Category: Austin Office

Breakfast Tacos and PR: Make Plans to Attend the 2018 PRSA International Conference in Austin!

Posted on | by Catherine Seeds

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend last year’s PRSA International Conference in Boston, and as soon as I got back home, I knew immediately that I wanted to be involved in this year’s event taking place in Ketner Group’s very own backyard of Austin, Texas!

The annual conference is a wonderful event that “spotlights the intersection of technology and media, and leads the competition by providing unparalleled information strategies and tools for the new trends impacting the industry.” As I wrote in my blog last October, it’s a great event for professional development, inspiration, networking and even mentoring with some of the students from PRSSA.

This year, I’m THRILLED to say that Ketner Group will be a part of the planning as part of the PRSA Austin Chapter, the official hosts of the 2018 event. Stacy Lan and I have joined the opening reception committee, and we are excited! We are joined by our friends and peers from the Austin PR community to “get the party started” and show our colleagues from around the world just how awesome and wonderfully weird our city is.

I suspect there will be plenty of breakfast tacos for everyone!

A few key note speakers have already been announced:

  • Robert B. Reich: Economic Adviser, Best-Selling Author. Reich is currently serving as the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. Reich’s most recent book is “The Common Good.”
  • Jonathan Mildenhall, Former Airbnb CMO. Mildenhall is a globally recognized thought leader in the worlds of business strategy and creative excellence. A proponent of purposeful branding, he is passionate about connecting consumers with brands in a meaningful, authentic way and building community-driven brands that promote positive societal change.

As well, PRSA is currently accepting proposals for speaking at the event. The call for proposals deadline is March 26. Click here for more information!

I encourage all of my PR peeps to consider attending this great event – I promise you will come away inspired and ready to execute on all the ideas you will hear about. Registration is open now, so y’all come on down to Texas and we’ll talk PR in October!

We Moved!

Posted on | by Adrienne Newcomb

Ketner Group is excited to announce our new digs! Last week, we moved into our new home, where we plan to stay for the next five years. While we’re still getting settled in, the new space is already serving us well.

When we moved to our previous office two years ago, it was always thought of as a short-term fix for our growing team. With our new space we have everything we need: an office for each full-time team member, a kitchen (!), a conference room, tons of open space and plenty of room to expand as our team grows.

We’re still working to get the entire space decorated, furnished and set up but we thought we’d share a few “before” photos.

The reception area. KG logo coming soon.
The reception area. KG logo coming soon.
The conference room. You’ll see we still have some artwork to hang and need new furniture that scales better to the large room.

The conference room. You’ll see we still have some artwork to hang and need new furniture that scales better to the large room.
Lounge area between the offices.
Lounge area between the offices.
And most importantly…the kitchen! We didn’t have a kitchen at our last space so we’re pretty pumped to have a real kitchen with a sink.
And most importantly…the kitchen! We didn’t have a kitchen at our last space so we’re pretty pumped to have a real kitchen with a sink.

We hope that you’ll visit soon to see the finished space but until then, make sure you have our new mailing address on file:

Ketner Group PR + Marketing
3737 Executive Center Drive, Suite 210
Austin, TX 78731

MEET THE NEW GUY: AIDAN GRIFFIN JOINS THE KETNER GROUP TEAM

Posted on | by Aidan Griffin

Aidan HeadshotHello world, it’s me, Aidan. I’ve somehow been lucky enough to find myself among the experts at Ketner Group, surrounded by some extremely creative, intelligent and kooky people for the last few weeks and am glad to report I couldn’t be happier to be here.

I’d like to take a moment to introduce myself. I’m joining Ketner Group as a senior account executive, having begun my PR career in 2013 at Lois Paul & Partners (LPP), where I climbed the ranks from intern to account executive and learned the ropes of public relations and the fascinating nuances of the technology industry.

During my time at LPP, I served enterprise technology clients in a broad range of roles, from writing content to pitching news and thought leadership stories to managing social media accounts and ring-leading happy hour efforts. It was a great introduction to the breadth of experiences a PR pro can have and gave me the practice and confidence to expand on my favorite aspects of PR at Ketner Group.

