VPC’s fall meeting brought together nearly 40 members and guests for a wonderful day of networking, learning, laughing and growing personally and professionally.

Keynote speaker Dean Browell, an international expert on consumer behavior with Feedback agency, offered a workshop geared toward any communications professional.

Major takeaways from his presentation included:

• Social media is not just Facebook and Twitter. It’s anywhere that anybody talks.
• Social and public relations help buoy recall. You can’t just turn the switch off. Consumers don’t work that way.
• Frequency is not a bandage. Just because you post multiple times doesn’t mean people are engaging with or want that content.

Browell said that when thinking about whether your company or brand should be on a particular social media site, it’s important to consider whether the intended audience wants you to be there. He also recommended pretending to be your audience at least once a year to understand where they get their content and whether you are on those platforms.

Bestselling author Sheri Reynolds, an Oprah Book Club sensation, provided a candid look at her writing journey. Meeting attendees were amazed to hear she was speaking to VPC just three days before her publishing deadline for her seventh book.

Here are some of the key elements of her entertaining remarks:

• Put a meeting with your characters on your calendar.
• Arrange an overnight in a hotel with your writing.
• Create mandatory daydreaming time when you are at an event you aren’t that interested in.
• Keep a small notebook handy and make your waiting time, writing time.

And finally, her talk led to one key takeaway — be persistent!

Rounding out the day, the new slate of 2016-18 officers was elected and Gail Kent was given a handcrafted ceramic pumpkin sculpture purchased in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.  In a fun ending to the conference, the table centerpieces, consisting of small and large cloth pumpkins were auctioned off, raising $55 for the VPW Foundation, which provides scholarships to students at Virginia schools.