“Public relations has become an integral part of corporate marketing programs, and LANE PR’s growth reflects how important it is to connect with and engage companies’ employees, customers and stakeholders in meaningful ways,” said Lane. “I’ve seen tremendous evolution in public relations during the past 20 years. On behalf of the entire LANE PR team, I would like to thank past and current clients, the media and our supporters, all of whom have contributed to the agency’s ongoing success.”

LANE PR’s 20 Year Formula for Growth
The agency has created growth and opportunities by driving business and sales success for clients with strategic public relations. LANE PR’s seasoned management team, which has worked together for more than 10 years, has been pivotal to the agency’s success, leading the development of strong client service systems designed to build success for clients. More recently, LANE PR expanded its formula for growth by strengthening its focus on investor relations (IR) service offerings as part of the firm’s integrated communications approach.  In addition, the agency’s 20-year commitment to integrating new technology has largely involved eschewing trends and instead taking a strategic approach to incorporating social media and other new technologies into its service offerings, a strategy that has been instrumental in the agency’s ongoing success.

About LANE PR  
LANE PR is an independent firm specializing in public relations-driven marketing strategies with offices in New York City and Portland, Ore.  Founded in 1990, LANE PR provides integrated marketing communications and public relations for a host of industries, including technology, business-to-business, financial services, healthcare and consumer clients.  The agency has won several awards during its 20 years, including the 2008 PRSA Bronze Anvil Award for outstanding public relations tactics and the 2008 Gold Bulldog Award for Excellence in Media Relations. For more information about LANE PR, visit www.lanepr.com.

# # #

The 60 minute format only allowed for 23 pages of the 2300+ word document to be covered. The discussion focused on section 951 on Governance and Disclosure.

Highlights:

• Say-on-pay.  At least once every three years (could be as frequent as every year) shareholders will be asked to approve the executive compensation included in the proxy.  This basically makes it much easier for shareholders to show dissent on executive pay.  Effective in 2011.

• Golden parachute.  Any executive compensation payable based on a transaction (proposed acquisition, merger, consolidation or sale of the company) is subject to a vote in context of that transaction (exception being if it is already subject to annual say-on-pay vote).  In other words, shareholders must separately approve this executive pay package. This will be effective six months after the legislation is enacted.

Macro question: Would a change in control of Congress this November alter any of this?  

The majority don’t think so. Even if Republicans take control of the House in November that would likely not significantly impact the bill and its implementation. While there could be technical corrections, and there are already some of those in progress, it would be difficult to make significant changes to Dodd-Frank.

The video recording of the event is available here.

I hope for this to be a series of blog posts as we continue to make sense of the 500+ rules stemming from this bill.

“As LANE PR celebrates 20 years of public relations excellence this year, we are planning for both the agency’s and our clients’ success in the years ahead,” said Wendy Lane, president of LANE PR. “We recognize that a critical component of our clients’ business success is their relationship and communication with investors, particularly as capital markets remain tightened.”

LANE PR has provided clients with investor relations services for more than seven years ranging from annual reports, road show preparation, quarterly earnings releases to shareholder letters.  The agency has strengthened its focus on IR with membership in the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI), the largest professional investor relations association in the world, joining chapters in Seattle and New York. Additionally, LANE PR employees are participating in continuing education through University of California Irvine’s online investor relations curriculum.

“Today’s volatile markets present a challenging environment for organizations to achieve sustained growth. With LANE PR’s experience with strategic communication programs and  working directly with financial media, we can help clients attract and retain investors and enhance company value in the marketplace,” said Amber Roberts, a director at LANE PR and head of the agency’s New York office.

Investor Relations
For nearly a decade, LANE PR has provided IR services to numerous clients as part of its integrated communications campaigns. The agency’s IR and financial PR business has grown to approximately one-third of annual billings and has landed LANE PR among the top 20 PR firms nationwide in this specialty:  for 2009, O’Dwyer’s ranked the agency 17th in financial PR and IR.

As a member of NIRI’s New York and Seattle chapters, LANE PR keeps current with changing rules and regulations affecting IR and folds pertinent developments into its comprehensive strategies. In addition to representing companies in the financial services  industry – such as Umpqua Bank, Thoma Bravo and Paulson Investment Company Inc. – LANE PR has provided IR services to consumer and business-to-business organizations.

About LANE PR  
LANE PR is an independent firm specializing in public relations-driven marketing strategies with offices in New York and Portland, Ore.  Founded in 1990 by Wendy Lane, LANE PR provides integrated marketing strategies and public relations for a diverse industry group, including technology, business-to-business, financial services, healthcare and consumer.  The agency has won several awards during its 20 years, including the 2008 PRSA Bronze Anvil Award for outstanding public relations tactics and the 2008 Gold Bulldog Award for excellence in media relations. For more information about LANE PR, visit www.lanepr.com.

# # #

Our group spent the day at Belle Pente Vineyard in Carlton, Ore. As the clouds disappeared, we toured the vineyards, learning about the different blocks of Pinot Noir grapes within the vineyard.

