Shaping the Message

June 18, 2009, 3:00pm – 5:00pm

About This Event

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At this roundtable we’ll look at what constitutes successful messaging for branding, engagement, and advocacy. We’ll also talk about how messages are shaped to influence targeted audiences; how language practices and protocols shift; and the role of new media and social networks.

Those are key concerns for all of us seeking to shape the public debate, mobilize people to action, driving press coverage, and influence policymakers. While many may have the gift of gab and charm to come by effective messaging naturally, the truth is good messaging takes careful work.

Join us on Thursday, June 18, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Center for American Progress Action Fund as we explore these questions with a panel of leading messaging experts from the branding and new media worlds. We’ll discuss what’s at work when well-crafted messages mobilize targeted audiences, and what’s going wrong when they don’t.

To stream this event live, click here.

Speakers:
Todd Cavalier, Creative Director, Informatics
Cherie Beck, Social Media Expert
Larke Paul, New Media Expert
Susan Finkelpearl, Online Strategy Director, Free Range Studio
Deborah Murphy, Linguistic Anthropologist

Moderator:
Alan Rosenblatt, Ph.D., Associate Director of Online Advocacy, Center for American Progress Action Fund
 

Location

Center for American Progress Action Fund
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005

Biographies

Todd Cavalier is responsible for steering the overall vision and direction of Informatics Studio, an interdisciplinary design firm headquartered in Pittsburgh with a strong presence in Washington D.C. The firm offers expertise in communication strategy, technology, message development, social marketing, and audience-specific visual design to regional, national and international clients. Prior to starting Informatics in 1992, Todd taught communication design and theory classes at Carnegie Mellon University for seven years. In addition to serving as design program specialist for the U.S. Information Agency in Eastern Europe, Todd received a Smithsonian Computerworld Award for his design of storyboards for the Great American History Machine, a statistical software tool for visualizing American census data, which are included in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian. His work has been published internationally and presented at conferences focusing on design and technology. He holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design.

Cherie Beck spent 17 years working as an executive account manager consulting with large and medium sized companies to adapt business processes to digital computing based systems. For the last 10 years, Cherie has studied human nature and cultural diversity through the lenses of several emerging integrative models.  She actively applies whole systems thinking to issues associated with individual lives, organizational development and community dynamics. An accomplished problem-solver framed by big picture patterns, Cherie is motivated by a deep sense of purpose to be a cooperative and skillful player during this time she sees as the “Era of Solutions.” She feels a creative impulse to find useful, affordable and accessible ways to use the explosion of technology, knowledge and global connectivity so all of us can better navigate daily lives and shape our own futures as we meet complex and quickly changing conditions. Her goal is to be self responsible to create life style that is extraordinarily fulfilling while simultaneously serving the grand process of the evolution of life which she senses is at a critical point in our collective history.

Larke Paul is a senior consultant with Guident, a technology consulting firm specializing in business intelligence, management consulting, and systems engineering solutions. Larke works with clients on analysis, user experience, and how to leverage web-based technologies to improve system usability, streamline business processes, and adapt to rapidly changing system standards. Formerly, Larke was an account manager at Threespot Media, where she led interactive and strategic initiatives on behalf of clients such as the Pew Internet and American Life Project, Service Employees International Union and Peace Corps. Larke enjoyed working closely with clients to cultivate future thinking and planning, technology exploration, and creative ideation. Prior to joining Threespot Media, Larke was a Principal at Dante Consulting where she played a significant role in development efforts for the government's payment portal, Pay.gov, and AOL’s Web 2.0-Service Oriented Architecture project. Larke is passionate about emerging technologies and the intersection of the Internet and daily life.

Susan Finkelpearl blends communications strategy with emerging web technologies to transform client websites from static e-brochures into vibrant communities, where individuals gather and rally around issues they care about. She has led the development of information architecture, guided the web design, and planned the online promotion of sites including American Jewish World Service, National Parks Conservation Association and Save the Children's Online Gift Catalog. Prior to joining Free Range in 2004, Susan racked up knowledge of today's most critical environmental and social issues as communications director at the Worldwatch Institute. Her passion for community involvement comes from her years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Slovakia, where she established a youth center, taught English, and assisted community foundations with strategic planning and fundraising. Susan is currently pursuing a Master's in communications with a concentration on digital technologies at The Johns Hopkins University.

Deborah Murphy is a Ph.D student at American University, studying linguistic anthropology, and Principal of EthnoGraphics, a strategic consulting group that conducts research for branding, identity and design firms. After a successful career in marketing and business development, Deborah returned to graduate school in 2007. Her research focuses on the influence of mediated texts on recruitment and allegiance, with emphasis on message shaping. She is committed to ethnography—or on-the-ground research—as the basis for understanding culture and cultural diversity, and as the means to reveal the material effects of messaging on individuals and communities. For Deborah, anthropological engagement is essential to understanding the real sociocultural impacts of visual and textual messaging at the human level. She believes that by deconstructing these effects we may enable more informed choices and forestall or mitigate threats to family, to community and to human integrity. As a former intern at The Center for American Progress, Deborah developed content for the online communications team and helped organize programs for the Internet Advocacy Roundtable.

Alan Rosenblatt is the Associate Director for Online Advocacy at CAP Action. He is a frequent speaker and author on digital media, advocacy, and politics, including social networking, blogging, grassroots, and mobile advocacy strategies. He is the founder of the Internet Advocacy Center and the Internet Advocacy Roundtable; an adjunct professor at Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, and American Universities, where he teaches media and politics in the Digital Age, Internet politics, digital political strategies, and Internet advocacy communications; a blogger at the Huffington Post, TechPresident.com, and DrDigiPol.com; and a former fellow at George Washington University's Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet. Alan is also a founding team member of Media Bureau Networks, a pioneer in streaming media services; a contributing editor to PoliticsOnline.com; on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals dedicated to the study of the Internet, politics, and government; and is a member of the board of directors for E-Democracy.org. He taught political science at George Mason University for nine years, where, in 1995, he launched the first-ever Internet politics course. With Media Bureau Networks, he webcasted live coverage of the 2000 presidential conventions. In 2001, he served as vice president for the Online Advocacy Services division at Stateside Associates. From 2003 to 2005 he served as director of training programs at e-advocates. Alan has a Ph.D. in political science from American University, an M.A. in political science from Boston College, and a B.A. in political science and philosophy from Tufts University.