Can Team Canada's Men's Hockey Club Bring A Gold Medal To Home Soil?

With the torch lit and the Vancouver 2010 Olympic games well on their way, Team Canada‘s roster provides hope, to hockey fans across this great nation, to take back Gold on home soil.

Sid the Kid, Rick Nash and Calgary Flames Jerome Iginla set the stage in B.C as the starting line-up for a team that has not brought home the gold since 2002. These three NHL stars alone have a combined 210 points this season. Sidney Crosby is first in the National Hockey League in the goal scoring department and Joe Thorton holds first place status in assists. With statistics like these backing their calibre of play, will it be enough to thwart the competition?

Canada expects no less than greatness from superstar forwards like Joe Thorton, Ryan Getzlaf and Danny Heatly, who by the way has been absolutely on fire in the goal scoring department as of late; ranking 6th in the NHL. However, history has proven that statistics aren’t everything.

It is one thing to have a roster made up of the best of the best but it is another to have the ability to Coach that roster in such a way that creates the right type of chemistry among its players. Executive Director for Team Canada, Steve Yzerman, has complete faith in Head Coach, Mike Babcock to achieve such chemistry.

Putting the puck past defensemen like Team USA’s Tim Gleason and Brooks Orpik or behind big goaltenders such as Sweden’s Henrik Lundqvist or Russia’s Ilya Bryzgalov is no easy feat. Team Canada has a lot at stake this year with the shadow of 2004’s less than stellar 7th place finish lurking about.

True Canadian hockey fans are not as forgiving as Coaching staff when it comes to taking back this country’s heritage. Hockey is our game!

The Kerry Ramsay Post Grad PR Patented Mall Crawl

All hell breaks loose when 30+ students conduct a scavenger hunt in the Quinte Mall. What started as a simple, eye-opening exercise on how there are many examples of Public Relations (PR) in our lives that most of us don’t even realize, ended in confusion and aggravation. Confusion and aggravation, two emotions expressed by not only fellow students but mall security as well.

I was in a group of four students. The objective, to answer a questionnaire based on a specific set of PR elements within the Quinte Mall. Not twenty minutes in, to this hour long PR exercise, my group was stopped by mall security. The guard thought we were soliciting or pestering employees in some way. On the contrary, we were merely keeping to ourselves, for the most part, with our list of questions, only we as a group could answer.

Nevertheless, we were stopped by this guard. Even after explaining to him our purpose for having a pen and paper in our hands, he tried to make us stay where we were while he located our professor. Funny how mall security essentially wanted us to loiter in front of Roots. We told him that we were one of seven groups of students in the mall doing an AUTHORIZED exercise. When asked who authorized this exercise, we told him our professor and mall management.

Instead of contacting management, utilizing the radio attached to his hip, he informed us to stay where we were while he attempted to locate our professor. To honour his demands we stayed for close to ten minutes, even though he informed us he would be back in two-to-five minutes. We eventually left and continued our hunt for our answers and ultimately the prize for being the first team to complete the task.

These ten minutes set us back; we would have won! We were down to two questions before the winning team was announced. Those two questions would have taken approximately two-to-five minutes to answer and return to our professor.

But I digress. Outside of the obvious ridiculousness my group and I found ourselves in, this exercise was actually fun and educational. We learned that there are examples of PR and Integrated Marketing Campaigns (IMC) everywhere in our daily lives and that PR should be an integral part in any advertising campaign.

Then again, we already knew that, didn’t we! I love this program!

The Post Grad PR Patented Mall Crawl. Try saying that ten times fast!

Where Would We Be Without CP style?

Last week, media/press kits were due. Not a lot of work but a lot of pressure put on us PR students. You would be crazy not to feel pressured when, not only, 30% of your final grade in one of your course is based on three pieces of paper but when anonymous writing professionals in the business are marking those three pieces of paper! A little disappointed when I received my mark back and it was only a 75%.

