.
Hate press releases? We won’t send them. Would you rather be contacted with a 140-character Tweet? We can do that. Prefer getting news through an online submission form? Tell us. We don’t want to send you useless information any more then you want to receive it. Coming right out and sharing your preferences with us makes your job easier as well as ours.

Make it easy to contact you and list your name.
When we want to send a note to a blogger we always prefer to address them by their real name verses, “admin” or “editor.” But unless we are already a close friend of yours, we probably aren’t going to know your name unless you tell us. We want to build a mutually beneficial relationship with you, and sending that first introduction email to admin@ or editor@ isn’t a good start for either of us.

Fellow Oregonian, Marshall Kirkpatrick on ReadWriteWeb had a great post last week examining the “Five Tools Everyone Working Online Should Have.” His No. 5 is “A Blog With Your Name and Contact Info.” In support of his opinion that everyone working online should have a blog of some sort attached to their name along with contact info, Kirkpatrick writes:

I put my phone number on my personal blog, and I write for the 11th most linked to blog on the web. I get maybe three unwanted phone calls a week as a result. That means that just about anyone else should be able to put their phone number and IM on their blogs as well. It’s so convenient to be able to get a hold of people in a hurry. When an opportunity arises, do you want to be easy to reach or do you want that opportunity to be taken by someone else who is? Undoubtedly this is a calculation that’s clearer for people less subject to harassment based on gender or race, but except in complicating circumstances your personal contact info should be available online if at all possible. Bad things are unlikely to happen.

We couldn’t agree more.

Want us to stop pitching you? Tell us. Go ahead. We can take it.
The last thing we want to do is waste our time and yours. Good PR practitioners are tenacious, and silence merely invites us to try and contact you again. A simple “no thanks” works wonders. But you know what works even better? Dialog, which leads to the next idea:

Start a dialog with PR people.
Even when you aren’t interested in what a PR agency is offering at the moment, it can often net you some other content that will be of interest. If we send you something that isn’t your cup of tea, consider taking a moment to let us know what would make it relevant to you. Sound far too time consuming? Well, we ask that you consider that PR agencies represent many clients and thus have new news on a pretty regular basis. If you take just a few moments to let us know why something isn’t a fit for you, or to tell us what you would be interested in hearing about or story ideas that are top of mind, we can rally to support your requests. Remember, we want to help you. From our personal experience blogging we’ve had a lot of success redirecting off-target pitches to get information we did find of interest.

Put all this information in one post or create a specific page for it. Many print publications have specific pages with instructions on how to send press materials. Once we read a blog to see if there’s a fit, it would work wonders if all this information, even a checklist, was in place to follow. Again, this might take some upfront time on your part, but will end-up protecting you from the “spam” and misguided pitches, and hopefully result in more on-target, relevant info, delivered according to your personal preferences.

You will always get pitched.
If you are getting pitched, it’s because your blog is easily found and has content that’s worth reading. Take it for the complement it is. Unfortunately, you will continue to get pitches not related to your core audience and topic. The better agencies and the PR people who understand your blog and your interests will rise to the top. Build relationships with them and they will offer value for a long time to come.

In her latest update on the prspammer wiki, Gina Trapani says:

I’m very happy to see this conversation happening. Thanks to everyone who has written about this issue. I look forward to the conversation effecting change.

So do we, Gina.

No one pays attention to any company’s claim that they are the market leader anyway. And let’s face it, in most cases, if you’re a company selling to enterprises worldwide and you don’t have more than 10,000 customers, you aren’t the market leader.

Leaders are typically recognized as such without having to explain their position within their respective markets. Does anyone doubt that IBM, Ford or Proctor & Gamble are market leaders even if they don’t explicitly say so in their press releases?

Increasingly, more and more companies clamor for leadership positions in markets that are increasingly defined as smaller segments of bigger markets in which there is no hope for domination. In this context, is success really predicated on leadership? My opinion is that relevance and value are more important business qualities to possess. A company’s product or service must be desirable for the company to be both relevant and valuable. The best way to tell this story is through the use of customer case studies.

What better asset does a B2B company possess other than the public opinions of its happy customers? Yet rare, it would seem, is the company that understands the business mechanics involved in customer participation in its marketing efforts.

