Most cover letters are boring, formulaic. Applicants are too afraid of offending to risk standing out. And in an era of robot screeners, one can wonder: Do cover letters even matter?

This workshop lays out the roles and goals of a good business letter, and explains why yes, indeed, cover letters do still matter. The session will outline core principles of persuasive writing that will help writers pitch themselves successfully to a range of readers. Through analysis of letters that worked, attendees will come to a new understanding of strategy, and learn to distinguish elegant flourishes from cheap gimmicks. The workshop will demonstrate how applicants can use audience insight to showcase themselves to greatest effect, and offer a framework for taking calculated risks in professional prose.

Presenter:
Edith Updike is managing editor of FundFire, a daily Financial Times publication covering institutional asset management. From 2008 to 2012, she was a full-time lecturer in the master’s degree programs in Strategic Communications and Communications Practice at Columbia University’s School of Continuing Education. She taught business writing, critical thinking, media studies and communications strategy. Updike earned an MS in Journalism at Columbia, and has covered business, politics and social issues for a range of publications from New York Newsday and Business Week to Slate and Travel Journal International. She has served as a consultant on media, communications and management strategy to internet start-ups as well as major companies such as PriceWaterhouse and Honda.

Sitting at the intersection of business strategy, digital development, user experience, communications, and publishing, content strategy has emerged over the last few years as a discipline examining the purpose behind content (in all manifestations) and how it supports business, organizational, and user goals. While it originated in digital web design and user experience, content strategy now encompasses a much broader set of considerations and addresses content creation, distribution, and governance across multiple channels, especially the interplay among digital, social, and traditional media. Content strategy provides a holistic approach for unlocking the value behind content and for increasing its effectiveness in achieving business and organizational objectives.

This seminar will present the fundamentals of content strategy and explore the discipline’s approaches, techniques, and tools that participants can apply directly to the content situation in their own organization. It will draw parallels with – and highlight distinctions among – traditional communications strategy, publishing, and content strategy, and provide attendees with a framework to create a sustainable program grounded in meaningful, actionable content.

Christopher Collette is the Associate Director for Digital Programs and Content Strategy at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a global law firm headquartered in New York City. In a career spanning close to 20 years and covering both digital and traditional media and communications, he was practicing content strategy long before it had a name or was a discipline. In both corporate and consulting roles, he's lead digital marketing and content strategy programs for leading corporations and organizations including IBM, The College Board, Goldman Sachs, Legg Mason, Standard & Poor's, MasterCard, and The Kennedy Center. A graduate of Denison University, he holds advanced degrees in communications from the University of Cincinnati and in library and information science from Pratt Institute.

Download Presentation:
Content Strategy: Fundamentals, Techniques, and Tools (PDF)
Selected Bibliography (PDF)

Discover the most useful features of Google's software suite in an immersion seminar. Google's free software can help you work more efficiently, streamline business collaboration, and gather and manage information effectively.

Who is this seminar for? Google's cloud software has potential value for anyone who writes, analyzes, gathers or assesses information and ideas professionally . What does this cover? This two-hour workshop provides valuable insights into using Google's Apps, including Google Docs, Spreadsheets and Presentations. It will also cover some tips and tricks for advanced uses of GMail, Google Calendar and Google Maps.

Students will:

• Discover GMail tricks to make their inbox more useful and efficient
• Launch and team-edit a live, collaborative document, or live-blog using Google Docs
• Collaborate on and deliver Powerpoint slides online from any device with Google Presentations
• Build instant surveys and collect and analyze client and consumer data quickly using Google Forms
• Create quick charts and graphs in Google Spreadsheets that can be private, published, printed or embedded online

Jeremy Caplan is a visiting professor at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism, where he teaches interactive journalism, entrepreneurial journalism, and the craft of journalism. He is also a Ford Foundation Fellow at the Poynter Institute. A longtime Time Magazine reporter, Caplan continues to write about business and technology for Time Magazine and for the Wall Street Journal's Digits Blog. He was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism and a Wiegers Fellow at the Columbia Business School, and now devotes his time to writing and teaching.

What does sex education and bedroom behavior have to do with social media? More than you would think.

Like sex education, social media success is more about what you know. Students will see how the size (and use) of their social media tools can effect brand awareness, empower consumers and deliver measurable ROI. By the end of the class, students will know how and when to implement social media, and will learn ways to monitor its effectiveness.

Grayson M. Bass is managing director at Mayor Wilson, Strategic Consulting. Bass takes leadership roles within an organization as an executive-in-residence in order to roll out and/or develop new products, help companies enter new markets, and build out and train sales and marketing teams. He has lived and worked in Asia, North and South America in a variety of industries including energy, IT, consulting, advertising, mobile, manufacturing, publishing, legal and finance. His research is on strategy and competitive advantage in networks.

This event is full and no longer accepting RSVP's.