 Everyone was then broken into smaller groups of 6 (or so) for a blending exercise, in which we developed a Pinot blend from 3 different blocks of grapes. Cyril Frechier (Sommelier, Campagne, Seattle, Wash.), Fiona Beckett and Fiona Sims (Wine/Food Writers, The 2 Fionas, UK) judged each group’s blend, and much to our excitement, our group won!

 Following the blending exercise, we tasted Pinots from around the world, including Oregon’s own Sokol Blosser and Flowers from Sonoma.

We then moved to a four-course lunch, provided by Portland’s Ben Bettinger of Beaker & Flask. 

First course, cool corn chowder with shrimp; second course, blackened cod with seasonal vegetables; third course, lamb from the Belle Pente property (too busy eating to take a photo); and fourth course, panna cotta with black pepper, seasonal fruit and a shortbread cookie. My oh my, can you say delicious?

As if all of this wasn’t delightful enough, once we returned to campus, we visited the Moonstruck Chocolate booth, where we sampled truffles, as well as the not-yet-released Single Origin dark and milk chocolates. A wonderful cap to our fun-filled day, that is, until we moved on to the dinner festivities.

The contest received hundreds of submissions and has since been narrowed down to just 10 finalists: a diverse group of people, of all ages, from across the country. Each finalist was sent a flip cam to film a short video on what makes them America’s Sexiest Stylist – the heartwarming stories can be seen and voted on here.

Online voting will end on Wednesday, July 28th at 11:59 PST. Congrats to all the finalists and nominees chosen!

Heather Gleason and Kristin Heilman

So, “The Early Show on Saturday Morning” hand-picked five craft beers from Brewvana as the best in America, and called on Food and Wine magazine Executive Wine Editor Ray Isle to fill us in on the choices, as part of our special Fourth of July tour of places that make the nation’s best food. We call it A Taste of America.

Widmer Hefeweizen: A great American version of a German wheat beer. It’s a little tangy, and very refreshing. A great summer beer. I’d pair it with grilled seafood, raw oysters, that sort of thing.

Click here to read the entire article.

At the NIRI conference this week social media is being discussed from the perspective of IROs as they examine how to properly utilize and measure the impact of this medium, including the reality that aspects of social media’s ROI remain at times unquantifiable.

Consider these stats (from muckrack.com):

278 business journalists are using Twitter, and a significant portion of them are from the leading business/financial media outlets:

• 15 Financial Times
• 28 BusinessWeek
• 41 Forbes
• 66 WSJ
• 108 NY Times

 (Note:  Muckrack.com is an excellent site for finding reporters who are on Twitter.)

This means that through social media PR specialists can better understand the interests, story ideas and perspectives of editors and reporters in a much more timely and informal way than we ever could before.  And this access and understanding allows us to do what many clients hire us for - cultivate stronger and lasting relationships with the media that cover our clients’ companies and industries.

So why are some companies still hesitant to utilize social media as part of their IR program?   Investor relations professionals broached this very topic at the NIRI conference this week.

Here is a quick chart from the conference outlining the top reasons IR departments give for avoiding use of SM, and the counter argument:

Coincidentally, just a few days ago Forrester released its report affirming that financial services in particular should be using social media: http://www.nlcsocialmedia.com/forresters-reports-financial-services-marketers-should-use-social-media

The bottom line: no more excuses for not leveraging the impact and reach of social media on your investors and other audiences. We can’t blame SEC rules either. If you aren’t using social media, statistics show you are missing out on an important and direct communication channel to reach very important audiences.

Update from Corp Finance Division of the SEC:
“Notice & Access” Disclosure Process Remains Up for Debate

The annual NIRI conference officially opened today with more than 1,200 members convening in San Diego. To start this morning, Meredith Cross of the Corporate Finance Division of the SEC gave the group an update on the SEC’s focus right now in terms of enforcement changes and investor protection.

In brief summary:
• Proxy issues, or “Proxy plumbing” -  As this issue prevails, Ms. Cross reports the SEC is currently seeking solutions and will address NOBO/OBO, share lending, the best way for investors to have proxy access, accuracy of elections, etc.
• Disclosure requirements – In general some of these are 30 years old. The SEC is examining those requirements that may be antiquated and will be proposing updates.
• Notice & Access – In short, the ability for a company to inform the public of earnings and other material disclosures via its website (versus paid release over the wire). Is this being utilized broadly and is it working? Ms. Cross emphasized that investor feedback in particular should be considered here, as some have expressed dissatisfaction with how they are learning about such disclosures.

On this topic, just last month a NIRI survey revealed that Senior NIRI members found SEC guidance on corporate website use [as a means of material disclosure] too vague to be actionable. The overall conclusion of the survey suggests that respondents often view additional communications channels as supplemental to traditional channels rather than replacements for them.

See more on the NIRI survey findings here: http://mob.niri.org/Main-Menu-Category/resource/publications/Executive-Alert/Use-of-Non-Traditional-Disclosure-Channels-52710.aspx

Click here to read the full article.