The first brown bag was a success!

The Intermountain Chapter's first monthly brown bag went off without a hitch!

Chapter members met at URS Corporation's office in Salt Lake City, with a few out of staters attending via conference call, on August 24. The guest speakers were Karen Hale, Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker's Communication Director and Deputy Director, Art Raymond discussing the communication efforts that took place in the days following the June 12, 2010 Red Butte Oil Spill.

Attendees were all ears as Ms. Hale recalled how she first heard the news and how quickly the media picked up on it. She and her team quickly organized a press conference but at the time, not much information was available. She continued to recount how the JIC (Joint Information Center) played a key role in providing the press and public with safety information and clean up effort updates. So much organization and communication had to occur in order to provide accurate and timely information to the press and public.

Art Raymond gave new insight from the press' point of view. At the time of the spill, he was a reporter with the Deseret News and had attended the press conferences in the days following the spill. The group seemed to take particular interest in his point of view since, for many of us, reporters are our audience as well.

Overall, the session was a success and the group had many questions for both of our speakers. Many thanks goes out to Karen and Art as well as all who attended both in person and over the phone lines!

We look forward to seeing you at our next brown bag, Participation Process Case-Study: UDOT West Davis Corridor EIS presented by Dan Adams and Brianne Olsen with The Langdon Group.

When: Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Time: 12 - 1 p.m.
Location: I-15 CORE Office: Sundance Conference Room
               2912 Executive Parkway, Ste 125, Lehi, UT

We'll see you there!