Tuesday, May 20th • VIDEO (killed the radio star or, written word?)

We are very excited about our May panel and focus: VIDEO!

Please join us on Tuesday, May 20th, from 12:15 until 1:45pm for our Media Future Now May meeting.

We'll be meeting at Burson-Marsteller's office, located at 1110 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 1100. Thank you very much to our friends and colleagues at Burson-Marsteller for hosting us. You can reach the office on foot (go green!), cab or via the McPherson Square and Farragut North metro stops.

What is it about Video? It's certainly not a new technology, but it's become the "must have" content type. So, let's understand and talk about what some may say is a trend, others say is the future, some may say is simply another tool or presentation type and some of us may simply write video off as a trend that is experiencing a peak. Maybe information consumers are really just in love with the instantaneous experience of Video - nothing to read and synthesize...watch, listen, absorb and move on.

Our Speakers/Panel Members are:

• Neil Hare, President, Global Vision Communications, President, Founder, I Support This Message
• Dan Manatt, CEO & Executive Producer of PoliticsTV.com
• Chace Warmington, Co-Founder of emPivot

Ken Sands, Executive Editor for Innovation Congressional Quarterly will moderate.

We hope to see you soon - for those that are standing in puddles of rain, we'll be constructing a Media Future Now ark.

May Day! Media Future Now (05.01.08)

Happy Earth Day or, as some may say, welcome to the dawn of the Green Eon!

Please spend your lunch hour(s) with Media Future Now and join us on Thursday, May 1st, at USTelecom from 12:15 until 1:45pm.

We have an engaging and relevant program focused on INNOVATION in Advertising.

We are pleased to present and host:

Ernie Mosteller, Blattner Brunner, VP, Interactive Creative Director

Jeff Mascott, Adfero Group, Managing Director

David Haase, Virilion, Director of Editorial Services

Tim Hartman, GovernmentExecutive.com/NextGov.com, Director of Digital Publishing, will moderate


Our panel discussion will focus on the following topics:

* Media (Video, innovative media options that aren't widely used, emerging ideas, trends and technology)
* Metrics
* Planning for and executing PR strategies with the "new tools"
* Different ways of thinking and approaching strategy
* Success stories and learning experiences
* Creative, trend-setting collateral
* Ad Networks

As always, kindly RSVP to assist our planning and space demands. Please email us at andy@mirskylegal.com, or call (202) 339-0303. Please bring a bag lunch and we will provide refreshments and snacks.

Location Details:
USTelecom
607 14th Street, NW
Suite 400
14th and F Sts, NW (McPherson Square and Metro Center Metro stops)

Media Future Now ● 03.25.08 ● 12:15pm to 1:45pm

Location:

Qorvis Communications

1201 Connecticut Avenue, NW

Farragut North Metro (red line)

Connecticut Avenue at M Streets, NW

12:15pm to 1:45pm

Thank you in advance to Stan Collender, Michael Petruzzello and their colleagues at Qorvis for hosting.

This month, we continue our series on "Old and New", the transition of old media to digital media. We'll discuss a challenge that we all face: It is no longer a one-to-one mapping of "content to medium". How do we distribute our content, retain our brand and budget for multi-platform distribution?

Meet our Panel:

Larke Paul, of Threespot Media, an interactive solutions agency based here in Washington, will moderate our discussion.

Our speakers:
Leslie Bradshaw, New Media Strategies, Community Manager, Public Affairs

Mike Mills, Washington Business Journal, Editor

Jeff Pruzan, FinancialTimes.com, US Companies Editor, FT.com
Julie Rutherford, Washingtonpost.com, Marketing Director

Jason Siegel, Qorvis' Director of New Media, will kick off the meeting and introduce the discussion.

