About a decade ago I was a financial reporter at Dow Jones. Those were the days when the Bundesbank still meant something and the Euro was not yet part of our lexicon.

It seems like a very long time ago indeed but over the years I have come to appreciate just how much working at a news wire can aid in your understanding of complex financial issues. Clearly, not everyone has that opportunity nor the inclination but what we do have are our financial lives that need understanding and explaining. Much like like learning to drive a car or ride a bike, we must become aware of our financial burdens and opportunities.

We, as a country, are woefully behind in terms of our education. As the system seems to be up for a some changes, I hope that if they do put home economics back into the picture, that it is not just about cooking and food, an essential and primary part of our lives, but also about managing a household, with all that that entails – debt, bill paying, investments, choices, understanding products that bankers try to sell you, sacrifice, etc.

As financial communicators, we too can do our part by taking a step back and actually taking the time to discuss and understand the products we are pitching and tasked to explain to others. This essential part of the job doesn’t seem to be a top priority any longer. I think that is a huge mistake and we are and will be paying the consequences for a long time to come.

Over the course of the next four days, April 21-25, a series of conferences will be held which will discuss the various strategies to become the European Cultural Capital in 2019 and why the area is perfectly suited to this role. Italian regions of the Veneto, Friuli, and Trentino are involved.

Italy is known for many things and its cultural heritage is one of its richest contributions. The idea of the festival is that Culture is a useful resource not just for citizens but also for companies, an asset which they can use as part of their strategy for growth, competitiveness and distinction.

Each of the Northeastern cities involved is a small network of companies that are looking to grow and become more competitive on a global scale. The idea of joining forces is a very good one and is innovative in terms of using culture as the prime marketing tool, not a secondary piece of a communications strategy. This is the third edition of the festival which will have more than 80 meetings. While most people have heard of Venice, Rome, Florence, Milan and Bologna, fewer know of the riches of Rovereto, Maniago, Montebelluna, Asolo, Schio, Vittorio Veneto and others.

Some of the projects that these smaller cities are working on together with local companies include renewable energy, sustainable construction, and the development of research centers. Other areas are well known for their work in textiles, audiovisuals, design, sportwear, and internet companies.

Northeastern Italy is home to seven million people, more than one-tenth’s of Italy’s entire population. It is also home to many of Italy’s most important companies and those that will profit most from more global exposure.

By choosing to join together, these cities and their local entrepreneurs are choosing to look forward and make a stab at changing the way that they have always done business.

The average Italian company has three employees, making it impossible for them to compete on a global scale. Together though, these cities are offering their companies a better chance. A worthy challenge and a necessary one. Bravi!

Why? Industry associations are a great resource for the public relations industry. There are numerous organizations such as the Public Relations Society of America, the International Association of Business Communicators, and New York Women in Communications, among others.

These associations, like any other group, have membership fees which confer benefits on those who decide to join. Each year I evaluate which ones have been most helpful in terms of Gold Communications’ professional goals and objectives.

All of these associations are worthwhile but like anything else, you have to participate in these associations and take advantage of their resources in order to make them important for your work, just belonging isn’t enough. One can also run for office and have an impact on the direction of the organization in the future.

Some of the benefits that these groups offer are mentoring programs, retraining, seminars, webinars, lectures, job banks and certification. Many of the articles and blog posts that are featured on the organization’s websites will be relevant to problems that your agency is having. Others will give you new ideas about ways to confront or deal with specific issues.

All of these associations also have a more social aspects to them and offer wonderful networking opportunities with your peers. While not a cure for a bad economy, industry groups can offer solace and support for your business.

2009 was a treading water moment in time in which the companies that didn’t close had to reassess their structures and procedures. While this process is certainly still underway, there are some small signs of recovery in the market place. Certainly 2010 will also be a careful year in terms of spending priorities but it could also be a time to focus on getting your message in front of the right stakeholders.

This is why firms should create a checklist for their communications objectives. This is something that a public relations agency can help a client to determine but the most successful strategies are those where the firm already has an idea of what they are looking for and what they hope to attain from their communications program.

A checklist can help to focus the mind and can also be a shared guideline for various parties involved in the communications strategy. Having a shared list can help to streamline activities thereby cutting costs and can help a team become more efficient. This has been shown in a wide number of industries including medicine.

