Storytelling, Public Relations and Technology – Showing our Families the Ropes

August 21, 2019

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, more commonly referred to as Bring Your Child to Work Day, has been an American tradition for decades, but with the changing attitudes toward marriage, children and professionalism, our Washington office decided the institution needed a modern spin.

Following the lead of other companies such as LinkedIn, we decided to host Bring Your Family to Work Day so each of our team members could bring one or two family members to our office in Vancouver, Washington, for a little taste of our world: storytelling, PR, technology … and a happy hour, of course.

We started by interviewing our family members, as if they were clients being questioned in a sourcing session, to see what they knew about what we do.

Here’s what some of them had to say:

How would you describe my job?

“Account Coordinator – reads, writes and researches stuff she doesn’t understand.” – Alle Cacchione, sister of Account Coordinator Kiana Cacchione

“Millennial-ish, stressful and busy!” – Doug Collins, father of Senior Account Executive Sarah Collins

“Public relations agency person – works with companies in technology like Nokia on their PR strategy and in rolling out PR campaigns.” – Trish Markey, mother of Account Coordinator Mollie Markey

“Stressful; lots of email.” – Zak Moses, boyfriend of Senior Account Executive Shannon Nelson

*A beautiful drawing of what appears to be a monster* – Lainey Myrick, one-year-old daughter of Vice President Kali Myrick

How do you define PR?

“A Marketing tool to establish awareness, communication messaging and establish brand/reputation.” – Chris Kruell, father of Senior Account Executive Caitlin Kruell

“Helping the client effectively communicate their message across multiple platforms” – Mark Myrick, husband of Vice President Kali Myrick

“It’s public relations … media releases, social media and publicity.” – Debby Collins, mother of Senior Account Executive Sarah Collins

Is there something in the world of tech that you’re particularly excited about right now?

“Advanced cameras in cellphones.” – DeeDee Cacchione, grandmother of Account Coordinator Kiana Cacchione

“Move to cloud; serverless environments; technology as a differentiator and business model; internet of things.” – Steve Markey, father of Account Coordinator Mollie Markey

“The new electric Jaguar vehicle!” – Karina Agbisit, partner of Account Coordinator Nicolas Vavuris

“Original streaming content and random smart home items you wouldn’t think of, like a smart fridge/doorbell.” – Stephanie Hitchcock, mother of Account Executive Haley Dowell

Do you consider yourself a storyteller? Why or why not?

“Absolutely. I love all the little details.” – Stephanie Hitchcock, mother of Account Executive Haley Dowell

“Yes, because I tell good stories (lol).” – Zak Moses, boyfriend of Senior Account Executive Shannon Nelson

“Yes – I believe stories can be used to personalize a concept and make it easier to relate to.” – Steve Markey, father of Account Coordinator Mollie Markey

Through this exercise, we learned some things:

Our families surprisingly understand more about what we do than we expected.
Creative word choice and levity occur naturally when there is a comfortable interview environment/preexisting relationship; i.e., my own father’s creation of the word, “millennial-ish”
From mobile technology to autonomous vehicles, our families are hip to what’s happening in the tech industry
Most importantly, we’re all storytellers in our own right

Be sure to check back on the blog next week to see what happened when we put our families through their paces with a crisis communications exercise.