Our February Panel: Highlights and Sound Bites

We're very excited to be here at Google's DC office. Today's panelists bring us insight, experience, thoughts, ideas and success stories about operating in DC's "inside the beltway" environment. The highlights, themes and insight:

• Every information, education, issue-based and policy Campaign struggles with reaching DC's "influentials"; deals are no longer made (all of the time, at least) over cocktails and cigars at DC's finest restaurants*
  
  *we definitely recommend this route as a part of your strategy; however, do double-check the latest lobbying laws, b/c your mistake will be the daily news fix before your Blackberry will autodial your legal team
  
  
• There are two-types of "influentials":
• Those who research, write and present the information
• Those who will make a decision, influence policy and enact change

• We live in a world where people "pull" the information that they want b/c information is so accessible; it's no longer about the specific message that you may want your target audience to react to
  
  
• Data retention figures are changing - we don't need to retain as much information as we did ten years ago because information, data, facts/figures are incredibly accessible
  
  
• How people consume information is changing - we are no longer moving from "task" to "task"...we consume and parse, simultaneously - challenge: "messaging that sticks!"
  
  
• We may think that the top-tier influentials and decision makers are not influenced by information presented online and through their mobile devices - the truth is, people that occupy high-ranking and decision making positions are indeed influenced by information that is published online - it really comes down to how the information is presented, who or what organization is presenting the information and the contents of that data
  
  
• Social Networking does need to be a part of an "inside the beltway" strategy - people should be encouraged to contribute ideas, thoughts and comments - it's a "hook" and part of an important and democratic trend
  
  
• The technology exists for people's ideas to be heard (commenting on issues, community networking: both offline and online, e.g., Meet Up , video-based "town hall" meetings, etc) - decision makers should embrace this
  
  
• Some of the meeting participants felt that all content should be available for free; others disagreed with this statement. All-in-all, this is a huge issue for a lot of organizations, especially given the pressure to monetize content these days
  
  
• Some interesting observations about who is posting data and information online and who is access information online:
• What "others" are posting: journalists, pundits, news organizations, companies and corporations (posting about products, campaigns, initiatives, etc.)
• What "I'm" positing and others like me: the citizen journalist
• Will I be more influenced by what others are posting or, will thoughts and observations, from people like me, be more persuasive

• Concise and creative messaging is critical; there is a need for digestible sound bites, not a ton of supporting rhetoric - Topline data is critical
  
  
• Are we all becoming the Millennial Generation? We're trying to reach this generation through our to-the-point messages and even more abstract, creative platforms - a lot of messages are getting through, but it's a result of integrated ad campaigns that use both offline and online platforms.
  
  
• We must understand the audience that we're trying to reach - what messages are going to resonate the most, what platforms are the smartest and most effective for information delivery
  
  

02.26.08 • 12:15-1:45pm • Google's DC Office

Media Future Now's February 26th lunch: Old and New

We continue this month with our series on "Old and New", the transition of old media to digital media. Is there a way to successfully combine the "walled garden" and the "read-write web" in Washington?

PANEL:
Charlie Mitchell, Editor, Roll Call

Michael Petruzzello, Partner, Qorvis Communications

Jack Quinn, Founder and Co-Chairman, Quinn Gillespie and Associates

Alan Rosenblatt, Associate Director of Online Advocacy, Center for American Progress and Founder, Internet Advocacy Roundtable

Nancy Wright, Senior Vice President, TenCapitol

Troy Schneider, New Media Editor at the New America Foundation and former Editor & Associate Publisher of NationalJournal.com, will moderate.

[As always, please treat these discussions as off-the-record. ]

Publishers face these challenges - at this month's Media Future Now discussion, our panelists will try to tease out some answers:
(a) changed reader expectations
(b) challenges for advertising and competition from advertisers' direct outreach to decision makers
(c) challenges of subscription-only ("walled garden") versus open-site publications trying to reach and influence decision makers
(d) questions of how web 2.0 impacts all of this and whether web 2.0 even matters here in DC.

As always, kindly RSVP to assist our planning and space demands. Please email us at andy@mirskylegal.com, or call (202) 339-0303. Please bring a bag lunch and we will provide refreshments and snacks.