That was the substance of my talk last Friday in St. Louis at the Public Relations Society of America’s 2015 Midwest District Conference. A great conference, lots of talent in the house.

One of the attendees had very high praise, remarking afterwards that it was “the best presentation on IP” she has experienced — “very substantive, but understandable.” Thanks!

If you’d like a copy of my slides, just let me know. Better yet, if your organization would like to have a lunch and learn around this topic, let’s try to get it on the calendar soon.

The highlight of the two day conference, for me, was Fred Cook’s keynote address called “Improvise: Unconventional Career Advice from an Unlikely CEO,” — Cook is CEO of Golin.

Loved Cook’s advice to “play it by ear,” “go all in,” and “improvise” by taking something ordinary and making is special, and the Golin “unternship” was nothing less than inspiring.

Tom Wilson, Monsanto VP Global Communication and Corporate Marketing, also delivered a powerful and candid presentation about “Engaging With Audiences Beyond Your Customers.”

Sandi Straetker, APR, Principal of PRiority Relations, LLC pitched high energy and practical advice on “How to Win with the Media,” complete with numerous baseball metaphors.

Kate Bushnell, President of the Grossman Group gracefully delivered helpful advice and valuable insights in her “Top Ten Consulting Mistakes Communicators Make” presentation.

Ron Waterman, VP of Communications for the St. Louis Cardinals, demonstrated the highly successful use of today’s communications tools to connect, inform and engage Cardinals fans.

Debra Bethard-Caplick, MS, MBA, APR, and Managing Partner at QuickSilver Edge Strategic Communications, persuasively explained how to create behavior change, while discarding the all-too-common “we want to raise awareness” reason for a PR campaign.

The most difficult and challenging aspect of the two day conference was trying to decide between 3-4 amazing breakout sessions at the same time, so if I didn’t mention your session, I’m sure it was great too, but I probably just missed it!