However, I then received the feedback from the professional journalists marking our media/press kits. “Great cover, well done, good design, good contact info, love the backgrounder” and my personal favourite, “You did our work for us.” After reading that, my mind was at ease. I lost my marks on my serious lack of commitment to CP Style.

A heck of a thing CP Style is. So many rules to follow! It just goes to show you the importance of a textbook and why we are made to spend hundreds of dollars on them. For the record, when writing in CP style, it’s 8 p.m. not 8:00 p.m. and never use explanation marks or call to action phrases/lines in a news release. Never use superscript “th”, “st” or “nd” for dates or even numbers in general.

Always remember, unless you are quoting, never write in the first person on writing pieces such as a fact sheet. Granted, it is info about the business by the business but change the voice of the writer back to third party perspective. I learned all of this the hard way scoring a fifteen out of a possibly twenty marks on my kit.

A lesson learned. And last but not least...

It’s a slippery slope and one that should be clear as day, not clear as mud. When one is utilizing the art of clichés...just don’t! I never did. However, I am just saying, they are awful writing techniques!

I now consider CP style and all the rules it entails in every piece I write; from news releases and public service announcements to fact sheets and even blog posts.

All aboard the CP Train! Our next destination, a better tomorrow!

Cosmo, Best Companion of All Time!

I am currently working on a full blown Media Kit for QHS' "3rd Annual Love of Animals Christmas Auction," so it only seems fitting that I write a blog post about the The Quinte Humane Society.

They need our help! They take in about 3,000 animals each year, most of which are female impregnated cats or kittens. I hate cats...but I digress!

The current shelter is very old and was never intended on being a shelter. The Quinte Humane Society has made do with what they have and is now trying hard to apply for grants etc to get the funds needed to build a new shelter. All of us in the immediate area (Prince Edward County) should donate whatever we can, whether it be food, cages, animal clothing, animal accessories, monetary donations, et cetera.

Eight years ago, a yellow lab by the name is Cosmo was beaten and abused by his owner. Luckily, a neighbour picked up on the abuse and phoned the local Humane Society. Cosmo was adopted by his new owners within a week of his arrival at the Humane Society and has been one of my closest friends for the past eight years!

By giving a little, you inspire volunteers and adoptees to give more and those lost, scared, abused, and in most cases abandoned animals get a second chance! So please, donate to the Quinte Humane Society or your own local Humane Society! You don’t have to adopt an animal, to make a monumental difference in its life!

Social Media Runs My Life!

So I had a revelation this morning! Social Media is taking over my life! I realized that, most days, I rush home from class just to check my Facebook and Twitter! Whilst I am tutoring, I keep a close eye on social media as well. I am sure if I could keep tabs on it in my sleep I would. I want to break free but it’s so hard!

Social Media is no less than a staple in today’s business society. Most businesses that practice good public relations also are deeply involved in art that is social media. A new craze? Some would argue that it is. Some would also argue that social media is just a new fad that has not yet reached its peak and when it does will plummet soon after and become just as useful as MSN Messenger.

Who even uses MSN Messenger anymore? You’ve got Facebook with its instant messenger and Twitter is an instant messenger on a larger scale. I have not yet indulged in the “Craze” that is FlickR, DIGG or DeI.ciou.ous, however, I expect that is soon to come in my career as a Public Relations professional.

On a side note, I was on YouTube, another social media and I came across this interesting, comedic video. I love country and folk music, sorry to those of you who do not!

To Toronto We Go!

Just less than two weeks ago now, the Post Graduate Public Relations students of Loyalist College took a little field trip. We all boarded a Coach line bus and headed to Toronto on October 22nd. The plan was to go to Steam Whistle Brewery in the heart of Toronto and take a tour of the facility. From there, we were to go to Jack Astor’s for lunch and then CBC Studios, as special guests, to be treated to a special power point presentation from CBC’s Public Relations Director. After which, we were supposed to be guests of George Stoumboulopoulos and attend a live taping of “The Hour.”

