We Welcome Two New Members to the San Francisco Public Relations Roundtable
One of our new members has a longtime link to show biz. The other is an attorney with PR experience that stretches from sports to high tech. Take a look at their bios:
Megan Morrow
Megan draws upon a background in production and promotion along with exceptional relationship-building skills as principal of Megavents, an Oakland-based company that provides public relations, event planning and digital media services. Megan has over 20 years of experience in successfully staging events for a broad range of nonprofit, arts, political and corporate clients. Megan can work with a client across all aspects of their PR and event planning needs to elevate awareness of their organization, bring greater visibility to their events, and increase attendance while enhancing guest experiences.
With a background in film production and entertainment public relations, Megan is skilled at both event management and publicity. She formed a company in Hollywood in the 1990′s called Odd Dog Films that specialized in producing commercials. Prior to her filmmaking stint she lived in San Francisco, where she worked for Kolmar Rausch Associates, a theatrical public relations firm, as the assistant to one of the partners throughout the 1980′s. Their clients included the long-running Beach Blanket Babylon, touring companies of Broadway shows, and cabaret theatres. Megan also worked with many musicians, booking shows and promoting them.
While working in Hollywood, Megan did pro bono work for a number of nonprofits, applying her promotion and production skills to help with PR and event coordination. She launched Megavents to provide PR and event planning services to the Los Angeles philanthropic and entertainment communities, using her film and music industry contacts to promote organizations and bring in donors. After many successful years in Southern California, Megan moved back to the Bay Area in 2003 and developed a Northern California clientele.
Megan has extensive public relations and marketing experience, including executing PR/marketing campaigns in conjunction with events for many of her clients. In addition to being an excellent communicator, she’s a creative thinker and problem-solver and is adept at media relations. Megan’s areas of event planning expertise encompass logistics, site selection and management, budgeting, registration, sponsor solicitation and coordination, talent/presenter/speaker solicitation and liaison, collateral material development and production, event marketing and volunteer management.
Megan’s expertise has served her clients well over the last several years. She garnered a great deal of media exposure for VIP Mentors, a statewide California mentoring organization, while developing and upgrading their annual gala event, as well as advising on their re-branding and establishing a relationship with the Governor’s office. Megan helped the Center for Independent Living, Inc., celebrate its 35th anniversary with a PR campaign that resulted in extensive media coverage and a festive gala event for 350 guests. Recently, Megan produced the most successful annual gala that Oakland-based Asian Community Mental Health Services has ever held. Megan is a PR consultant to Broadway by the Bay, a nonprofit theatre company.”
Paul Turner
Paul is a senior vice president and interim general manager of the Hill+Knowlton Strategies office in San Francisco. He has more than 15 years experience in corporate communications, with particular specialties in executive communications, change and internal communications, platform and message development, crisis communications and issues management. Turner currently leads teams supporting executive communications at Hewlett-Packard as well as Qualcomm’s QCT and Atheros teams. He has worked across a wide variety of vertical industry sectors, including technology, professional services, health care and retail consumer goods. He also worked in the professional sports industry with the San Jose Sharks NHL team.
Turner’s expertise lies in his ability to build and execute communications campaigns for internal and external audiences that build alignment around a company’s strategy while advancing key business objectives. He has helped develop thought leadership and executive brands for senior leaders in global organizations, and has also written speeches and bylined opinion pieces. He has managed multiple projects to formulate corporate messaging and positioning for a variety of clients in several industries, including technology and financial services.
Prior to H+K Strategies, Turner worked at Neale-May & Partners, a strategic communications and media relations agency for both early- and late-stage high-tech companies. Before Neale-May, he was an associate with the law firm of Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May (now Reed Smith), where he worked with the corporate litigation, appellate and trusts and estate planning practices. Before embarking on a legal career, Turner spent four years as assistant director of media relations for the San Jose Sharks professional hockey team. He served as a team spokesperson with local, national and foreign media, and supervised production of the club’s award-winning media guide. The Sharks media relations staff was recognized by the Professional Hockey Writers Association as the best in the NHL in each of his seasons with the organization.
For PRRT Membership questions, please contact Committee Chair Beverly Butler.