David Tobin & Janet Tyler

You only get to sell each company you own one time, so knowing your exit options will help you monetize your business interests when the time is right. In this workshop, you will learn the pros, cons, and economics of different exit pathways, including selling to a strategic buyer, selling to a PE group, selling to employees via a Management Buy Out Plan, or forming an ESOP. You will see case studies and ascertain how valuations differ for each option. By gaining clarity on your viable exit pathways, you will be able to manage the business today to maximize your exit payday.

Abbie S. Fink, Peter Van Dyke & Dana Phelps

Explore the intricate journey of PR agency ownership transitions with insights from four CPRSA members. Delve into the challenges and triumphs of their experiences, and uncover best practices and cautionary tales in this engaging panel discussion.

Lisa Arledge Powell & Shauna Nuckles

Every agency owner in attendance at CAPRSA will want to be part of this conversation to hear firsthand from an agency owner of 25 years–who built her firm from the ground up–on the steps she’s taken over the last 12 months to prepare her company for this transition. And we’re not talking legal paperwork. She’ll be joined by her millennial successor and her agency’s operations partner, who will explain why succession is not just handing the keys over one afternoon to spend a lifetime on the beach. It takes a full-scale operational revolution and a cross-generational buy-in strategy. The good news, however, is that you have options. Learn from individuals who are currently in the trenches to uncover what it truly takes to secure an exit from your agency.

Darryl Salerno

Many agencies are on a cash basis for tax purposes and then review their monthly performance on that basis as well. Proper management techniques require that budgets and monthly performance be reviewed on an accrual basis instead.

Tracking cash is important, but evaluating an agency's performance based on when cash is received is deceptive and doesn't allow you to understand the health of the company. Each month, revenue earned, based on the work done, should be compared to actual expenses for the month. Proper timing is critical.ext goes here

Kim Sample

While agency leaders understand that human brilliance will always be a fundamental element of successful PR, some clients are already asking for cost-savings due to use of generative AI tools. To maintain and grow profitability, firms will need to add revenue models beyond monthly retainers and hourly billing.

The session begins with a look at the potential role generative AI will play in our agencies and some of the tasks wherein agency hours are already or soon-to-be replaced. We'll review specific use cases to examine the impact on agencies' typical business models and illustrate the need for change.

As solutions to the problem, we will explore different models -- including subscription pricing, productization, and value pricing. The presentation will clearly explain each model, detail how each benefits the agency and its clients, and share the specific steps to get started.

We can all agree that this isn’t an easy switch. The billable hour and retainer models may not be gone, but forward-thinking agencies should be exploring multiple revenue models. As clients come to understand the various models, they will understand that it’s a win for them as well. This session will provide a clear path forward for agencies and clients.

Matthew Vittone

This presentation will address key legal issues facing PR agencies as media and technology evolve (including the integration of AI into PR services), including practical tips for mitigating risk and considerations for negotiating PR agency contracts.

1. Provide practical guidance on legal issues associated with AI and strategies for mitigating risk when integrating AI into PR agency services.

2. Discuss intellectual property issues relevant to the current digital and social media landscape.

3. Address how PR agencies are re-defining and re-positioning their services as the industry evolves (and how these changes are being addressed in PR agency contracts).

Frank Cowell

What is it that separates the high growth agencies from those that are stuck and stagnant? It all boils down to making specific shifts in your approach to directing and managing your agency.

In this talk, agency veteran Frank Cowell will share five paradigm shifts to quickly build an agency that runs smoothly and profitably. Specifically, Frank will share...

- A step-by-step game plan to eliminate chaos, get your team aligned, and create growth momentum so you can start driving predictable growth, quarter after quarter, year after year

- Why simply “closing more deals” is NOT a good strategy for growing your agency.... and how you can make sure that you land the right clients at the right price starting TODAY

- The secret to getting buy-in from your team so you can delegate with ease and free-up your time dramatically... and actually take time off

- How successful agencies consistently smash their revenue targets and successfully complete strategic initiatives on time every time... and the management methodology that makes it happen quickly

- AND... how you can do all of this while enjoying your agency once again with total peace of mind because you finally have a company that runs smoothly and profitably

Even if you've been struggling with ""#agencylife"" for a long time, this talk should not be missed

Mike Johnson

In this interactive session, PR and Communications agency leaders will gain hands-on experience of how to develop personas of their client's stakeholders/audiences based on the most common behavioral and cognitive science concepts that can make or break campaigns.

