APR Tuesday Tip: Steps in Crisis Management

Last week, my good friend Dustin Pyeatt came to speak to the OSU PRSSA. They asked him to talk about crisis communications and I couldn't have picked a better person to present on this topic.

Crisis comm is the kind of thing you learn by doing. Talking with Dustin over the years has really helped me put my limited crisis experience in context and figure out what I learned from those crises.

Dustin and I are on the same page about one key thing: Crisis communication plans are BS. I think they are a great exercise, and I recommend writing one at least once, especially if you've never worked a crisis. But when crisis hits, that plan goes out the window. What will come in handy is a toolkit of key information and resources saved in multiple formats that you can access remotely: contact lists for key personnel and media, release templates (not the fill in the blank type, but simple masthead and boilerplate style), remote web server access and SM account passwords.

You can't anticipate the details of a crisis, that's why it is a waste of time to develop a detailed crisis plan. Very little stays the same. Today's APR Flash Card covers that little bit.

Front: Steps in Crisis Management (5)

Back:

1. Determine type of crisis; response depends on type and duration.


2. Assign priorities based on urgency and likelihood.


3. Draft Q&A and resolutions for possible scenarios


4. Focus on what to do and what to say in the first hours.


5. Develop strategy to contain and counteract, not react and respond.

Little Things That Mean A Lot

Last night, I had the chance to speak to the OSU chapter of PRSSA It's probably my favorite group to speak to. They were an awesome audience with lots of questions when we finished.

I discussed making a good first impression, specifically during a job interview (since that is on the mind of most of the students). Here are some highlights.

Be prepared

• If you're job hunting, have a interview suit ready to go, and keep it dry cleaned.


• Research the organization, so you can give specific answers to questions. Everyone knows they should do this, but lots of people skip this step. Use it as an opportunity to set yourself apart.

You had me at hello...

• Know the interview starts the moment you talk to anyone from the organization (30 minutes before the interview or 30 days before the interview).
• Be nice to the front office staff, they can make or break it for you.

You can't predict the future... or can you?

Obviously, you won’t be able to guess every question they are going to ask you. But you can guess a few. Regardless of whether you script answers or basically wing it, there are a few standard questions you will want to moll over beforehand.

The standards include "What is your greatest strength?" "What’s your greatest weakness?" and "Why are you interested in this position?"

Time to turn the tables

You’re going to be given the opportunity to ask questions. If you want to impress the interview you need to prepare something more think-y than "Do you have a dental plan?"

Ask questions that will help you decide if this job is right for you. Just because they offer you a job doesn’t mean you have to take it. You are interviewing them just as much as they are interviewing you. Ask questions about the culture, the job, and goals and strategy of the organization.

Put your best foot, and hand, Forward

The last thing we covered was how to give a good handshake, a key to making a good impression.

• DO stand up and move out from behind any desk, table or chair.
• DON'T be afraid to initiate the handshake.
• DO keep your drink in your left hand so your shake isn't cold and clammy.
• DO grasp thumb webbing to thumb webbing, DON'T shake with just your fingers or the front of your hand.
• DON'T give the "crusher." Press palm to back of hand instead of top to bottom to ensure your shake is firm, but not painful.
• DON'T give the two-handed shake to anyone you wouldn't hug. It's too intimate.
• DON'T give the palm-down handshake, it's domineering.

Polish Your Presence with the PRSA-SW Student Post-con

The PRSA-SW District Conference is coming to OKC in 2010. This is typically a great conference full of wonderful speakers, networking and events. I may be a bit bias (I'm on the planning committee) but this year is going to be especially fantastic.

The conference is April 15-17, just in time for graduating seniors to network their little hearts out. And obviously, all PR students are going to want to take advantage of the extra low student registration rate. But wait there's more!

There will be a special post-conference session on Friday designed just for students. Polish your presence with a luncheon session designed to help you make the best of your first impression. Then learn from both your peers and the pros during small resume breakouts led by seasoned OKC-area professionals. Bring 8 or more copies of your resume and see what sets you apart from the crowd. Each post-conference attendee will also receive a packet of exclusive content on the job hunt process.

The 2 1/2 hour post conference is $50 for PRSSA members and $65 for non-members and includes your lunch at the Bricktown Brewery. If you can't make it to the full conference you can still register for the post-conference. Registration opens soon, so mark your calendars and plan to be there!

