InsidEPR

The Myth of the Summer Lull

By Neila Matheny

We here in the high-tech PR world like to look at the year as a cyclical thing.  Any given year tends to follow seasonal trends.  In the beginning of the year, it is full steam ahead.  With a variety of trade shows in the spring, most clients like to create a splash with a new product or major customer wins before we head into that season. 

The same thing happens in the fall, when another slew of trade shows kicks off in September and October.  For example, in the next two weeks we will have clients headed to Fall VON, Telco TV, CTIA, and Interop New York. The trade-press tour season always hits prior to these big shows and tends to trickle through the Thanksgiving holiday.

However, what about the summer months?  When I started here more than two years ago, it was May.  I heard about how summer was the quieter time, when teams would not be as busy.  I am here to set the record straight.  This “summer lull” was a lie. Now with three summers under my belt, I know there is no such thing.

Take this summer for instance.  I personally headed to the biggest telecom trade show of the year and spent a couple weeks on the road with clients on media tours.  Here at the agency, we were busy with a good deal of new business inquiries, new clients, and many client launches.

So now, like children who shed their belief in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, we have all let go of the myth of the summer lull.  However, even with this fast-paced environment, I don’t think we would want it any other way.

Q3 Community Service - Helping Girls in Need

By Laura Symmes

"Strong, Smart, and Bold" were the words that greeted us as we walked into the nationally recognized organization, Girls Inc., for our quarterly community service project, when we have a chance to serve and give back to the community.  It was also the first time I would be participating in community service with the EPR team, and I was excited to help out such a great organization and to get to see my colleagues outside of the office.

For this quarter’s outreach, EPR decided to work with Girls Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping young girls grow up and become "strong, smart, and bold," just as the slogan on the wall read.  Dating back to 1864, Girls Inc. has developed innovative educational programs for girls in need to prepare them to lead successful, fulfilling lives. 

After we passed the front entrance we were lead to a room where we would be helping organize donations for a silent auction the organization was putting on a week later.  The auction is a main source of revenue, so having volunteers help put the auction together is a huge help and greatly appreciated. The EPR team was excited to help in any way we could.

Once everyone got settled in instructions were issued, we split up into three groups and got to work.  My group had to organize the donations, which consisted of everything from vacations to Tahiti to dinners for two in San Francisco, and put them (or the certificates for them) in envelopes so that people who won the donation would receive the correct item.  When the task was completed, I felt a sense of accomplishment. Being able to give back to a group that gives so much is always a great feeling.

Corner office or “Cubeland”?

Allison Kuhn

Everybody strives for that corner office. The large work space built up in the sky with warm sunlight crawling through the clean, clear windows. Everyone in the office understands who you are and how much you mean business. You’ve got the newest office furniture and an engraved placard on your door spelling your name and title in crisp, bold letters. Who really wants that work space? Come on…

“Cubeland” is the real office hot spot.

I’ve been a member of Cubeland for some time now. What more can a person need? My office consists of three plush walls and no roof or door. I have a large, wood work space and a chair that spins round and round. I have two overhead storage units and (count it) four file cabinet drawers. And that about wraps it up. I sit in the middle this luxury and marvel at all my space.  Did I mention, with absolutely no sign of natural light?

Like I said, who wants the corner office?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I adore Cubeland. Nowhere else can you compete in the “Office Olympics” and throw T pins at a photocopied bull’s-eye attached to the wall. (It’s harder than you think!) Nowhere else are you repeatedly hit by the mini basketball because the intern has a horrible shot and continually loses the bet of lunch at Burger King. And lastly, no where else does the office seems to have more fun than Cubeland. There’s just something about this place.

We all start out in Cubeland. And when the time is right, we move onto bigger and better things such as: sunlight, a door, a roof, and an escape from the basketball court and its poor players. But that’s not to say that now and again – those who have left don’t return to the place where they started it all. They always seem to come back around and wonder, what’s so great about my office?

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m sticking with Cubeland.

Enterprise, Heal Thyself

By Becky Frost

I hate getting sick.  Because I travel quite a bit, I tend to notice when fall arrives, not of because of the cool, crisp days (we are in California after all), but because of the number of people coughing next to me on flights, in stores, and elsewhere.

Well, it seems like our nation’s enterprises are sick, too, and it’s not seasonal. According to the recent 2007 CSI Computer Crime and Security Survey, this year has been one of declining virus threats (or at least the reporting of them) and an increase in something nastier – the insider threat. This PC World article notes that this year, there were more reported incidents related to insider threats than to computer viruses.   

The threat, whether malicious or unintentional (not a lot of people see the problem includes such things as emailing corporate data to a personal account so they can work over the weekend), can take more out of any company than the flu takes out of my 82 year-old aunt Mildred. All one has to do is look at the steady stream of very public data breaches to see the effects of this problem.

Of course, there are many ways to handle the insider threat, from data loss prevention, to access control, to enterprise security management.  This recent InfoWorld article shows how some enterprises have chosen to attack this growing problem.

This issue won’t be easy to eradicate, but with the right tools, enterprises will have a fighting chance of defending their data and maintaining a healthy network security environment.