As a result, after completing this session, attendees will...

1. Learn the importance of having a deep understanding of the stakeholders/audiences of their campaigns.

2. Learn about the behavioral science concepts that are most likely to impact the effectiveness of PR and Communications campaigns.

3. Learn about a framework and template they can use to develop a PR/COMMS specific stakeholder or audience persona based on either formal and informal research

4. Gain access to templates and tips that they can share with their team to use for client projects

5. Be better equipped to leverage empathy to execute PR and COMMs campaigns in an increasingly challenging social and cultural environment

Jessica Broome

As a longtime insights professional with experience conducting research for PR agencies both large and small over the past 20 years, I have witnessed firsthand several dramatic shifts in how PR teams use research– and in the research methodologies and reporting tools that are available. This presentation will start with an overview of “traditional” uses, methods, and outputs for communications research, and discuss some of the societal and industry changes that have happened over the past two decades. The bulk of my presentation will involve a demonstration of new research and reporting tools that PR practitioners can make use of.

Setting the Stage: What is Primary Research and How is it Used in Communications? Primary research (collecting our own data, as opposed to secondary research with data that already exist) can be further categorized into quantitative (surveys) and qualitative (focus groups, interviews, ethnographies). PR teams tend to use primary research for three main reasons: to inform campaigns and get to know an audience; as a tactic to generate media fodder; and to measure ROI and impact.

Going Old School: The Way it Used to Be

When I started in this field near the turn of the century, the research tools and methods available were time-consuming and expensive, at least by today’s standards. Conducting a thought leadership study to inform a communications campaign was a massive undertaking involving many months of work. Landline phone surveys were a standby; we also did a lot of in-person focus groups. Research reports in that era were similarly clunky, tedious, and time-consuming both to create and to absorb.

The Times, They are A-Changing

Organizational priorities and budgets, technology, and societal shifts have all played a part in forming a totally different research landscape from the one I learned as a junior analyst 20+ years ago. The pace of life and the pace of business are so much faster now that it’s no surprise that research respondents are less likely to engage in studies– and that the 30-minute questionnaires the were once ubiquitous are now practically obsolete, replaced by surveys that are 10 minutes or less. Clients who were content with a 6 week timeline now want results in 24 hours or less. Telephone surveys have given way to research that is largely online, with the “mobile first” approach to questionnaire design becoming widespread in the past decade as the proportion of US adults owning smartphones went from 35% in 2011 to 85% today, according to Pew. This makes it much easier to target specific groups for research, but at the same time, there’s a lot more content competing for potential respondents’ attention.

Research for PR Today

This part of my presentation will include brief demonstrations of several different research tools, with tie-backs to how each could be used in a communications context:

1. Large scale, AI assisted methodologies can be used for quick and easy sniff tests with a broader audience than your friends or colleagues.

2. Mobile ethnographies/ mobile missions and “over the shoulder” research can provide an intimate look at a target audience in their natural environment.

3. Market research online communities: Asynchronous research platforms, many modeled after social media, can be a way to cocreate and iterate concepts or messages with your target audience.

4. More robust panels, which make it easier to do small surveys among specific groups, make ongoing tracking and measurement feasible.

I will also provide an overview of new modes of reporting, with demos of each, including podcast and video reports, micro-sites, and “life size” infographics.

Zach Montroy

Growing an agency can be overwhelming if you don’t have a plan. Many agencies have seen revenue stalling (or worse, dipping) revenue, owners feeling like they’re wasting time chasing ideas that don’t move the needle, and teams feeling like they’re guessing instead of following a process.

This simply leads to sleepless nights for owners and the constant feeling like you’re never going to push through that next growth barrier.

This session is tailored specifically for PR agency owners facing the challenges of agency expansion. We'll tackle the familiar struggle of juggling multiple roles – from leadership to sales, marketing, and financial management – and how this often leads to growth stagnation in small businesses.

Our focus will be on introducing a clear, actionable plan to overcome these common plateaus. We'll guide you through a strategic approach designed to optimize your agency's operations, enhancing both revenue and profitability. This session is not just about theories but about practical, easy-to-implement frameworks that concentrate on the critical aspects of your business.