One of the largest components in any company budget is marketing. Marketing money is spent making a company relevant and valuable to prospective customers. It’s a cost center, not a profit center. Therefore dollars spent on marketing a product or service are part of the cost in providing that product or service to customers.

Time and again it is shown that using existing customers in marketing activities builds interest in and confidence for a company’s product or service among prospective customers. To achieve the same impact without the use of a company’s customers is more challenging, more time consuming and more expensive. Put another way, using customers in marketing increases the margin on products and services. Not using customers decreases the margin.

A concept that seems more commonly held, however, is that asking a customer to participate in marketing programs is an imposition or a favor for which many in sales are reluctant to ask. Businesses that win the perception race are the ones that make good use of their customers. If your company is to win the perception race, achieve relevance and value in the market, and do so without decreasing your margins, then here is some advice that I’ve seen work:

• Ensure marketing programs are covered in the contract agreement with customers. Specifically state that the customer consents to:
  • the use of its name in public lists of customers,
  • the use of its logo in groups of customers on your website and PowerPoint presentations,
  • the announcement of the customer relationship by press release,
  • the ability to use the customer as a success story at a later date, and
  • the customer serving as a reference to other customers, press and industry analysts.
• Concessions to the above typically are footnotes that indicate listing a company as a customer does not mean the company necessarily endorses the product and that the customer has the right to review and approve drafts. Read the note below about “approvals will not be unreasonably withheld” contract language.
• Give the customer incentives to leave the marketing language in the contract. A key incentive is price. When pricing is set, consideration is given to the cost. If the default position when determining price is that a customer participates in marketing, then should that customer decline to participate it adds to the cost to the product, and therefore the price should go up. Most companies won’t tell a customer that it’s raising the negotiated price, so try offering a discount to customers that leave the marketing language intact.
• Change the corporate understanding of how to use customers in marketing. Salespeople should understand it’s their obligation to find customers that will participate in marketing. Some companies give their salespeople extra commission or bonuses for getting customers to agree to press releases or case studies. While that works, a more fundamental understanding of why customers should be used in marketing should be taught. After all, it’s in the customers’ best interest that their vendor is successful. Asking for a press release isn’t asking for a favor, it’s conducting business.
• Make sure that customers who participate in your marketing programs are acknowledged and rewarded. In fact, there are awards for which vendors can nominate their customers and make them look like heroes to their colleagues and managers (and their future colleagues and managers; what better way to enhance a resume than showing off an industry award).

Now, the note about contract language: There is a clause often inserted into contracts that innocuously states “approvals will not be unreasonably withheld.” This clause is a pendulum that swings both ways. It is designed to protect companies that make agreements but where portions of that agreement may be outside company policy. A company may have legitimate reasons to refuse allowing its name to be used in conjunction with the services of a particular vendor. Perhaps stating the relationship gives the customer’s competition information that will allow it to compete better, for instance. To avoid complications for situations like these, companies have taken the step to create a blanket prohibition for participating with vendors’ marketing efforts. In such a situation, the company can fully agree to a marketing section in a contract yet still avoid complying with its various conditions. In such a case, the withholding of an approval is not unreasonable. However (PR practitioners take note), if that same customer allows one vendor to issue a press release, its withholding of an approval for another vendor’s release may then be considered “unreasonable.”

The bottom line on using customers in your marketing is the actual bottom line, particularly when one adds up the costs associated with creating effective marketing. No one can tell a company’s story more believably than happy customers. Every B2B marketing team needs to make customer involvement a top priority.

As a former IT magazine editor and journalist [before I found my true passion in PR] I was always amazed at how vague and convoluted some press releases could be that were sent to me.

Today, there are still many cases of completely irrelevant pitches being foisted upon editors, writers and bloggers.

Here’s a good example from my own personal experience.

In my spare time I write a blog about local Portland, Ore., history. Nothing too extravagant, mostly a scan of a kitschy postcard and then some brief commentary about said scan. It’s fun. I enjoy it. And I get to learn about my adopted city.

Recently, a PR firm pitched me that had no clue what the content of my blog covered. They didn’t even know my name. It was horribly written. And the pitch contained no more than six different fonts and typefaces [Times! Verdana! Arial! Italicized! Bold and Underlined!].

To me, this meant one of two things:

1. The sender was psychotic.
2. The sender was lazy, did one heck of a lousy cut-and-paste job and had no clue about what the message was and who should be getting the message.

