Online pre-registration closes at 5 p.m., Monday, January 20 due to contractual obligations with the venue. A limited number of walk-in spaces will be available. Please send an email to [email protected] to request a walk-in registration form so you may provide the completed form to expedite your check-in. Please note you will be provided a blank name badge. Thank you for your understanding!

About Program

When: Jan. 21; 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Where: Petterino's; Banquet entrance at 50 W. Randolph Street

What PR and communications trends will 2020 hold? What impact will an election and Olympic Games year have on your company or clients’ strategic priorities? What topics or technologies aren’t yet on your radar that should be?

You’ll hear answers to these questions and many more at the 'State of Public Relations' luncheon. Leading Chicago-area PR experts will predict the 2020 trends and innovations, and highlight some of the bigger priority issues PR practitioners, their stakeholders and their clients should be mindful of over the coming year.

SPEAKERS

Emma Asante
Vice President, Special Projects & Community Relations, NBC 5 Chicago and Telemundo Chicago
@nbcchicago
Emma Asante serves as the Vice President of Special Projects and Community Relations for WMAQ - NBC 5 Chicago and WSNS – Telemundo Chicago. She joined the team in 2014 after serving as Director of Community Projects for NBC’s Connecticut station for nearly 10 years. Asante ’s arrival to Chicago coincided with the launch of the stations’ Making a Difference initiative focused on providing viewers inspiring stories that highlight people and organizations ‘Making A Difference’ in the Chicagoland community. Since her arrival the stations have exponentially increased the number of inspirational stories in NBC 5 and Telemundo Chicago news broadcasts and digital platforms.

Asante oversees two robust Community Action Boards with several hundred local leaders to provide insight and direction to station leadership of NBC 5 and Telemundo Chicago. The collaboration has propelled Making A Difference to one of the stations’ signature brands.

Asante also oversees logistics and execution for large scale broadcast events such as the broadcast of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and Chicago’s New Year’s Eve celebration. She also organizes community participation in televised political forums and debates, parade presentations, and other projects.

Asante first joined NBCUniversal in 2004 as a Creative Producer. She soon transitioned to the role of Director of Community Projects where she oversaw the launch of NBC Connecticut’s Partners in a Caring Community initiative. The brand focuses on connecting with viewers through the causes important to their everyday lives.

Prior to joining NBCUniversal, Asante held roles as a Creative Producer in various markets including Fox in Boston, NBC in Springfield, MO and CBS in Providence, RI. She has also served as Senior Editor and Writer for Assemblies of God World Missions producing musical presentations, disaster relief appeals and youth-oriented productions. Asante’s community leadership involvement includes Salvation Army Metro Chicago Advisory Board, Diversity Committee for the American Red Cross, Urban League of Greater Hartford Board of Directors, Development Committee for HARC - serving people with disabilities, Corporate Communications Committee for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and Board of Governance for Hartford, Connecticut’s Journalism and Media Academy. She holds a Master’s degree in Communication from the University of Hartford in Connecticut, and Broadcasting and Marketing undergraduate degree from Evangel University in Missouri.

Patty Bloom
Ecosystems and Alliances Senior Consultant, Deloitte Digital
@PCBloom
Patty Bloom currently serves as the Communications Strategist leading Deloitte Digital’s public relations strategy. In this position she oversees the creative digital consultancy’s external communications as well as Deloitte Digital’s communications around its network of 80+ tech ecosystems and alliances. Working with media and other stakeholders, Bloom focuses on storytelling, specifically how Deloitte Digital innovates to solve complex challenges. Deloitte Digital's alliances spread the breadth of the tech industry and include leaders such as Apple, Adobe, Google Cloud, HP, Salesforce, SAP and many others.

Previously, Bloom worked at Ketchum as an account supervisor and strategic planner where she supported clients such as Dropbox, HPE, Whirlpool and Kraft Heinz. While at Ketchum, her award winning work with the National Safety Council received industry recognition including a Gold Cannes Lion. Bloom's 2017 team won the US Cannes Young Lions Competition going on to represent the USA at the Cannes Festival of Creativity. During this time, she was featured in a documentary, ‘The Future Face of Creativity’ about the competition by Wired magazine.