Planning, Planning, Planning, Regional Conference Planning, Rawhide!

In the midst of my Christmas prep day off I swung by OKC for the 2010 PRSA-SW Conference planning committee. I have to admit, I'm getting a bit excited about this conference. Too bad I'll be missing half of it for a Library fundraiser, but you should mark your calendar for April 15-17.

The conference is going to be jam-packed with content. We had so many speaker proposals that we added another time slot for break out sessions, and we still won't be able to fit in all the great speakers. It'll be fun, too. We're kicking off with a dine around town, and there are some pretty great sounding receptions in the works.

I can't wait to see the website (thanks Sam) and the blog (ala Valerie) launch in January.

PRSA-OKC Looks to the Future

Today I joined 20 other local PR professionals as we gathered to plan for the future of PRSA-OKC.

It's an exciting time for our organization. Our chapter is growing. With just 10 more members, we'll receive another assembly delegate and OKC-area professionals will have a little more say in how our industry is run on the national level. We spent a lot of time discussing how we will recruit those 10 new members.

If you are a PR professional or in a related field, here are a few reasons you should consider being one of our new members in 2010.

1. Professional Education. The foundation of every chapter meeting is professional development and your membership provides discounts on the great workshops and teleseminars offered by nationals.
   
2. Commitment to Ethics. Each member commits to abide by the code of ethics, but it doesn't stop there. By regularly interacting with other professionals who work to embrace ethical practice, you learn to not only apply the code to your day to day work, but also how to discuss our code of ethics with others.
   
3. Camaraderie. Many people will say "networking," but I find a lot of value in simply meeting people who have jobs like mine and understand the rewards and the challenges I'm faced with.
   

Internship Best Practices

Over at the PRSSA blog they summarized the newly released PRSA Internship Guidelines. I can't wait to read through the complete report. (How dorky is that?)

Based on the summary PRSSA provided, it looks like really good stuff. From my own personal experience, I think these are some of the most important things to get from an internship. We'll see if my thoughts line up with the PRSA report.

1. Build a mentoring relationship. You should leave an internship with at least one relationship that will continue to foster your professional development after the internship is over. This means you have someone you can call for advice as well as a reference.

2. Do real work. I hear what I consider horror stories about interns doing noting but fetching coffee and filing. An internship is certainly going to be a time to pay some dues, but you should be doing professional-level work as well. Yes, you'll run errands and wash some dishes, but you'll also participate in planning meetings and write stories for the annual report.

3. Be treated like a professional to learn how to be a professional. When you are held to professional standards, you learn to meet those standards. So even though you probably are the lowest paid employee in the office, you should be treated like everyone else. This can mean you get some pretty critical feedback. You'll prove you're a professional, if you learn from it.

Need a Social Media Makeover?

Last week, Valerie and I presented to OSU-PRSSA about managing and maintaining your online reputation. I just love working with this group. The students are all so interested and interesting. It was a fun talk, and the best part was all the questions we got at the end.

Here are a few highlights from the presentation:

Who is watching your online reputation?
Future employers tend to be the focus when we worry about this, but it extends much further. After you have the job, you need to continue to be proactive about maintaining a positive online image.

In our office, we investigate someone’s online profile almost weekly. If you apply for a job with us, join another department in our organization, give a presentation we attended, submitted a media inquiry, or talk about us online, we’ve probably done at least a superficial search of your online presence.

Where do they look?
When someone is looking into your online reputation, anything is fair game. More often than not, people put too much stock in their privacy settings. You have to assume, that even if your accounts are locked down, people will find a way to see what you’ve posted.

The most common and basic searches are going to include Google, a sampling of the most popular social networks and your open records.

What are they looking for?
Regardless of how it might feel at times, most people are not out to dig up dirt on you. (not that they won’t discover the dirt if it’s there to find)

What they are doing is: fact-checking your resume, looking to see if you are talking about them, getting a sense of how you communicate, and feeling out your personality.

The Case Study
Our wonderful intern Marissa Chavez volunteered to be our case study. She made a great example because not only is she well established online for someone her age, her profiles are squeaky clean. Valerie took the students step-by-step through an audit of Marissa's online footprint.