I’d say the second was the case, but that’s just a guess.

This leads me to the point of the post’s title.

Just because there are newer technologies such as blogging, Social Media Releases (SMRs), and social networking tools that let us communicate easier, if the original message is convoluted, inaccurate, or just not a fit for the intended audience, it won’t matter how it’s delivered.

Whether you’re a PR professional working for a client, someone writing an email or someone writing a proposal, you need to keep your message simple, informative and relevant.

It’s definitely my own personal mantra when working for my clients at MoPR. Be genuine to their message…and let it work for you.

I just had the privilege of attending my first CTIA Wireless tradeshow in Las Vegas (that’s me with Jonny Brown of Kentrox). As a newbie to this trade show, I was blown away by the sheer volume of people and countless new products. While I was there supporting one of the six MoPR clients that attended the show, the team at MoPR made sure I got to walk the floor with them, and I learned a lot. Acronyms are now better understood, technologies were brought to life and I have a deeper understanding of how all the different elements of mobility work together in the large ecosystem on display at CTIA. From a professional PR perspective, one of the most important things I learned might actually be a MoPR trade secret, but I feel compelled to write about it anyway: ShowStoppers.

ShowStoppers is a press-only event where reporters, editors, bloggers and industry analysts mingle with 50 or so companies which exhibit their newest technologies and services. At CTIA, the Showstoppers exhibitors represent the future of business, consumer, lifestyle and digital technologies in the mobile space. Exhibiting companies include the most innovative new startups that have selected CTIA as their launch pad which showcase their wares right alongside major industry players.

Steve and Dave Leon (that’s right-they’re brothers!) put on an impressive event. But in truth-it felt more like a party. Hosted this year at the Wynn Hotel, ShowStoppers, with its endless supply of fancy finger-food and generous open bar, was the place to be in Vegas that Monday night.

Vendors working the show were in for a busy night dominated by efforts to grab the attention of the reporters and analysts making their way around the room and then talking-up the products and services they were there representing.

I was aware of ShowStoppers before going to CTIA. MoPR has used the event with great success in the past. When our client Talkster debuted its Free World Dialing service at Fall CTIA last year, they earned a tremendous amount of coverage. But now I know one of the MoPR secrets. Press events like ShowStoppers (there are also the Pepcom press events which I hope to attend) give companies a great opportunity to take advantage of the hundreds of registered press and analysts that come to a big trade show like CTIA. Instead of conducting 30 minute briefings held one at a time on the show floor, the news can be given to reporters in a more rapid fire environment, literally seeing dozens of reporters every hour of the three hour event.

That’s not to say that doing ShowStoppers is easy. There is a ton of prep work that we conducted on behalf of our client well in advance of the event. ShowStoppers sent us periodic updates of their attending press list so that we could give heads-up pitches to relevant media and hone our materials appropriately. Preparing for ShowStoppers was actually quite intense… but some activities must remain trade secrets!

Beyond the dozens of print media and bloggers that we chatted with at the event, our client Kentrox - who was there to launch its Optima Cell Site Solutions - was also interviewed by Dave Graveline for his
"Into Tomorrow with Dave Graveline" radio show and did an on camera interview with BNETV.

We also had the pleasure of being exhibitor neighbors with KWINGO. These folks are an online resource providing frequently needed workplace phrases in a second language. I think it’s safe to say that in our diverse world, especially the mobility space, we have all had moments where we definitely needed a Kwingo! Or as they say, Quick Lingo.

The event was practically perfect. If there was one moment of panic, it came after a consutruction worker bisected Sprint’s fiber optic cable cutting off Internet to the entire Wynn Hotel (among others) just hours before the event was to begin. I am told that a backhoe slicing fiber optic cable is a cliche, and I’m glad that my first CTIA experience included it. It could have been a complete disaster (so many of the companies exhibiting had demos that relied on Internet service), but the ShowStoppers team pulled off an incredible last (miracle?) fix. Minutes before the press walked through the door, our computers were up and running and the connectivity problem was completely resolved. Impressive to say the least. And just in time for me to makemy first UTTER!

Hats off to the ShowStoppers crew for a fantastic event. A huge thanks to all of the media for attending the event and speaking with the vendors. And many thanks to all the exhibitors- I’m really enjoying all my clicky pens, stress balls, and new notepads! The entire team at Mobility PR looks forward to the next ShowStoppers event - coming soon to a trade show near you!