A report published earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine indicated that the use of a 19-step Surgical Safety Checklist reduced deaths from surgery by more than 40% in the eight hospitals that participated in the study. I heard one of the report’s authors, Atul Gawande, on NPR this morning and thought how crucial a checklist is in every industry.

A checklist can be very specific including which journalist to target at a specific outlet or more general such as which part of the client’s business should get more attention from the media. A checklist is not the same thing as a communications strategy but creating one is a first step towards thinking about how a business should tackle its communication needs. Creating a checklist or a wish list of sorts is a good way to begin the new year.

At Gold Communications, we try to keep our lists simple and concrete. Five items is a number that sounds feasible and achievable, both key characteristics. Lists should never be too long because one sets themselves up for failure right from the start.

Goals are important but they much be reachable. Our advice is to set yourself a few goals at the beginning of the year and then check back in every six months to see how far you have come in attaining your plans.

Our five goals for 2010 are pretty straight forward:

1. A more efficient use of Twitter, Facebook and Linked In for our clients and our company.

2. Fuller participation in the associations we support

3. A new Pro Bono project for the year

4. Quicker response time following new meetings.

5. Lateral thinking

While these may seem banal or easy to do, the key will be consistency. Like all PR and communications professionals, it is the constant updating of one’s tool box and knowledge that makes the difference between us and our peers.

As this latest story began to unfold, we marveled at how steadfast Tiger’s sponsors were during the first revelations, not to mention his wife. This week has seen the complete undoing of at least one of his lucrative contracts, that with the Accenture consulting firm. Who knows who else will follow?

From a PR perspective, there are many interesting angles to this tale of fame and fortune. It is informative to see which companies drop him from their rooster and which do not. In fact, it is a good time to look at what makes someone a candidate for sponsorship – name recognition, physical attractiveness, prowess at their job or is it something else. Something more elusive, character.

In some ways, we support the decision to drop an endorsement if the behavior is not in line with the sponsorship but in others it seems quite hypocritical. After all, Tiger is still the same golfer as he always was. That leads to the heart of the matter. What exactly is it that he was endorsing? Faithfulness? It didn’t seem so.

Perhaps we should all take a closer look at what it means to endorse something in terms of selling a product. Most of the people that sponsor products are just that, people, with many flaws just like the rest of us. Perhaps it should be clearer what qualities in that person we are looking for not just their skill or fame quotient. Thus far, none of that has been clear with product sponsorship.

A role model is a real person with human qualities, good and bad. When working with clients to sponsor different events, communications professionals need to be very on target with their message and what they are endorsing. Maybe it’s time to look farther afield than all of the usual suspects – athletics, actors, and models. Even so, there is no guarantee that different qualities will be found.

It seemed to us that Tiger was a symbol of perseverance and dedication to his profession. That is what he was endorsing, reaching the top of his “game.” As distasteful as his actions are, they have nothing to do with his golf game but with his marriage and judgment. Instead of just dropping him, it would be good to hear some of the reasons why he was dropped. Those same companies that spend millions on hiring people to endorse their products would do well explaining their decisions with a clear statement, otherwise it seems quite superficial in our view.

Clearly both sides will use this ugly episode to further their political message. Times are quite tough in Italy these days and it is not clear how and when things will improve. Some of the other Euro zone nations are also under economic pressure such as Spain and Greece. Social unrest is just right under the surface of holiday cheer in many homes.

It would be a real pleasure to read news of what plans are under way to improve the economy, jump start the labor market and to move forward. Instead news of Italy abroad is usually about the Premier or the food & wine sector. This is truly a shame. Italy is a vibrant country with many industries that are moving ahead quickly, including alternative energy. It would be great to see some news about that in the papers.

It’s certainly partly the result of journalists who fall back on the evergreen stories but it is also the responsibility of the government to promote different aspects of the Italian economy. This year it seems there has been some attempt to highlight different parts of Italy’s economy but more could be done.

