I waited until one minute after midnight to post this blog and to shout: "Happy Social Media Day, Wednesday, June 30!"
It's the first global Social Media Day. Followed only by New York City, a gathering in Orange County, Calif. is expected to be the second largest in the U.S. and the fifth largest in the world.
The unique effort by the social media and blogging website Mashable has helped organize approximately 450 "meet-ups" or "tweet-ups" in 74 countries to celebrate the new social world we all now live and work in.
Approximately 300 people are expected to converge upon the Orange County Register's headquarters along with some of Southern California's foremost social media experts who are speaking at 625 N. Grand Ave. in Santa Ana, Calif. from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. (Pacific time)
Speakers and participants include Rochelle Veturis, Jonathan Lansner, Kevin Sablan, Kristin Slocum (who appear in this iReport) as well as Nancy Luna, Dustin Luther, Robert Watson, Morgan Brown, Bryan Elliott, Jim Marks and others. See this link for the full schedule of the afternoon's activities.
And check out this audioBoo interview of some of the participants sharing a preview of the special opportunity to cultivate new tools and friendships as well as enjoy some great grub.
Thanks to Nancy Luna of the wildly popular Fast Food Maven blog, Twitter- fueled mobile trucks are serving food in the front lot for the first-of-its-kind gathering of social geeks -- Taco Dawg, Piaggio On Wheels, Calbi, Oh For Sweets Sake and Tropical Shave Ice.
Participants are using the hashtag of #SMdayOC to keep track of the live tweets for the social media event.
Happy Social Media Day -- June 30! But we have a feeling that every day is social media day because these high-tech tools are now integrated into our daily personal and work lives.
I'm presenting on national Social Media Day Wednesday, June 30. Hundreds of social media newbies to veterans will converge upon the Orange County Register to learn new tips or further refine their new media tools.
I'm using a cool new tool to display my 10-minute tips on using social media in crisis communications and issues management to hopefully avoid a decade's worth of disaster.
And throughout my nearly 20-year career in public relations and communications, I've submitted case studies on projects that not performed exceedingly well in the business world, but also had to meet the highest levels of documented success of the four cornerstones of effective PR -- research, planning, implementation and evaluation.
Watch an interview with John Wayne Airport Spokeswoman Jenny Wedge on the significance of the awards program.
And you can hear an audioBoo interview with PR university students attending the prestigious event for the first time.
This year was no exception as we prepared entries for the annual Protos Awards for the Orange County Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. But it was a bit different this year. As soon I stepped into the Surf and Sand Resort Hotel in Laguna Beach Friday evening, I knew it was unique.
The regular competitive edge was replaced with friendly smiles and a celebratory note. We were gathered to honor the achievements of our industry. And it was especially meaningful in the current economic recession where harsh financial realities forced all of us to do more with less.
The event emcee, Ric Romero, consumer reporter for ABC7 news, joined veterans in the profession to pay tribute to award winners in numerous categories and to recognize area university PR students -- Alicia Guiterrez of Cal State Long Beach, Jennifer Nguyen of Cal State Fullerton and Amy Chase of Chapman University -- as Shining Star Scholarship recipients.
As you can see from the above music slideshow, we were among the many honored for our behind-the-scenes dedicated work on behalf of our organization or clients. We took home awards for every one of the entries we submitted, including the only two prizes for social media programs and one for our interactive transportation-focused e-newsletter.
But the highlight of the night was sitting next to and chatting with a PR legend -- John van Barneveld of Public Communications Worldwide -- who won both the Distinguished Service Award for Individual and for Organization. See the video interview taken with my new iPhone 4 with the father-daughter Barneveld team and the TV journalist.
As the night progressed, I found myself cheering for every winner. It wasn't about who collected the most hardware, but a celebration of how much we have progressed as an industry.
The event was special because of the passion of a handful of PR professionals. Please join me in thanking Protos Chairwoman Ricca Silverio of Bock Communicatons and her hard-working team of:
EVENT COORDINATION, DÉCOR & ENTERTAINMENT Nicole Hoperich, NDH Creative Mairim Martinez, Integrated MarketingWorks Julia Meza, Integrated MarketingWorks
AWARDS PROGRAM Jocelle Untalan
PROMOTIONS & PUBLICITY Laura Figge, Pacific Communications Rachel Smith, GolinHarris
JUDGING & ENTRIES Teri Sawyer, T&Co. John Tomaszewski, Marketwire
SPONSORSHIP Kate Mossbarger, Global Results Communications Julie Murphy, Kia
TROPHIES Barbara Ruelas, Global Results Communications
COMMITTEE MEMBERS-AT-LARGE Jill Cagle, Building Industry Association Courtney Day Anne McNulty Molly Smith, PRSSA, Cal State Fullerton
******************** Did you attend the event or experience it via live tweets? What did you think about the event and the recipients of the Protos honors?
I also welcome your thoughts about the future of the PR industry in our fast-changing world of real-time information.
Top public relations professionals are gathering for the 35th Protos awards competition for the Orange County Chapter of the American Public Relations Society of America.
It's overcast in beautiful Laguna Beach, Calif. at the luxe Surf and Sand Hotel Resort overlooking the pristine Pacific Ocean.
But Orange County's brightest PR pros are here to celebrate the highest achievement in the industry -- the coveted Protos award. Meaning first in Greek, several hundred people hope to bring home the shinning trophy that symbolizes the best in public relations programs and tactics.
Follow the hashtag on Twitter of #Protos or #OCprsa for real-time updates on the action and who is winning what. We'll have photos, audio and video of the excitement building in Orange County.
Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you my end-of-the-day expression is: "Oh, what a day!"
For me, it's an exclamation of how productive, dynamic, challenging or interesting the day was.
Today was more than that. It was just plain bizarre. First, I woke up at 2 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep -- partly because I'm always afraid I'll sleep through my alarm clock before important events.
We had a "Dump the Pump" kickoff event in Fullerton targeting both morning commuters and the morning news show.
KTLA's Eric Spillman interviewed me. Ever the plucky spokesman for the Orange County Transportation Authority, I espoused the benefits of trying transit: let someone else do the driving, enjoy a stress-free commute and get free flame-grilled chicken.
Yes, Simon Oh, our new intern from Cal State Fullerton, donned a six-piece chicken outfit as the camera zoomed in as he passed out El Pollo Loco gift certificates to happy commuters.
He got a bit claustrophobic (code for embarrassed). So as his mentor -- of course -- I took over as the chicken mascot. By the way, the chicken has no name. What mascot is nameless? And after putting on the furry beast for a mere O.C. minute, I now know why no El Pollo Loco employee volunteered for the early-morning gig.
Of course, I'd do close to anything for a good visual -- including the chicken dance complete with props.
It was only 8:30 a.m. and I was already running late for the next assignment. I came back just in time for the OCTA board of directors meeting where the capacity-only audience applauded because our CEO won the honor as one of the top 10 public works officials in the nation, and the board approved a $1.2- billion budget.
Our next big event of the day was adjacent to a freeway ramp for the much-anticipated groundbreaking of a $328-million West County Connectors that will build carpool connectors and construct other improvements to the I-405, I-605 and SR-22. It's one of Southern California's most-travelled areas with approximately 300,000 vehicles each day.
After an interview with KCAL news, I was ready to make last-minute adjustments for what had been a well-executed event thanks to the superbly organized Christina Byrne, OCTA's community relations officer, and our team of PR superstars.
Nearly everything about the program was flawless. And instead of a cliche "shovel-in-the-dirt" photo-op, we planned for officials hold up oversized puzzle pieces and put them together. Get it? Get connected!
See below for a music slideshow of the event with photos courtesy of Megan Enloe, an extraordinary photographer and engaged citizen.
Then as we were taking our last photos, we heard a loud bang. "Oh, no! Did rubbernecker get distracted and slammed into three vehicles in front of it?" I asked myself.
The crash crunched cars like soda cans with smashed windshields. We were all frozen. Was anyone seriously hurt or killed?
Then suddenly two women from the car that rammed into the other vehicles leaped out and ran toward our event site. A half-dozen police officers chased them on foot. Then, I saw police vehicles and helicopters. Just great -- another SoCal high-speed chase but on our freeway connector event.
Without skipping a beat, Art Brown, our board director and mayor of Buena Park, ran after the suspects. Thanks to the retired law enforcement officer's fast feet, Brown helped nab one of the runaways. Police apprehended the other minutes later. It turned out to be a mother-daughter team evading the police.
Enloe, a Tustin resident and social media practitioner, ran with Brown and captured some incredible photos of the incident. Hear my audioBoo interview with Enloe and find out who she called a hero.
She is my hero for her care and concern to enhance the community. She's been there countless times volunteering her time to capture photo memories at many community events.
After being up for more than 19 hours, I was ready to finally hit the sack and just sleep my crazy day away.
Just as I was preparing to sleep, a magnitude 5.7 earthquake rattled Southern California at 9:26 p.m. -- of course.
The temblor was the largest aftershock in a series that have hit the California-Mexican border area since a magnitude 7.2 shook Easter Sunday.
I wanted to blog about my interesting day, but was so exhausted that I finally fell into a deep sleep -- only to be awaken by my alarm clock and the dawn of another day full of possibilities.
What was your most interesting day? And what would you name the El Pollo Loco chicken mascot? I would love to hear about them.
I made a music slideshow above tonight to pay homage to my birthplace and as a dedication to my grandmother who died during my return to Vietnam several years ago. Why would I chose a scratchy French song?
A few years ago, I happened upon the song on the Internet. After the beautiful song was accidentally posted online, it immediately struck a worldwide chord among the Vietnamese community -- both inside and outside Vietnam. It's from an emerging singer of Vietnamese decent from Belgium named Quynh Anh.
The song -- "Bonjour Vietnam" was written by Marc Lavoine, a longtime French pop star and actor. The two later teamed up with a pop hit, "J'espère," that made Quynh Anh a household name ... at least in France, Vietnam and other places with large Vietnamese communities.
I had the chance to meet her last year at a concert in Orange County. I marveled at how someone who had never been to Vietnam could sing with such sentimental remiss. Perhaps it's because the longtime culinary and musical traditions had been steeped into her heart and soul as they had been for me.
After hearing that song again, I was feeling a bit homesick for my Mom's homemade noodle soup. It's not the ubiquitous Pho soup, a clear consume nuanced with beef stock and subtle spices and herbs considered the national dish of Vietnam.
Tonight, I'm forgetting Pho and turning my culinary attention to Bun Rieu Cua. It's made with ripe tomatoes that would put some Italian mothers to shame -- especially my Mom's version. It's full of delicious meatball-like morsels of crab and shrimp handcrafted by Mom.
I'm working up the courage and the appetite to try to make this wonderful dish. Luckily, I found these easy-to-follow instructions.
I'll give it a go. But I know it'll only be a temporary fix until I come back home for the real deal.
What's your favorite dish that reminds you of home? I'd love to hear about your comfort foods and read any recipes you'd like to share.
