The Road Best Traveled - FPRA State Conference 2014 YouTube video and brochure

Are you hiking the Road Best Traveled to State Conference?

The official program has been released! Click here to get your copy from the State FPRA website and learn about all the great speakers and sessions.

Here's one more way to get pumped about the greatest annual get together for FPRA members, a great YouTube video! Click here to watch and get even more hyped about the conference.

Haven't registered yet? There's still time to register AND apply for a scholarship! Scholarship deadline is June 20. Submit your application today.

Meet the Media Breakfast Panelists - Darrel Adams, Waterman Broadcasting

Darrel Adams serves as the Executive News Director for Waterman Broadcasting (NBC2 and ABC7). He has been with the station since 1997.

During his tenure at Waterman Broadcasting the station has won three National RTNDA Edward R. Murrow's for Investigative Reporting. Darrel says, "I believe investigative reporting is the foundation of a great news department." The station has also won several Regional Awards including Best Station, Best Breaking News, Best Newscast and Best Reporting. The news staff has won many Florida Associated Press Awards too, including Best Overall, Best Newscast, Best Weathercast, Best Sports, Best Public Affairs, and Best Reporting.

Darrel currently serves on the ABC News Director Advisory Board. This is a select group of News Directors who give feed back to the network. He served as Board Chair from 2006-08. He as served on many local boards, including the founding board of the Southwest Florida Affiliate of Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. He has also served on the Island Coast AIDS Network (ICAN) and Children's Home Society boards. He is a 2003 Graduate of Lee County Emerging Leaders and one of Gulfshore Life's 2008 Men of the Year.

Darrel came to Fort Myers from Minneapolis. He was the senior executive producer for KSTP-TV in the Twin Cities.

The ABC affiliate is a news organization known for its excellence in journalism, having earned such prestigious awards at the Alfred DuPont-Columbia Journalism Award and the George Foster Peabody Award. Darrel himself has won two Emmy's.

Before joining KSTP-TV, Darrel worked in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at KGAN-TV and in St. Cloud, Minnesota at KXLI-TV. Darrel has served as a reporter, anchor, producer and in several management positions.

A native of Motley, Minnesota, Darrel holds a degree in broadcast journalism and speech communication from St. Cloud State University. He grew up on a dairy farm in Central Minnesota.

Darrel currently lives in Lee County and is the proud father of twin daughters.

APR Trivia

Question: Candidates preparing for the written examination for Accreditation in Public Relations must understand the difference between a goal and an objective. Which of the following is an objective?

A.   To increase seat belt use among all company employees.

B.    To raise awareness among employees who drive on the job about the importance of wearing a seatbelt while driving.

C.    To increase seat belt use among all company employees when driving on the job from 85 percent to 98 percent within the first six months of 2014.

D.   None of the above

Answer: C. Objectives much be SMART, meaning they must be: (S) Specific, (M) Measurable, (A) Attainable, (R) Realistic and (T) Timely.

President's Word from Samantha Scott, APR

Hello fellow members,

Summer is here and we can take a moment to relax. Breathe. Ah, that was nice, but what’s next?!

As PR professionals we are always striving to learn more, do more and enhance not only ourselves, but our profession. FPRA is here to support you in that journey with all the resources you could need.  Thank you for taking the journey with us.

As we enjoy “slower” speed of summer, I would encourage you to take a few moments to set goals for the coming year, what would you like to accomplish? Do you want to get your APR or perhaps enrich your media relationships? Your chapter of FPRA is here to help you. Visit the website, contact your chapter leaders or visit the state office website to learn more.

Thank you for being a member of the Southwest Florida chapter of FPRA and for what you bring to our profession. See you soon and don’t forget to - Think FPRA!

Samantha Scott, APR

Meet the Panelists for Media Breakfast - Jimmy Dean, Harbor Style

JD has lived in and helped chronicle this region of SW Florida for almost 40 years. His media career began as baby-DJ at age 12 and made the transition from broadcasting to print at age 27 when he moved from NC to Florida. He was one of the founders of SARASOTA Magazine and past publisher of that title and Gulfshore Life and Gulfshore Business for many years before selling that company to the Robb Report.

Failed miserably at retirement.

Now, for almost 8 years, he has been working with a talented team of magazine professionals, building HARBOR STYLE Magazine into another regional powerhouse to benefit the community, and the people who live, work and play here.

Meet the Panelists for Media Breakfast - Osvaldo Padilla, Florida Weekly

Osvaldo Padilla is the managing editor of the Fort Myers edition of Florida Weekly. Most of us know him by his nickname, "Waddy." He has more than 20 years of experience as a writer, journalist and media personality covering news throughout Florida. A graduate of the master’s program at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, he has covered Capitol Hill for media outlets in Oregon and the Keys, and served as a reporter for WINK-TV and the News-Press. His work has appeared in GEEK Magazine, Lincoln Road Magazine, on Inside Edition and Tru-TV. During his time at Florida Weekly the paper has won dozens of awards including General Excellence from the Florida Press Association and his writing has garnered awards for investigative, health and business writing. Aside from his career in journalism, Waddy is also a Florida Certified General Contractor.

Meet the Panelists for Media Breakfast - Phil Borchmann, Gulfshore Business

For more than nine years, Phil Borchmann has served as the editor of Gulfshore Business, a monthly business-to-business publication covering Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties.

Before his arrival in Southwest Florida, Borchmann spent nearly 15 years working as a reporter at newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and the Rockford Register Star in Rockford, Ill., his hometown. Borchmann is a graduate of Illinois State University.