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.

Being "green" is fashionable today for many big companies but credibility only comes if your environmental message matches your business strategy. Learn how GE devised a strategy for its "ecomagination" campaign that is focused on business results and shareowner value. This seminar will describe how this strategy was executed across multiple platforms and how the results are being measured. Gary and Peter also will discuss how strategic outreach to environmental groups, customers, and thought leaders helped inform GE's goals for the program as well as its positions on public policy issues such as climate change.

Hear from instructors and successful students what the Advanced Communications Project is really about, and get a jump-start on your project. Jim and Louise, both long-time instructors of the ACP, will explain the basic structure of the final course in the program, and will give you tips and pointers on how to choose a topic that's appropriate.  They will also convene a panel of successful graduates who represent a range of project types, and they will share their stories and answer your questions.

Meet executives and staff from NBC's corporate communications team and learn the challenges, complexities, and excitement of working at one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies.

It has become de rigueur for companies and organizations to media train their key spokespeople. But journalists are becoming more vocal in their displeasure with executives who are so over-prepared--and over-policed--that their interviews are dull, fake-sounding, and forgettable.

In this seminar, we'll discuss how to prepare for a media interview without sounding like a mouthpiece for your PR department. You'll learn how to deliver messages without becoming a "message jackhammer," how to direct the flow of an interview without micromanaging it. Participants will have an opportunity to engage in exercises that build energy, affect and succinctness. We will discuss techniques for dealing with performance block and for becoming more skillful public speakers.