The Take Aways

• Establish a reputation. Chris Brogan has an excellent post on how to get started.
• Monitor. Start by Googling yourself; search the web, news and blogs. Run a Twitter search for your handle, and any terms you might be strongly affiliated with. Once you’re satisfied with the structure of these searches, set up an RSS feed to alert you to updates in the results.
• Maintain your reputation. Keep it clean; be honest and thorough. Watch out for controversial topics. Be active and interactive; and, use profiles and links to point people to the stuff (your blog, twitter, etc) you want them to see.

PRSA-OKC 2009 Professional Day

Today, Valerie and I turned in our travel requests for the 2009 PRSA-OKC Professional Development Day. It's always great and I'm looking forward to it. Maybe you'll join us?

9:30 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.-Session 1
Twitter: How To Use Twitter as an Advertising and/or Public Relations Tool in Business
Presenter: Nora Burns, SPHR, Insightful Endeavors International, Inc.
Twitter, one of the power-players in this era of social networking is a force to be reckoned with. Learn how to use this tool to your organizations advantage.

11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.-Luncheon Session
Is the News Release Dead?

1:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.-Session 3
Crisis Simulation Training: How Would You Really Perform in a Crisis
Presenters: Dan O'Hair and Shari Veil, MBA, Ph.D., Center for Risk and Crisis Management, University of Oklahoma
Discussion on relevant risk and crisis theories, research and best practices in risk and crisis management.

For full program details visit prsaokc.org.

What's on the APR Exam?

When I talk about the APR (Accreditation in Public Relations) I have many people ask what is on the exam. The test covers a variety of topics and is broken down like so.

Researching, Planning, Implementing & Evaluating Programs (30%) Basically the four-step process. It counts for so much because it's the basis of what we do.

Ethics and Law (15%) Not only do you need to understand relevant laws, you'll need to know the PRSA Code of Ethics inside and out and understand how to apply it.

Communication Models and Theory (15%) Understand the implications and applications of various theories and models.

Business Literacy (10%) You need to understand and explain revenue generation, perform SWOT analysis, and identify other divisions that need to be involved in any communication program.

Management Skills & Issues (10%) You must understand audience diversity, make sound decisions, and hold strong leadership and organizational skills.

Crisis Communication Management (10%) You'll need to understand the roles and responsibilities of public relations at the pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis phases.

Media Relations (5%) Understand the relationships between PR and media organizations, have news sensibility and understand the media and various distribution systems.

Using IT Efficiently (2%) The category basically gauges your tech literacy.

History of & Current Issues in PR (2%) Identify key figures in the history of PR, major trends and key forces that influenced the field. You'll also have to differentiates among related concepts like publicity, advertising, marketing, and press agentry.

Advance Communication Skills (1%) This covers topics like consensus-building, consulting skills and negotiation.

Best PRSA Conference Ever!

Today, Valerie and I trekked down to OKC to meet with the rest of the PRSA-Southwest District 2010 Conference Planning Committee. In my humble opinion, it's going to be the best conference ever!

I am the PRSSA-liaison for the conference. That means it's my job to work with the PRSSA (that's the student PR society) liaisons and advisors throughout the southwest district to promote student attendance at the conference. Even more difficult than that is making sure that the students at schools without a PRSSA chapter learn about the conference also.

Now that I have my head around the project, it's actually a bigger undertaking than I originally anticipated. Still, I am so excited and so very honored that I was asked to do this. I love working with the PR students and I hope that beyond promoting student attendance I can also help develop some conference programming that will make them all very happy they decided to attend PRSA-Southwest 2010.

Four Reasons You Want to be my Intern

Today, I listed an opening for my fall 2009 Communications Internship. We sent the typical announcements—PRSA Job Line, email to Brooks Garner’s listserve, listing on the Library’s job site—but, I’m kind of excited to see what kind of increased interest we can get by utilizing some social media promotions as well.

This year, I’m also using Twitter (my account, the Library’s account, creative use of hashtags, and hopefully some retweets from PRSSA_OSU and some past interns), Facebook (status updates, notes, shared links, and again hopefully a little love from PRSSA and some Bonnie-pire members), and here on my very own zero-traffic blog.

If you are looking for an internship in PR, this is why you want to work for me.

1. I get that you are a student first.
The great thing about all the student positions at the Library is that we understand that job 1 is being a student, everything else is secondary. You are at OSU to get a degree and we are here to help, not hinder.

