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This post concludes the three-part series celebrating the second year of the Common Sense Colloquy Q&A series . This post includes my favorite comment from each of the twelve smart people who participated in Year Two of this series. As with last year’s responses , I was again struck by how insightful and relevant the participants’ comments were for energy and environment communications today. In naming this series the “Common Sense Colloquy,” my intention was not just to link

Today, I’m sharing the second post in our three-part series marking the end of the second year of the Common Sense Colloquy . The Colloquy is our monthly Q&A series in which I pose questions about communications to energy and environmental leaders from a variety of influential organizations and institutions. Year Two was just as fascinating and insightful as Year One as you’ll see in the comments below highlighting the best common sense communications advice our participants

We’ve just wrapped up the second year of our series of monthly Q&As with influential energy and environmental leaders. It’s hard to believe we’ve now had two dozen participants in our Common Sense Colloquy series . As I noted last year at this time , I didn't know what to expect when I started this series in February 2018. What I hoped was that I’d get smart people to share common sense advice about communications. The results have far exceeded my hopes: each Q&A has been in

Five years ago at this time, I was preparing to hit “send” on a flurry of emails to contacts, colleagues, former clients and friends announcing the launch of my new public relations firm, RENEW PR . I was confident in the future, but I had no idea how terrific the next five years would be. In that time, I’ve worked with more than two dozen clients on projects large and small in areas across the country. I’ve helped clients communicate about topics as diverse as carbon capture

Our Fifth Anniversary in business is now just one week away (watch for a blog post next week with thoughts on what it means) so time is running out to share another update on one of the pro bono projects we conducted in 2019 to celebrate our fourth anniversary last January. Last summer, we took the opportunity to provide additional help to RENEW PR client Family Equality . Family Equality hired us in May of 2019 to work on a summer season media relations project in support o

Today, I joined with five colleagues to announce the launch of The Change Agencies, a new national network of independent public relations and marketing firms designed to change the way the industry communicates to, for and with multicultural and LGBTQ communities. We are the first national collective of independent PR firms to offer inclusive communications services to effectively represent, engage and connect with African American, Asian American, Latinx and LGBTQ communiti

Hello and welcome back to our Fearless Friday Predictions series in which we offer our best guesses about action on energy and environment topics and issues. Before we offer a new prediction, let’s check in on  Volume 4 from December 2018 . We predicted: Prediction 6: The Land and Water Conservation Fund will, finally, be reauthorized by Congress and the bill will be signed into law. But that won’t happen until early in 2019. Despite efforts to get it done before Congress lea

As I conclude the celebration of the first anniversary of the Common Sense Colloquy Q&A series , I’m sharing my favorite quote from each of the twelve brilliant people who participated in our first year. Although I asked each person a different set of questions, the responses aren’t just all wonderful examples of common sense, but they are timely, relevant and insightful about the current state of energy and environment communications and indeed, about communications in gener

Today, I’m continuing the celebration of the one-year anniversary of the Common Sense Colloquy , my monthly Q&A series in which I pose questions about communications to influential energy and environmental leaders from diverse backgrounds and experiences from finance to policy and business to advocacy. I’ve had the good fortune to work with many of our participants and I was thrilled to benefit again from the advice, perspective and experience they shared in this series. In

One year ago, I launched a new series called the Common Sense Colloquy . The idea was to ask notable energy and environmental leaders from a variety of different fields for their insight on communications based on their own experience and expertise. I didn’t know quite what to expect, but I knew that if I asked smart people to share their wisdom I’d at least get some interesting insight. By grounding the series in “common sense,” I wanted to identify simple, sensible feedback

Time flies when you’re having fun. It’s been four years since I launched RENEW PR on January 23, 2015. Since then, I’ve celebrated each business anniversary by highlighting the people and issues I’ve been fortunate enough to work with and on over the years. In the first two years , I celebrated our business anniversary with an evening reception ( and I even posted my playlist from the second anniversary party ). In the third year, I focused on giving back (with financial co

Sometimes it really is an honor to be nominated. I should know. On Monday of this week, I was notified that RENEW PR is a finalist in the category of Best LGBT-Owned Business for the 2018 Best of Gay DC Awards sponsored by The Washington Blade . Wow. I had no idea we’d been nominated so I was floored when I found out we were finalists. Really, I feel like we’ve already won. I’m proud of our LGBT Business Enterprise certification from the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce a

Note: This post was originally published by O'Dwyer's PR Report under the title " DC Group Promotes LGBTQ PR Jobs, Rights " on Thursday, July 12, 2018. It’s 2018. Equal marriage is legal in all 50 states. “Will & Grace” is back on the air. Ellen DeGeneres is a cultural and pop icon. Society is finally beginning to acknowledge the existence (if not always the value and worth) of bisexual and transgender people. A casual observer might think that LGBTQ people today enjoy both

This month, I’ve launched a new initiative, DC Family Communicators , to serve as a professional networking group for LGBTQ communicators in the DC metropolitan area. This DC group is based on a similar group in Atlanta and will share information and networking opportunities with our Atlanta colleagues. Our focus is on sharing job listings and announcing promotions and new positions for LGBTQ communications professionals in DC. The objective is for these efforts to help boost

Welcome to our first Common Sense Colloquy, a Q&A with Marcene Mitchell of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) . Marcene is Global Head of Strategy and Business Development in the Climate Business Department of IFC . We had the privilege of working with Marcene and her team in 2016 on a partnership program designed to help improve linkages between IFC and key energy and environment constituencies. Last month, we reached out to Marcene to get an update on IFC’s climat

Today marks our third year in business. And what a three years it has been. From the optimistic feelings of 2015 to the hopeful caution of 2016 and the wild disappointment of 2017, the world is a vastly different place today than we ever would have imagined when we started on January 23, 2015. While there are certainly many reasons for hope as we begin 2018, there’s also a lot of concern about world peace, the future of American leadership in the world and the state of our en

With a name like RENEW PR , you'd think that it was Earth Day every day for us. And it pretty much is. But we're always happy to see worldwide attention focused on the important priorities related to protecting the planet we all call home. Today's signing of the Paris Agreement in New York is a terrific way to mark the day and will be a launching pad for new and continuing conversations about the policies required to balance environmental protection with economic and social

Restoring common sense to communications means many things to us. A return to basics. A focus on our four key principles of communications: truth, clarity, engagement and collaboration . An approach built on the idea that senior-level experts should do the work as well as guide the overall effort with and for our clients. It also means highlighting what makes us unique as a firm. RENEW PR is, among other things, a gay-owned business. We are proud members of the Capital

Despite the presence of so-called “religious freedom” laws on the books in 30 other states, the original version of the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (RFRA) signed into law in Indiana last month ignited a firestorm of controversy in a very short period of time. Given that the bill is somewhat similar (although much more broad) to other existing state laws, why did this one generate such swift, negative reaction? There were many reasons – including the fact that the bi

Note: This post, written by Ben Finzel, originally appeared on PR Newser on March 18, 2015. Separating the politics of the situation for a moment, let’s consider the communications lessons from the stunning rise and shattering fall of Congressman Aaron Schock. The fourth-term Congressman from Peoria (literally – you can’t make this stuff up) yesterday announced his resignation from Congress (effective March 31) after a six-week news cycle that churned out revelation after