I grew up in Boston and graduated from UMass Amherst with a degree in Political Science and History – the natural launching point to a career in retail and technology public relations. I’m still a political junkie at heart and my favorite books to read are biographies and historical fiction. Sometimes I wonder where my content creativity comes from with such practical interests like that…

While I generally believe I’m a well-adjusted, rational human being, my blood still flows thick with Masshole when the Pats, Bruins, Celtics and Sox battle our rivals. I love being on the move and am always looking for the next big adventure, cheap flight or new hobby – I currently play Gaelic Football (an Irish blend of rugby, soccer and basketball) and like to golf or hit the archery range when I’m feeling more precise than energetic.

I have a younger sister who decided I was cool enough (for once) to join me in Austin once she graduated from college, and I regularly find myself volunteering to dog-sit her little mutt, Scottie Pippen, when she goes out of town. Her job often requires (allows?) her to organize events involving legendary Texas BBQ joints and with the amount of leftovers that find their way into my fridge, there’s no way she likes her job more than I like it.

I’m excited to be on board here with Ketner Group, and here’s to having many, many more months as fun, challenging and interesting as the first!

Ice Cream’s Biggest Fan (and our new Intern): Meet Cambria!

Posted on | by Ketner Group | 1 Comment on Ice Cream’s Biggest Fan (and our new Intern): Meet Cambria!

Hello! My name is Cambria Sawyer, and I am thrilled to be joining the Ketner team as their newest intern! And yes, Cambria as in the font, wine, California town, and the heavy-progressive rock band Coheed and Cambria- but I am actually named after an old sailing ship in Rhode Island. My middle name is one of the most commonly chosen for children in China, but I’ll let you guess about that one!

CambriaWords are some of my favorite things on this earth. You can use them for good or evil, express your deepest thoughts and feelings, ask for ice cream (very important use of words), harness them to become closer to someone or push them farther away, motivate people toward life-changing action and a million other things. Words are powerful but also mischievous- it is not always known what effect they will have, and I think that is so dang cool. It’s truly a science to figure out how to best approach communication, and I think that is why I am so drawn to the fields of PR and marketing- they are mysterious and very, very fun.

My first major try at figuring out words came last year when I ran the promotion, marketing and creative aspects of a local non-profit’s 5K. We decided to call it the Record Run (themed around breaking a new world record every year), and broke the world record for the number of pennies collected for charity with over 500,000 pennies. Although it was my greatest challenge yet, I had an absolute blast branding the race, contacting media and strategizing for how to get more runners at the starting line. If you’ve ever wondered what half a million pennies look like, you can check it out here.

During my internship freshman year at the Frank Erwin Events Center, I had the Cambriaopportunity to approach marketing from an entirely different angle. Between holding interviews, analyzing social media response, and blog-writing, the learning curve was steep and also totally awesome. Plus, getting to high-five practically every professional fighter in the UFC was an added bonus.

Of course, there are a few completely non PR-related things that play a considerably large role in my personality, so here you have it:

  • I am six feet tall, but I am an absolute sucker for a pair of high heels.
  • My younger brother has a severe form of Tourette Syndrome. He and I have become ambassadors for the Tourette Association of America to help raise awareness and funding for the disorder. I am also currently writing a book about my family’s journey with Tourette’s (there are just way too many good stories for them to go untold).
  • If you give me ice cream, we are friends.
  • I absolutely love to travel and try new things. If you want to go on an adventure, the answer is almost always yes.
  • I am a drummer- I spent seven years in percussion, and four years playing tenors (55 lbs) on drumline. My next step is to learn steel drums!

Going into my sophomore year at The University of Texas at Austin as a PR major, I could not be more excited about the adventures that await me both on and off-campus. I am so thrilled to have been welcomed here at Ketner Group, and am excited to see what I can learn from such a talented team!

Caitlin New is Austin’s PRSA Member of the Month

Posted on | by Ketner Group

We just wanted to give a shout-out to our Director of Company Branding, Caitlin New, as she’s featured as the Public Relations Society of America’s Austin Chapter member of the month for January.

Caitlin is currently serving on the PRSA Austin board as Programs Chair, and is also on the planning committee for the PRSA Southwest District Conference (June 5-7) as the Special Events Chair. Check out her member spotlight article here!

Enough shameless bragging, now.