2. My internship is built for learning.
The point of an internship is to learn, that’s why it’s eligible for course credit. The library’s communications internship is designed to teach you the fundamentals of PR and allow you to experience first-hand how a PR office operates. I’ve had more than one intern tell me they learn the most by just being in the office, seeing the kind of issues that arise on a daily basis and how we handle them. You’ll also be able to take advantage of the professional development we participate in as an office. I offer to host my interns at one PRSA-OKC meeting a semester, we have monthly meetings where we share new research, and we regularly subscribe to webinars and teleseminars.

3. The internship is customizable.
In the communications internship you will spend the majority of your time (50-80%) writing for a variety of media: press release, web, newsletters, ad copy, blurbs, Twitter, and more. The remaining time is spent developing skills you are most interested in learning. My interns have given media interviews, talked to donors, developed web pages, pitched stories, written promotion plans, laid out publications. The point is, you, in part, will decide what you’ll be learning.

4. I place students I want to mentor.
I take a personal interest in my interns, and I want to see them succeed. I do this in a variety of ways. In the first week of your internship, we’ll debrief your interview. I’ll tell you candidly what you did well and what you could do better. I want you to know what interview skills to keep and what you’ll need to brush up on before the next. Throughout the semester we’ll discuss career goals and steps you can take to put you on that career path. At the conclusion of your contract, I’ll help you build a resume that will accurately highlight the skills you’ve learned and build a portfolio of the pieces you created. You’ll leave the internship with a CD or zip drive of all your work and copies of all your clippings from the internship.

If you're ready to apply, follow the "internship" link at http://www.library.okstate.edu/personnel/index.htm and follow the instructions.

PRSA-OKC Responds to Smear on the Profession

On Feb. 10, USA Today published a book review which casts the public relations profession in a most unflattering light. PRSA chapters across the country are responding to this attack on the profession. PRSA-OKC has submitted the following letter to the editor.

Thank you to Derinda Lowe, PRSA-OKC President, and Katherine Leidy, PRSA-OKC Advocacy Officer, for actively supporting PRSA's goal of advancing the profession and the professional. Well done, ladies.

Letter to the Editor

February 12, 2009
To the Editor:

As the public relations profession continues to take hits in the media, we feel it necessary to respond to comments made in a Feb. 10 USA Today book review regarding the profession. In his review of the book PR: A Persuasive Industry: Spin, Public Relations and the Shaping of the Modern Media by Trevor Morris and Simon Goldsworthy, Seth Brown presents the view that "PR is amoral, difficult to define, and difficult to measure." We'd like to share a local, insider's take on that notion.

As members of the Oklahoma City chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, we're part of a group of 157 metro area PR professionals who abide by a code of ethics that includes specific provisions for advancing the free flow of accurate and truthful information, and for disclosing all information necessary to foster informed decision making in a democratic society. These are professionals that serve an important role in fostering mutually beneficial relationships between the public and non-profit organizations, associations, government agencies, academic institutions and businesses. A majority of our members received a formal college education in public relations, communication and journalism, and 25 percent have taken the extra step to become accredited in public relations.

To the layperson, PR is often viewed as simply "publicity." Writing and disseminating information to the media and acting as a liaison between an organization and the media is but one small part of a PR professional's work. While it is the work that is most visible to the people who write about PR in the media and the people who read it, PR professionals and the organizations that hire them know that there is much more to it.

In our democratic, free society, PR helps people reach decisions and function more effectively by contributing to mutual understanding among groups and institutions through two-way communication and building relationships. It helps organizations understand the attitudes and values of different audiences in order to further the achievement of their goals. The PR professional serves as a counselor to management and acts as a mediator to help translate an organization's goals into reasonable, publicly acceptable policies and actions, and to mitigate risks.

Public relations involves a wide array of tactics and strategies, however its impact is easy to measure with both attitudinal and behavioral metrics, as well as financial measures, such as return-on-investment. PR's impact can be quantified in terms of sales, market share, brand awareness, stock price, reputation and trust, customer satisfaction, fundraising, employee morale and retention, event participation, Web site traffic, and regulatory changes.

We encourage those who want to learn more about the PR profession to visit the Oklahoma City PRSA chapter's website at www.prsaokc.com and join us at one of our monthly luncheon meetings.