Our whole crew will be blogging about the new cool mobile tech companies that we see at the show and will have lots of info to share from Monday nights’ Showstoppers Press Event at the Wynn hotel where Melissa and Grace will be our on-the-ground reporters.

More than 40 companies will be showcasing their technology from Showstoppers and we look forward to reviewing our favorites and filling you in on all we see there.

Here are a just a few of the most interesting companies we expect to learn more about from Showstoppers Monday night:

Bamboo MediaCasting
Mobile media without the wait; automatically delivered, subscription-based, crystal-clear, rich-media programming that is stored in a mobile phone’s memory so it plays immediately — no downloading, no streaming, no buffering.

Caringo
Reimagines content storage. Not a 30-year-old file system. Simple. Hardware agnostic. Massively scalable. Information integrity.

Digby
Named a Top App of 2007 by FierceMobileContent, the Digby mobile commerce platform is the easiest and fastest way to let people buy from popular retailers like Barnes and Noble, Godiva, Best Buy and many more, right from their phones.

Gemalto
What happens in your SIM stays in your SIM, from mobile payment to the mobile Web; ask Gemalto how to stack the security deck in your favor.

iSkin
Innovative protective solutions for the iPod, PowerBook and other Apple products.

Kentrox Inc.
Eliminates the #1 reason people switch mobile providers.

Kingston Technology
Kingston’s family of mobile products grows by one member — Latin music sensation Ricky Martin.

Kwingo
Kwingo (rhymes with Bingo!) puts a smile on the face of folks who work in multi-language enterprises by providing them with fast, free, frequently-needed workplace phrases in any second language on any web-enabled handheld.

LiveWire Mobile
Fresh out of the gate comes LiveWire Mobile after its recent acquisition of Groove Mobile.

magicJack
$40 USB device that provides unlimited, land-line quality phone service from any destination in the world to the US and Canada for a year.

mSpot Inc.
mSpot applications help wireless carriers deliver innovative music services
- be it streaming radio, or Make-UR-Tones, a customizable ringtone service or Remix, turning your phone into an MP3-like player.

Plantronics
Offers the first look at the new Discovery(tm) 925 Bluetooth earpiece collection, a new signature line of designer headsets for men and women.

Sharpcast Inc.
Sync Different! Throw out your sync cables, feel free to turn your computer off when you leave the home or office and never again think about emailing a file to yourself so you can work on it later. Sharpcast does for your digital media what Blackberry did for corporate email - always with you, always backed up and always available on your phone, your PC and the web.

Utterz
The mobile multi-media social connection to any site, for anyone with a mobile phone or computer, announces the mobile site for utterz — M.utterz.com

Zeemote Inc.
Let the mobile games begin! For the first time, reporters can go head-to-head with multiplayer games on their mobile phones using the newly launched Zeemote JS1 controllers. Playing these games, they can experience a near-console experience, enhancing the interaction between gamers by providing a more realistic and engaging experience.

Stay tuned for reviews, observations, and updates from the show floor!

Chilson has more than a dozen years experience as a journalist and editor, most notably in the IT press, as well as work as Communications Director for Build It Green, a non-profit California organization. 

For MoPR, the senior account executive brings his technology and journalism skills to support MoPR clients.

Grace Saad, a recent magna cum laude graduate of Mississippi State University, recently moved across the country for a summer internship with Mount Hood National Forest in the Zigzag Ranger District.

Throughout college Saad gained PR experience through internships, extracurricular activities and part-time jobs.

Saad’s tradition of taking the lead continued as she acted as the PR director for McComas Hall Theatre, in addition to performing in almost every production she publicized.

When it comes to working for MoPR, Saad has quickly learned the ins and outs of mobile technology .

Tamara Parker also made a big move to join the MoPR team. Graduating from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, Parker moved to Portland in November and began her work with MoPR in early December.

Before joining MoPR, Parker was an executive assistant at Red McCombs Media in Austin, Tex., where she formed a promotional campaign for the company’s new Web site, Faithvine.com.

Her internships and previous employment make Parker an excellent addition to the MoPR team, and she is just as excited as we are to be working in the mobility and wireless space.