Musings from our resident storytellers on media relations, communications, the innovation scene, and daily dealings in a one-of-a-kind tech PR firm.
Although not stated directly, the implicit message of last evening’s MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge Innovation Series event, Emerging Applications of Blockchain for Supply Chains, is that blockchains are (or should be) everywhere. Yeah, the event was about how open ledger technology can make supply chain management more efficient, but, as panelist Dan Harple said, […]
A couple weeks ago we announced the Fifth Annual Beantown Throwdown, the region’s premiere student entrepreneur pitch-off, taking place October 13 during HUB Week. This Thursday, we’ll be hosting some of our Beantown Throwdown, MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge and HUBweek pals as part of our sponsorship of the Boston Calling block party series that […]
Five years ago, in the spirit of collegial collegiate competition, CHEN PR and the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge hatched an idea to pit teams of student entrepreneurs against each other. The idea was simple: give young founders a chance to put their innovations and ambitions to the test in a live setting that could […]
Earlier this week I was at the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge’s annual Startup Spotlight, a fun competition between thirty or so entrepreneurial ventures from Massachusetts and elsewhere in the region. The competition part of the event is to be named, by attendee vote, as the company most likely to become a unicorn, develop a […]
Working with the Mass Technology Leadership Council (MassTLC) as we do, CHEN has the chance to work on issues that transcend the typical vendor perspective. Often focused on how those issues affect the local technology and innovation community, the issues are those that affect communities across the nation and the blog. Cybersecurity is one example. […]
Listicles—those articles that consist primarily of a “top ten” list and intended to spark heated discussions based solely on the passions people have on the topic at hand—are popular click-bait devices. They are easy to compile and read and require no fact checking. As a PR guy they can be useful ways of generating traffic-driving […]
Every year around this time I remember one of the first important lessons in public relations that I learned because of the events of April 19, 1995. I shared my experience on this blog two years ago and thought it fitting to re-post on the tragic anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah […]
In 2012, with Marathon Monday forecasts predicting temperatures in the low 90s, I was inspired to write a poem in humorous sympathy for an old high school chum who was not looking forward to running in the heat. With that first effort I decided the following year to do it again and a minor holiday […]
Last year I introduced you to Gary, the guy who sells me Boston’s street paper Spare Change News. All through this stubborn winter I’ve been cheered and buoyed by Gary’s smile and unwavering optimism. Whether at his regular afternoon corner at Congress and Hanover, or during chance encounters elsewhere in the Downtown Crossing/Haymarket neighborhoods as […]
My college advisor and writing mentor, John Lannan, dispensed a lot of advice for the aspiring reporter. One that came to mind last night was, “A journalist should tell a story, not be a part of it.” That’s good counsel for a PR flak, too. We shouldn’t become part of the stories we help others […]