Despite April showers, it’s been a sunny month thanks to some special opportunities, including being commissioned to write an article for the National Press Club’s newsletter and blog  about everyone’s favorite Nanny, award-winning actress and activist Fran Drescher.

After struggling for eight years and seeing eight doctors in an attempt to figure out what was making her feel sick, Drescher was diagnosed in 2001 with uterine cancer. She went on to write two bestselling books, the second of which led to the birth of her nonprofit organization, Cancer Schmancer. Then, after years of persistent lobbying of the Bush Administration, in September 2008 she was named the U.S. State Department Special Envoy for Women’s Health.

“I am not glad that I got cancer, but I am better for it,” she told the audience that gathered at the Press Club on April 14. “I remember standing in my bathroom after the surgery looking swollen and bruised, and feeling nothing like the Superwoman I had felt I was my whole life. I wished I could have been anyone but me in that moment.”

Of course, Drescher did find the courage to go on, and although she continues to work as an actress, she has taken on a new mission: to inspire other women to take charge of their lives. “Stage one is the cure,” she counseled during her hour-long speech. “Know your own bodies and listen to that little voice. If it tells you something is amiss, don’t take no for an answer until you find the right doctor — and the right diagnosis.”

May we all be inspired, even in our darkest hours, to dig down deep and find ways to give back. Here’s to May flowers. Talk to you soon. —Hope

Hope Katz Gibbs, president & founder Inkandescent Public Relations

hope@inkandescentpr.com www.inkandescentpr.com

MEET OUR NEWEST CLIENT:

Golden & Cohen

Welcome to Golden & Cohen, the Gaithersburg, MD, firm that specializes in providing group and individual insurance benefits and retirement planning. On April 24 we officially launched their new website. And earlier this month, we helped co-founder Scott Golden write a guest column for Health News Digest about the segment of the healthcare industry that is actually hiring these days. Guess which one it is!

WELCOME TO OUR NEW TEAM MEMBER:

Gio Van Remortel, director, Inkandescent Speakers

A big Inkandescent welcome to Gio Van Remortel, the director of a new offering we’ll be launching this spring, Inkandescent Speakers.

For the last 15 years, Gio has been a strategic business consultant working with large corporations, government agencies and small to mid-level companies. Most recently, she served as futurist and senior analyst with Social Technologies, a consulting firm that helps corporations, nonprofits and government agencies to successfully manage change. Learn more by sending Gio an email: gio@inkandescentpr.com.

INKANDESCENT ART:

Congrats to our team!

Inkandescent Public Relations designer/illustrator Michael Gibbs was awarded this year’s Gold Award from the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles show for his piece, Covert Cocktails. Congrats to Mike! Let him know if you’d like to buy a print: mike@michaelgibbs.com; www.mglenwood.com and www.michaelgibbs.com

 

 

 

Reward Yourself:

At your computer all day? Create your own radio station and play the music you love, for free: www.pandora.com

Inkandescent Events

MAY 12: DR. ALICE WAAGEN’s WEBINAR: WHY MANAGERS DON’T MANAGE — AND WHAT HR CAN DO ABOUT IT “Imagine a restaurant where chefs can choose whether or not they will cook, or an airline where pilots can decide that they do not want to fly planes,” says Dr. Waagen, owner of Workforce Learning. “In almost any job, if a person doesn’t want to perform basic job functions, they are fired. And yet, in the world of business, managers can elect not to manage their direct reports, with sometimes few or no consequences.” During a 90-minute webinar on May 19, Waagen will explain how to recognize negligent managers’, and what we can do about it. Sign up here.

MAY 14: MEET BARBARA MITCHELL AT STERLING WOMEN LUNCHEON On May 14, HR expert Barbara Mitchell will be the keynote speaker at the Leesburg, VA, and “Sterling Women” luncheon — a monthly series that provides a new networking opportunity for businesswomen in Northern Virginia. The event will be hosted by Reston Limousine owner, Kristina Bouweiri. “We are very excited to have Barbara speak to us about the ins and outs of HR,” Kristina says. “As a small business owner, you can never know enough about this important topic.” Sign up for the luncheon here.

MAY 19: JOIN IN ON THE FUN: LEE WOODRUFF AT THE FOUR SEASONS HOTEL On May 19, Hooks Book Events co-founders Perry Hooks and Loretta Yenson will host a luncheon and book talk with bestselling author Lee Woodruff at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown. Woodruff, a journalist and contributor to Good Morning America, will discuss her new book, Perfectly Imperfect, a personal testament to her life since her husband ABC News journalist Bob Woodward was nearly killed in 2006 by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Sign up for this exclusive event here.

Inkandescent Clients in the News

ILLUSTRATOR MICHAEL GIBBS ON THE VIRTUES OF THE MAC E-Commerce Times reporter Erika Morphy interviewed our art director Michael Gibbs for her article, Will Artists Still Love Macs Tomorrow? “Apple wants a bigger chunk of the desktop computer market, but it's unlikely to head downstream with stripped-down consumer offerings,” Morphy wrote. “Can Apple deliver a high-end product that meets both corporate and creative needs?” She interviewed our Inkandescent art director who described working on a Mac Pro in terms that suggest a Zen-like trance: "I can't explain it well, but you are not even really aware you are using a computer program — the design applications are that intuitive." He can easily tell the difference between applications that are natively designed for the Mac — anything Adobe — and those that have been retrofitted for the OS X environment, such as Microsoft Word. The latter, "are just plain cumbersome.” In 1985, Gibbs got his first Apple computer — complete with floppy disks — and he's never looked back.

THE ESSENTIAL HR HANDBOOK NOW AVAILABLE ON KINDLE Co-authors Sharon Armstrong and Barbara Mitchell were thrilled to learn that their 2008 book, The Essential HR Handbook, was one of the 270,000 books on Amazon.com (out of the 7.5 million titles listed) to be compatible with the company’s Kindle e-book reader. ”When Sharon and I were in the planning stages of writing The Essential HR Handbook, we wanted it to be a tool that was useful to a all generations of HR managers,” Mitchell says. “Since the Kindle is a product that seems to be popular with everyone from Boomers to GenY, it is an incredible opportunity to have the book for sale in both formats.”

HOOKS BOOK EVENTS FEATURED on FEDERAL NEWS RADIO On April 24, Federal News Radio interviewed Hooks Book Events’ co-founder Perry Pidgeon Hooks. The entrepreneur who brings thought leaders and New York Times bestselling authors into the offices of government agencies, trade associations, and corporations of all sizes. Perry talked with reporter Jason Fornicola about how her business is helping to expand the ideas and perspectives of decision makers. Listen here.

SPREADING THE GOOD WORD: "Federal News Radio reaches my target audience — the Federal employee who is looking for new ideas and information to tackle the current issues facing this country," says Perry Hooks. "I hope to work with FNR more in the upcoming months to broaden the reach of these private events so that all USGOV employees can have some access to the ideas being presented by the authors we bring to USGOV locations."

CONTACT INFORMATION Thanks to our newsletter designer Jessica Dean — graphic artist extraordinaire and publisher of Celebrate Gettysburg magazine. To become part of our Inkandescent family, call Hope Katz Gibbs at 703-502-3405 or send an email: hope@inkandescentpr.com.