Let’s just say, boarding the bus at 6:00am was not everyone’s cup of tea; I did not mind it however. Let me just start by thanking Coach for incorporating over-head television screens on their buses for those long boring trips. If it was not for those movies, I would have been pretty bored since 90% of the bus' occupants, my classmates, were sound asleep.

I guess we could blame it on Media Mash-Up, an event hosted by the school of media and our class, just the night before. However, that event went from 6:00pm through to 10:00pm, no excuse as to why people were so exhausted at 6:00am. But I digress, I had a wonderful time watching Bed Time Stories and He’s Just Not That Into You; two movies which I had not seen as of yet.

After a two and a half hour bus ride, one fifth of which was spent on the Don Valley Parking Lot, we arrived at Steam Whistle Brewery ; time of arrival, 9:00am. We took a tour of the facility and then received, not only a quick power point presentation on Steam Whistle’s Public Relations efforts by Steam Whistle’s Public Relations Officer and head of Marketing Communications, Sybil Taylor, but we also received free samples at 11:00am.

From there, as planned, we rushed over to CBC. Yes, plans had changed! Due to the fact that we spent two hours at Steam Whistle as oppose to the expected one, Jack Astor’s was no longer an option. We cancelled our reservation for thirty guests, which probably angered the servers and disappointed management and headed to CBC Studio’s public food court. We ate a quick fast food luncheon and headed upstairs for noon.

Wow, what do I have to say about the power point presentation put on by CBC’s Public Relations Director, Elizabeth Lea? Umm, I would rather have gone to Jack Astor’s! The power point was virtually irrelevant, contained spelling errors and a plethora of outdated figures. How does this reflect on the minds of Loyalist PR students?

George Stoumboulopoulos is the man! He welcomed our class with optimism, open discussion and firm handshakes. After the taping of the two shows, which featured The Hamilton Children’s Choir and infamous alternative band, Metric who performed Wizards of Winter, a song written by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Stoumboulopoulos took the time out of his schedule to sit down with his fans, in attendance, and our class. He answered questions and posed for pictures.

What a great celebrity. This was my favourite day in Public Relations; that is, outside of the night before, Media Mash-Up, which was my favourite night in PR for personal reasons!

Ps. I was going to add the You Tube video for Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Wizards of Winter, but http://www.youtube.com/ has been down for maintenance all morning!

Encore! Encore!

I have been informed by my loyal readers that I was required to do an encore to the joke portion of my last post. Well here goes…

Good PR

Moses and his flock arrive at the sea, with the Egyptians in hot pursuit.

Not knowing how to proceed, Moses calls a staff meeting.

"Well, how are we going to get across the sea?" Moses asks. "We need a fast solution. The Egyptians are close behind us."

"Normally, I'd recommend that we build a pontoon bridge to carry us across," the General of the Armies says, "but there's not enough time - the Egyptians are too close."

"Normally, I'd recommend that we build barges to carry us across," the Admiral of the Navy says, "but time is too short."

"Does anyone have a solution?" Moses asks.

Just then, his Public Relations man raises his hand.

"You!" Moses says, "You have a solution?"

"No," the PR man says, "but I can promise you this: If you can find a way out of this one, I can get you two or three full pages in the Old Testament..."

A Successful Interview

A mathematician, an accountant and a public relations officer all applied for the same job with a large company.

The interviewer called in the mathematician first and asked, "What does two plus two equal?"

The mathematician replied, "Four."

The interviewer asked, "Four, exactly?"

The mathematician looked at the interviewer incredulously and said, "Yes, of course: four, exactly."

Then the interviewer called in the accountant and asked the same question, "What does two plus two equal?"

The accountant said, "On average, four - give or take 10 per cent; but on average, four."

Then the interviewer called in the public relations officer and again posed the same question, "What does two plus two equal?"

The public relations officer got up, locked the door, closed the shade, sat down next to the interviewer and whispered, "Well, what do you want it to equal?"

Thank you to all of my loyal readers!