On another note, a new website came to my attention today called Letsaythanks.com. The website allows you to send a postcard, written by a 3 to 15 year old child, to American troops abroad. It is run by Xerox. I found the site intriguing and of course, worthwhile. Congratulations to Xerox for having created something useful, meaningful and a great marketing tool for internal and external audiences. A win win situation for all.

New from the United States is that President Obama will attend the last day of the summit, December 18 and not this coming Wednesday, December 9 as originally envisioned. According to reports, the President didn’t want to create a stir during the first few days.

Things have changed in the United States certainly in terms of climate change and the attention that it is getting on a national level. Unfortunately, this important issue has to compete with many other pressing ones such as the economy, the health care debate and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Reading the papers this past week and following the news, I was reminded that politics is about the art of the possible and about compromise. With our quick fix society and flashy headlines, this reality often gets lost.

I am disappointed that the domestic agenda has taken a backseat to where I would like it to be but I am also cognizant that foreign affairs are fundamental for our growth and future. Thank goodness I can still see clearly otherwise my SAIS education would have been a waste.

Nuance is not always favored by the press, public relations professionals or people in general but it is these subtleties and small accords that make everything work.

With the climate change summit, we have the opportunity to see first hand what 92 countries can do together if they try hard. With a common problem threatening the planet, it would be great to see something concrete come out of this summit which has previously been written off by most observers. Countries have been able to bring the summit back as an important issue but like in any field, it will be the results by which the summit will eventually be judged.

If numerous people joined in the initiative, considerable funds could roll in, especially during the holiday season. The flyer also gave other figures. ‘For every $100 spent in independently owned stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures. If you spend that in a national chain, only $43 stays in the community. If you spend it online, nothing comes back to the community.”

This intriguing local project is so well prepared that you can download media information directly from their website, including flyers, popcards, brochures and many other items. I like the idea of the project in and of itself as I like to shop in local stores but I also thought they have great marketing ideas and that is why I am putting this on the blog.

In addition to traditional media press releases and materials, the 350 project is on Linked In, Twitter and Facebook, of course.

At a time when many local stores are closing, this initiative attempts to counter that and follows the maxim that there is strength in numbers. It is a national project, not particularly a New York City based one. Cinda Baxter, the charismatic founder of the 3/50 project doesn’t sit on her laurels though. I have seen that she is quite busy continuing to promote her business and reinvent the project as the occasion presents itself.

She called for Black Friday to be renamed 3/50 day in an interview with a local radio station last week, according to her blog. I really admire that flexibility and perseverance. I will be checking in on the 3/50 project in coming weeks to see how she is managing.

Community organizing was a buzz word when President Obama was running for office, used by both the left and the right with different connotations. While our government struggles to find a way to help main street, thanks to ideas like this one, there are signs of hope and interest in moving main street forward.

Mentors are fundamental to creating and growing businesses because they are people who have had many of the same experiences that you have and have successfully or not so successfully worked through these same problems. They are also people that one can bounce an idea off and that can give you a new point of view.

Mentors can be people you see once a week or once a year. What creates a truly “mentoring” experience is that you can learn something and feel free to express you own doubts and fears and uncertainty about next steps and choices.

I have been lucky since I set off on my own to have a variety of different mentors, each one brings something new to the table. I also recently connected with an old boss who got me started in the public relations field.

I was a financial journalist at Dow Jones Newswires in Milan before working in PR My first boss was also a former financial journalist and he helped me to work through the difficulties of “going to the other side.” That is what people who leave journalism and move into PR are called, those that moved to the other side. Already this idea of two sides of the barricade in news made me uncomfortable.

My new boss helped me to see my role as an advisor both to my client and to the journalist. He was instrumental in helping me make the transition which is not quite as immediate as one might think.

I have always believed that being a former journalist is a huge asset in pr although I know many people differ with this view. In any event, having had a boss with a similar background, he knew exactly what I was feeling and helped me to make the leap into the PR role.

Our recent meeting was helpful in a variety of ways. We discussed how to choose a partner and what the essential skills are when looking to find a person who you want to bring into your business.

His advice was to look at what your strong suits are and to find a partner who has different competencies and abilities whether that be negotiating contracts, client development, management of staff, recruitment, and other areas. I found our talk very helpful and was once again reminded of just how important a mentor can be. Thanks Gabriele!