Participants will engage in an interactive journey to build their ""business roadmap,” a unique model that helps pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses within their agencies. This process will lead to a customized plan addressing key areas such as sales, marketing, leadership, cash flow, product development, and overhead management.

This breakout session promises to equip you with the tools and confidence needed to break through the barriers of growth. Say goodbye to guesswork and overwhelm, and embrace a future of clarity and accelerated growth for your PR agency."

Lisa Apolinski

The use of AI has grown at an exponential rate. But how can your marketing team use AI wisely to generate content, leverage the many AI tools now available, yet still incorporate branding and storytelling?

In this session, Content Coach and Digital Content Futurist Lisa Apolinski explores how to use AI to create content that still has value to your audience and sparks engagement, and which new AI tools make content creation easier and accurate.

Ken Jacobs

Giving effective feedback to team members, peers, clients, and bosses is one of the most important things an agency leader or executive can do. Sadly, most of us get it wrong. This session will help you get it right! In our experience, leaders and executives try to give constructive critique. The problem is they shift from constructive to critique too quickly. As a result, the respondents of the feedback don't hear what we want them to do. This session focuses on how to give truly constructive feedback, that is, feedback that not only results in the performance or behavior improvement we desire, but actually helps construct something: Trust, their desire to be open to more feedback in the future, and an enhanced relationship.

Carla Vallone & Sharon Toerek

The team relies on you. The clients depend on you. A million little things likely rely on YOU - the agency leader. At no fault of your own, there could come a day when you have to take a leave of absence from the business. Whether for a family emergency, to be a caretaker, or because you become sick or injured, the agency must be able to operate without you for your financial well-being and the livelihood of your employees.

In this presentation, CAPRSA members Sharon Toerek, Founder/CEO of Toerek Law, and Carla Vallone, President Portavoce, share learnings from their recent experiences as caregiver and patient. They will help you prepare for leave from a team, financial, and client perspective.

In this session, you will learn:

-What legal tools to have in place now to ensure your agency can successfully operate in your absence.

-Financial planning and insurance investments that will give you the security to walk away from the stressors of work to care for yourself or a loved one.

-Succession planning at the account and agency level to support employees and clients or plan for a permanent exit from the business.

-Human resources tasks that ensure you and your employees will be secure in the face of personal crisis.

- The pros and cons of working through a crisis versus taking full leave, and things to consider when deciding.

- How to recognize the gaps in your exit plan now so they don’t become potholes during an absence.

- Communicating about your needs - what to say and not to say to employees and clients (and yourself!)

Sharon and Carla will also provide personal insights about where they succeeded and failed on their multi-year journeys and the rainbows that emerged after the rain.

You’ll walk away with a printed checklist of actions to take when you get back to your desk after the conference and two trusted counselors you can reach out to if you ever face similar challenges.

Elise Mitchell

The foundation of every successful agency is a consistent ability to win new business and grow the business you have. This requires earning the trust and confidence of clients, which might sound simple, but in fact is much harder than we would like. Clients are complex, they change their minds, they don’t always know what they want – and yet they hold the future of your agency in their hands.

This session will help you pull back the veil of mystery on what clients are thinking so you can understand why they hesitate and, most importantly, how to get them to “yes.” Specifically you’ll learn:

(1) Strategies for enhancing your client onboarding process that will reduce the friction that often arises later in client relationships;

(2) What to do when client hesitancy happens including specific questions you can ask to help both you and the client understand what’s holding them back; and

(3) Steps you can take to overcome the obstacles and move the engagement forward.

Mark Mohammadpour & J. Mark Riggs

A new agency/client relationship can be exciting, but without critical steps taken in the negotiation and onboarding phase, can lead to confusion, burnout, and swift contract severance. Additionally, the production and longevity of that client relationship will be firmly on track with the mutual expression of expectations or derailed sooner rather than much late This interactive discussion will focus on 10 critical steps agency leaders should take to ensure the well-being and growth of your team and your business is strong.

We’ll dive into four critical aspects of the client/agency relationship: RFPs, negotiation, ink on paper, and the vital 90-day onboarding and alignment period. During each step, we’ll share actionable steps agency owners, and their teams should take to ensure clarity.

Adam Probolsky

Firms that have an aversion to Requests for Proposals (RFP) – I am going to blow apart the myths that you can't win them. And I will share every technique we have used to submit over 200 RFPs annually and beat our win rate every year.

Dan Farkas

Bad hires are expensive, emotionally draining, and increasingly more common.

