This year's event takes place at the Sheraton Clayton Plaza (7730 Bonhomme, St. Louis, MO 63105).
Plot the course to achieving your organization’s goals with the ideas you’ll find at Spectrum, the Community Service Public Relations Council’s annual all-day conference for nonprofit executive directors, board members, volunteers, and marketing and development staff.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
7:30 – 8:15 a.m.: Registration & Continental Breakfast
8:15 – 8:45 a.m.
Welcome & Keynote Address: The Levity Advantage: Using Humor for Serious Impact
Steve Hughes, president • Hit Your Stride, LLC
How would you like your target audiences not only to pay more attention to what you say, but also to remember it better? You’ll do just that when you use appropriate humor to set up and reinforce your key points. Humor will also help you deliver dry material with flair while maintaining your professionalism and credibility. Lock on to the power of levity to increase your likeability and make deeper connections with colleagues, donors, supporters, and even the media.
9 – 10:15 a.m.: Breakout Sessions I
Leadership Track
Managing What You Measure With Emerging Technology
David Schenberg, founder • BusyEvent
You operate meetings and events, but often don’t know how effective they are. In this interactive session, we challenge traditional yardsticks and develop a plan for what and how you measure. Bring your smarts and your smart phone because we will use them both to rediscover the power of managing what you measure. Get useful tech tips and a sneak peek at the technologies that can accelerate your program goals and engage your audiences in new ways.
Development Track
Come Together, Right Now: Unify Your Marketing and Development Strategies
Jason A. Huff, MBA, CFRE, director of institutional giving, and Stacy Austerman, MA, coordinator of advancement communications • St. Louis College of Pharmacy
Whether you are on the communications team, the development team, or a one-person team doing it all, you’ll strengthen your organization and achieve greater goals when you understand the ways that development and communication strategies can work in tandem. In this session, you’ll learn how to overcome organizational culture barriers, identify where marketing and fundraising strategies intersect, and develop a plan of action to implement a more cohesive strategy.
Marketing/Communications Track
Controversy and Crisis Communication: Cruise Control Off
Everett Dietle, director of communications & marketing • Missouri History Museum
Without warning, an organization may find itself in a maelstrom of controversy. Everything is on the line: reputation, public confidence, funding, employee morale, the ability to fulfill the mission. With candor and humor, Everett shares what has worked, what has failed, and the surprising lessons emerging from the negative publicity surrounding his museum. Nothing is off limits in this up-front analysis. Explore how to survive—and thrive—during a communications crisis.
New to…Creating a Communications Team
Build a Communications Committee; Make a Plan for Your Organization
Joseph F. Mueller, principal • Mueller Communications
Nonprofit professionals in communications and development must continually increase their effectiveness, productivity, and value to their organization. Learn how to assemble a team and develop a plan to help you transition from doing multiple tasks to managing multiple projects. This session works on how to best evaluate your current efforts and develop specific tactics for marketing communications that are fully integrated into your organization’s mission.
10:30 – 11:45 a.m.: Breakout Sessions II
Leadership Track
Leveraging Generational Differences in Nonprofit Organizations
C. Leilani Carver, Ph.D., assistant professor and undergraduate and graduate director of communication • Maryville University of St. Louis
How does our generational identity help shape our worldview? Through interactive discussion and activities, this session will discuss how generational differences affect our styles of leadership and communication. Dr. Carver will share how to take the latest research on generations and leverage this diversity and distinctions to better achieve your organization’s goals.
Development Track
Building a Mutually Beneficial Reason for Giving: Creating the Win-Win
Amy Weseloh Gray, financial advisor, and David Brown, CFP® • Spectrum Planning Group
Individual giving, bequests, and family foundations account for over 80% of giving. How can nonprofits show that thinking long-term will benefit donors and their families as well as the organization? You’ll take home these tools and more to create lasting gifts: a basic understanding of the types of charitable giving methods, examples of how they are used, and specific bullet points to discuss with potential donors.
Marketing/Communications Track
From Complex to Clear: Stop Sending Messages That Confuse, Alienate, or Bore
Maryanne Dersch, strategist and superfan • 501creative
In an increasingly complex marketplace, it is more important than ever that nonprofits have clear, compelling, and meaningful messages. Simple messages make it easy to tell your story and to solidify your current supporters and attract new ones. You’ll learn what a guiding message is and how to create one, as well as how to create a main message and talking points, craft an elevator conversation, and use outcome-based storytelling to engage supporters.
New to…Facebook 2.0
Fixing Your Facebook: Putting Your Best Face Forward
David Craig, principal • David Craig PR & Marketing
Amy Burger, principal • Amy Burger Strategic Communications
Facebook provides wonderful opportunities for non-profits to interact with numerous stakeholder groups. But are you sending the right messages with your posts? Are your responses timely and on target? How compelling is your cover photo? As a Facebook admin, are you making best use of your mobile device? David and Amy will share tips and offer their thoughts about several local organizational Facebook pages.