Derinda Lowe, APR, President
Katherine Leidy, ABC, APR, Advocacy Officer
Public Relations Society of America, Oklahoma City Chapter

My Notes from "Marketing Yourself" with OSU PRSSA

Last week I met with the OSU chapter of PRSSA for a discussion on how to market yourself. My colleague and good buddy, Becky Endicott joined me. These are a couple of the questions they asked.

How do you introduce yourself in networking and non-networking settings?
My answer, both sarcastic and serious, is I walk up, stick my hand out and say "Hi I'm Bonnie Ann Cain." What they were really getting at here, is how do you frame yourself. I think it's always best to frame yourself in a way that shows how you are similar to the person you are meeting. We like people who are like us, so try to find some common ground. Do you work in similar industries? Did you go to the same school? Are you members of the same organization?

How do you maintain relationships?
Social media really can make it easier to maintain relationships. The key is to use social media to actually make actual contacts, not just maintain a database of email addresses. There is a difference between friending someone and really using a network to interact with them.

What type of presence is best online? Strictly professional or personal and professional?
Unless you are willing to be completely and 100% diligent about not allowing any of your personal life online, there is no way to separate the two. There will always be a blend of the professional and the personal online persona. You just have to make sure both reflect well on you. Social media works best when you are a real person; it's OK (good, even) to be yourself. Just remember that anything you post online is posted in a public forum. You are not behind closed doors, whispering to your best friend. You are on stage with a megaphone.

Do you look at a job candidate's online presence?
Yes, I do. Not only do I look at candidates, I'll look up just about anyone I'll be interacting with. In our office, we regularly search new employees from other offices, reporters, editors, and people who comment about our organization in an open forum. And don't think just because your profiles are set to private that we can't get to stuff. Common friends are a great way to sneak looks at things someone didn't think strangers could see. I would advise everyone to do a thorough online search of themselves. You need to be aware of and actively manage your online reputation.

At the last minute Becky and I learned that our third panelist was out sick. So I tossed this out to Twitter: "We lost a panelist, so @ me your best self-marketing tip. Twitter just became our fill in panelist" Here's what Twitter had to say:

@ThirtySixthSpan: @BonnieAnn Passion is the most flexible of personal brands. No matter what you are doing, you can always draw from it.
@lisafrein: @BonnieAnn be genuine and know what you bring to the table that no one else can.
@vtrammell: @bonnieann we should have tape recorded my answers and i could have filled in!

6 Core Values of PR

September may be PR Ethics month, but it's really too important of a topic to save discussion to one month a year. As an accredited public relations professional, I feel obligated to not only help my fellow PR practitioners embrace the PRSA Code of Ethics, but also to talk to people outside the practice about our code and what it means.

First off, yes we have a code of ethics! If you are working in PR and don't realize this key fact then get yourself to a PRSA meeting now. If you're not in PR and think we are all a bunch of hack Karl Rove wannabes, stop buying into the stereotype. It's not true. Like any profession (lawyers, mechanics, politicians, etc.) most of us work hard to do the right things. It just a few high-profile jerks who make us all look bad (which in itself is a violation of the code).

So here's a quick run down of the first half of the PRSA code of ethics, and the lay-person translation I created to help me keep it all straight.

Value 1: Honesty
PRSA says: We adhere to the highest standards of accuracy & truth in advancing the interests of those we represent & in communicating with the public.
Bonnie says: Don’t lie. Don’t lie to your client, don’t lie to your colleagues, don’t lie to the media. Just don’t, ever. Period.

Value 2: Independence
PRSA says: We provide objective counsel to those we represent. We are accountable for our actions.
Bonnie says: Don’t be a lapdog. You are hired to be a counselor, an adviser. You are not hired to blindly go along with what your client wants you to do.

Value 3: Loyalty
PRSA says: We are faithful to those we represent, while honoring our obligation to serve the public interest.
Bonnie says: Don't screw over your client. The best interests of your client are always a top priority. They are putting a lot of trust in you, and your commitment (of lack of) to them can have huge impacts.

Value 4: Expertise
PRSA says: We acquire & responsibly use specialized knowledge & experience. We advance the profession through continued professional development, research & education. We build mutual understanding, credibility & relationships among a wide array of institutions and audiences.
Bonnie says: Remain credible. You do this by applying the things you’ve learn, like the four-step process, by being able to articulate why we do research and evaluation, by continuing your professional development and by maintaining good relationships.