More than 60% of businesses said young employees lack the critical thinking skills, attention to detail, and writing pedigree needed to do the work.

More than 60% of new hires don’t think their employers can provide necessary training to do the work.

The lack of communication among communication professionals is alarming and counter productive to our field. Let’s fix it.

Half Hearts and Whole Brains: Minding The Gap Between Gen Z and Me will explain how we got into this mess, then identify new ways to build transparency and trust among young talent and agency owners. Hiring managers will leave with concrete ideas to boost employee quality, training, and retention. They will also uncover different ways to express agency expectations to new talent in a way they will remember and adopt. Participants will also leave with a to do list when it's time to head home.

Molly Eyerman

As agencies grow, their teams need to continue to develop. In small companies without an in-house HR professional, it can be tough to find the time and resources to build and execute a formal L&D program. This session will help agency owners and their VPs/#2s understand how to create a L&D program for their team, no matter how small, that will help drive results. In this session, they’ll start to build a program by first analyzing their company needs and their team’s strengths & gaps, then prioritizing development needs based on constraints (budget, timeline), and finally identifying and building the first step of their agency’s L&D program. This session will help you assess your agency, your team, and develop a practical, impactful L&D program that gets the results you want.

Fran Stephenson

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Your social media coordinators are just not cutting it.

Sure your “juniors” aren’t afraid of creating content on social platforms, but it’s clear they don’t know why or how to advance their skillset beyond that. Is it your hiring/screening process? Is it generational? Or maybe you’re just not investing in their professional development?

In this session, we’ll talk about helping your junior social media managers to succeed in planning, management, analytics, reporting. We’ll also talk about how to build a transferable skillset to create more value for your agency. You will leave with a checklist to make your social coordinators more promotable and reduce the churn from constantly replacing social coordinators.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Your social media coordinators are just not cutting it.

Sure your “juniors” aren’t afraid of creating content on social platforms, but it’s clear they don’t know why or how to advance their skillset beyond that. Is it your hiring/screening process? Is it generational? Or maybe you’re just not investing in their professional development?

In this session, we’ll talk about helping your junior social media managers to succeed in planning, management, analytics, reporting. We’ll also talk about how to build a transferable skillset to create more value for your agency. You will leave with a checklist to make your social coordinators more promotable and reduce the churn from constantly replacing social coordinators.

Jamie Hampton & Karim Bouris

PR is one of the most stressful careers – but it doesn’t have to be. It’s time to take control of the 24-hour news cycle and give yourself – and your team – time to recuperate. Enter the Four Day Work Week. This new way of thinking will help you increase joy, boost productivity, and recruit and retain talent that was previously unreachable.

Join Mixte Communications’ principals to learn why they made the switch to a Four-Day Work Week in January 2023, how they structured it, and what their team and clients think about it. In this session, you’ll have time to acknowledge your own barriers and assumptions to changing the American 5-day norm and develop an action plan to help you overcome your resistance.

Jamie O'Grady, Melanie Wilt and Allie Lundberg

Many PR business executives were thrust into managing a hybrid or remote workforce during the pandemic, whether they wanted to or not. Others have been dabbling in this work style for years. Learn from two CEOs -- one who proactively embraced the hybrid workstyle in 2013 and one who moved to a hybrid work model after reopening all global offices in the Autumn of 2020.

Over the past few years, J/PR and Shift•ology have successfully transitioned into this new work model, and as such, the companies’ cultures have also evolved. Both continue to navigate through the challenges and opportunities to create and mold a reimagined company culture today, to continue sustaining a highly engaged work life in this new environment.

Learn how these two companies have achieved efficiency, productivity and balance in a hybrid environment through new approaches to engaging employees through onboarding, training and education.

Allie Lundberg, president of J/PR will moderate a lively discussion with Jamie O’Grady, founding partner of J/PR and Melanie Wilt, founder and CEO of Shift•ology Communication, which will cover the following topics:

- Building a culture in which every employee is a “star” when you aren’t with them day-in and day-out for valuable in-person learning

- Individual workstyles and preferences for engagement,

- Benefits of hybrid and remote work,

- Establishing expectations and policies

- Dealing with toxic and difficult employees in remote enviornments,

- Ensuring positive morale,

- The invaluable benefit of work-life balance,

- Tangible and intangible costs, and

- What we’re still learning …