11:45 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Lunch & Keynote Address: Pilot Your Team Toward Engaging Your Community
Department of External Affairs • St. Louis Symphony
Adam Crane, vice president for external affairs
Erika Ebsworth-Goold, publicist
Eddie Silva, external affairs and publications manager
Maureen Byrne, community partnerships manager
Dacy Gillespie, education programs manager
Jessica Ingraham, Youth Orchestra manager
The crew of the St. Louis Symphony’s Department of External Affairs will help you steer your organization toward increased buzz and media coverage, fruitful relationships, and effective partnerships. Two years ago, the Symphony re-imagined its outreach efforts and created External Affairs. Their team-based, community engagement approach to building bridges and getting the best stories told about the Symphony will yield insights even for organizations with small budgets and few staff.
1:45 – 3 p.m.: Breakout Sessions III
Leadership Track
How to Foster a Vibrant, Effective Board: Principles, Practices, and Tools
John McClusky, Ph.D., director emeritus • Nonprofit Management and Leadership Program, University of Missouri-St. Louis
A potent board of directors is a must-have for any successful nonprofit organization. But how do you get the most out of your board? Based on extensive research compiled on nonprofit boards, you will learn about effective board development, leadership, planning, and processes. This session will also look at creating a positive board culture and the board’s role in external relations.
Development Track
What’s the Big Idea? Brand Your Capital Campaign’s Cause Instead of Needs
Nathan Sprehe and Angie Winschel, principals and co-founders • Almanac, Inc.
Caron House, development director • KDHX-FM
Every fundraising campaign needs to find the “big idea”—the cause inside the campaign—and communicate so that potential donors want to engage with and support it. With KDHX as a case study, this presentation will lay out a process for branding your campaign with strategic messaging, share a framework for identifying and connecting with your audiences, and explore the use of digital/social media . You’ll walk away with checklists and other tools for complete campaign marketing planning.
Marketing/Communications Track
Media Panel: The Changing Direction of TV Reporting
Mike Colombo, reporter • KMOV-TV
Other participants TBA
The new trend in television media is reporters who follow leads, interview, shoot, and edit their own packages. What do these reporters look for in a story, what challenges do they face, and what should you do to get them to notice your organization? And what’s the next trend around the corner? The panel will also discuss social media and its role in their pursuit of stories and generating leads.
New to…Integrated Campaigns
Where Did That Gift Come From? Attributing Multi-Channel Gifts
Jana Byington-Smith, CFRE, philanthropy systems project director • Mercy Philanthropy
Angela Struebing, vice president, client services • The Lukens Company
Multichannel campaigns mean better results. But when a single constituent receives consistent messaging through several channels, how do you know which source provoked the response? We'll discuss our attribution model for integrated campaigns that helps organizations determine which channel gets “credit” for which conversions, and how to create a model for your organization. Learn how sophisticated reporting helps you understand how one channel influences another and better allocate your budget.
3:15 – 4:30 p.m.: Breakout Sessions IV
Leadership Track
Creating Your Communications Playbook
Allison Collinger, principal • ACH Consulting, LLC
A playbook is essential for a great game—the same is true in communications! Find out what a communications playbook is and how it can help your organization manage traditional, digital, print, and all other forms of communication outreach. Whether you’re a novice or a veteran, you can use this strategy to refresh your current efforts.
Development Track
Third Party Evaluators: What You Need to Know
Jim Judge, owner • Judge Evaluation Services, LLC
If you are in marketing, development or an executive role, you have probably seen the many different reports on charities that are available to the public. Learn how each of these groups gathers information and produces reports on your organization. Many donors today are going online to do research before donating. You can use these reports not only to strengthen your organization, but to increase your bottom line.
Marketing/Communications Track
Maneuvering the Maze of Social Media Trends
Jill Hampton, web producer • KTVI-TV / Fox 2
You've got a Facebook page—should you use Twitter? What about Path, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google+? There's always a new social media opportunity. It's hard to tell which one to join and how to best focus your energy. We'll look at how to evaluate new social media trends, how to maintain energy on your current commitments, and how to bring more people onto the social media bandwagon.
New To…Website Analytics
Measuring “Website Success” for Big-Time Impact
Jonathan Goldford and David Hartstein, partners • Wired Impact
While having a beautiful, functional website is wonderful, the point of a website is to help your organization meet its goals. In this presentation, we’ll discuss how to identify what “website success” means for your organization as well as how you can measure the effectiveness of your site. We love data, but this presentation won’t be overly technical. It’s aimed at developing website goals and finding ways to measure them.
4:30 – 5 p.m.: Open Networking
REGISTRATION FEES
CSPRC Member - $105
Non-Member - $125
Full-time Student - $75
Fees include all conference materials, breakfast and lunch.
If you're interested in getting your business or organization involved with the event, Spectrum sponsorship opportunities are an excellent source of recognition. There are various sponsorship levels available. Click here to view available sponsorships and to print out the sponsor-vendor contract.
Bronze Sponsors
Bellefontaine Cemetary
Give Back Marketing Group
Maryville University
Mental Health America of Eastern Missouri
The Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis
The Rome Group
St. Louis Audio Visual, Inc.
St. Louis Pre-Sort, Inc.
United Way of Greater St. Louis