Value 5: Advocacy
PRSA says: We serve the public interest by acting as responsible advocates for those we represent. We provide a voice in the marketplace of ideas, facts & viewpoints to aid informed public debate.
Bonnie says: The public is always your client. My favorite definition of public relations is “building mutual understanding between a client and their publics.” At its core PR is a public service.

Value 6: Fairness
PRSA says: We deal fairly with clients, employers, competitors, peers, vendors, the media & the general public. We respect all opinions & support the right of free expression.
Bonnie says: Don’t be an asshole.

Next time, I'll look at the second half of the code: the 6 provisions.

PRSA-OKC Advocates Clean & Fair Campaign Communication

Just one example of why PRSA-OKC rocks. Today, we received this from our fearless leader, Danielle Walker, APR.

I wanted to let you know about an exciting initiative that the Oklahoma City Chapter, Public Relations Society of America, is undertaking.

PRSA-OKC is taking part in a national effort to challenge local political campaigns to agree to uphold the highest standards of ethical practice in every facet of their campaign communications. This dovetails with the PRSA national office's challenge to the McCain and Obama campaigns, which launched last month. PRSA formally requested that campaign communications directors Robert Gibbs (Obama for America) and Jill Hazelbaker (John McCain 2008) sign a pledge obligating them to abide by the PRSA Code of Ethics in their campaign communications. Specific guidelines relevant to campaign communications policies under the PRSA Code include: being honest and accurate in all communications, acting promptly to correct erroneous communications, investigating the truthfulness and accuracy of information released on behalf of those represented, and avoiding deceptive practices.

On the local level, today our chapter is sending letters to campaigns for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, U.S. House and U.S. Senate, asking them to take a pledge to commit to the principles of the PRSA Code of Ethics in these last weeks before the elections. We have also distributed to the local media an OpEd article regarding our challenge to Oklahoma's candidates to make a formal commitment to accurate, truthful and respectful discourse.

The OpEd article also communicates that PRSA-OKC is responsible for representing, educating, setting standards of excellence and upholding a stringent code of ethics for not only our members, but the public relations profession within our state. In that role, PRSA-OKC is committed to advancing ethical communications practices and the free flow of accurate and truthful information. These principles not only guide our members and the profession, but also support fundamental rights of free speech and the public good.

Many thanks to you all for what you do each and every day in upholding the standards and ethics of our profession.

What is a Duckmaster?

As I mentioned, The Peabody is most definitely all about the ducks. There were duck shaped soaps and butter pats. Ducks on the bath mats and ducks on the shampoo bottles. There was a bar called the Mallard and a gift shop full of duck this and that. The building itself was branded with huge ducks that could be seen from the street or from the air. The elevator floors were tiled with duck mosaics.

And yes, the ducks do actually swim in the fountain, not 20 yard from the entrance to the restaurant.

Ruth, my graphic designer, challenged me to seek out and document the Duck Palace. I did that and one better. I befriended the Duckmaster, Lloyd and he made me Honorary Duckmaster. I was officially proclaimated in front of the audience for the evening duck march, I got my own cane and Lloyd and I marched the ducks!

Check out the photo gallery for the full photo essay: www.johnandbonnie.us.

Evidently, Honorary Duckmaster duties are bestowed on special guests of the Peabody. Oprah, Lou Dobbs, and most Arkansas First Ladies have been Honorary Duckmaster, just to name a few. It's kind of a big deal.

Overall the PRSA Regional Conference in Little Rock was great. I met some great and really interesting folks. I had a blast hanging out with old friends and new.

You can also check me out as Duckmaster on Ed Schipul's Flickr photostream.

The Deal with the Ducks

I'm posting it here, because next week I'm off to cosmopolitan Little Rock, and evidently at the Peabody (where I am staying) they are nuts about these ducks.

The ducks are prominently featured in the hotel's logo, decor, gift catalog, etc.

To set this up, you must understand that the Peabody touts itself as totally fancy-schamcy. A highlight of it's fanciness is a daily "duck march" where the ducks walk a red carpet through the lobby (yes, the lobby!) of the hotel and into the fountain. Get the whole story here: http://www.peabodymemphis.com/peabody_hotels/the_peabody_ducks.cfm.

I am so amused by the whole concept, that I have decided to blog the ducks from the conference. I'm sure you are eagerly awaiting more!

With any luck I will make it to the "duck palace." I'm bringing the camera and will document everything for the amusement of all.