With a Master’s in International Affairs from Penn State and a Bachelor’s in Journalism from the University of Missouri, Bloom brings a global lens to every project. In 2011, she was honored to participate in Fulbright Berlin Capital Program.
Stay tuned for Patty's headshot!

Serena Ehrlich
Director of Product Marketing, BusinessWire
@Serena 
@BusinessWire
Over the last 20+ years, Serena Ehrlich has worked closely with public and private companies providing guidance on investor and public relations trends. Ehrlich continues to implement local, national and international social media campaigns for a wide range of company and brands including Kraft, Kohl's, Avon, Mattel and more.

Ehrlich started her career in advertising where she developed an understanding of branding from a large-scale perspective, but it was her 14 years in the newswire industry that placed her squarely at the forefront of a technical, sociological and influential revolution changing the face of customer communications. In 1994, Ehrlich was part of a small team who introduced the communications industry to the Internet via a series of first-ever conferences, and her love of technology hasn’t stopped since.

As the director of product marketing at Business Wire, Ehrlich has a unique perspective on the future of mobile marketing (and it ain't plain text). Ehrlich serves on the board of directors for the international Social Media Club and is a past director for Social Media Club Los Angeles, and the National Investor Relations Institutes' Los Angeles and Dallas chapters. A ’91 graduate of Brandeis University with a B.A in History, Ehrlich was recently named as one of the 2013 Top 25 Women in Mobile to Watch by Mobile Marketer.

Austin Gaule
Media Analysis Director, News Exposure
@austinomaha
@NewsExposure
Austin Gaule is a 2014 graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a media analysis expert. He has 6+ years of earned media analysis, including measurement work with various Fortune 500 companies. Gaule directs the media analysis division at News Exposure, which focuses on a managed service approach to measuring media. His approach to media analysis is simple: eliminate the noise and focus on what is driving the bottom line. In addition to his experience in measuring earned media, he is a member of the PRSA chapter in Omaha, Nebraska, and served as programs chair in 2018. Gaule has also participated in AMEC's global measurement month, leading educational events pertaining to measurement across the midwest in 2016 and 2017.

Amy Littleton
Executive Vice President, KemperLesnik
@amylitt
@KemperLesnik
Amy Littleton is the co-leader of the agency and oversees the Public Relations and Content businesses at KemperLesnik. She is a communications strategist, crisis and reputation counselor and business manager. From her days at General Mills planning media tours with the U.S. Women’s Olympic Hockey Team to working in the Business Marketing and Technology Practice at Edelman and running her own agency, Littleton has used curiosity and passion to drive results. She is a former president of the Public Relations Society of America Chicago, sits on the board of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation and is co-chair of the Sports and Entertainment Forum of the Executives’ Club of Chicago. A native of the Florida Panhandle, Littleton exploits her knowledge of water and her southern twang – particularly when leading the non-profit she founded, Friends of Catherine and Channel Lakes, and hollerin for her two boys during baseball games.

MODERATOR

Dane Roth
Global Marketing and Media Relations, Shure Incorporated
@thedaneroth
@shure
Dane has nearly 20 years of experience working in corporate communications. His experience spans a range of communications activities, including business-to-business communications, corporate reputation management, employee communications and integrated marketing. He began his career at The Timken Company in Ohio before moving to Chicago and working with Golin.

As a vice president at Ketchum, he led various corporate accounts, managing industry communications, executive leadership initiatives and integrated PR/marketing for various clients. 

Roth and his teams were recognized with several awards, including B2B Campaign of the Year awards from PRWeek, the Holmes Report, and the Business Marketing Association. His team’s work on a program for a transportation client netted the CSR Campaign of the Year from the Holmes Report in 2009.

Today, Roth leads Global Media Relations for Shure, a global leader in audio equipment, including microphones, headphones and wireless earphones.

Roth is a graduate of Ohio University and serves as the 2020 president of PRSA Chicago.

Questions? Please send an email to Kayee Ip and Tiffany Briggs Low, co-chairs, at [email protected]

Program Details

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