Conference Keynote
David Cormier
Manager, Web Communications and Innovations, UPEI
Dave Cormier is an educational activist, researcher, online community advocate and the Manager of Web Communications and Innovations at the University of Prince Edward Island. He has published on open education, Rhizomatic Learning, MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), Digital Identity, and practical classroom uses of virtual worlds.
His educational journey started in 1998 teaching little children to speak English. The pivotal moment of his career happened when he was teaching at Hannam University in South Korea in 2003 surrounded by the papers of 275 writing students and wondering if he had them all. That winter he started using discussion forums to bring all of his students together in a writing community (and to digitally keep track of their work) and he hasn’t looked back. He’s since helped organize online communities of teachers, spoken at events around the world and worked to understand how internet changes what it means to know. His educational exploration partners have included faculty and researchers from well-known universities, and lone teachers in small town classrooms. Some of them are even still talking to him.
Dave's keynotes in the last couple of years have centred around how coming to know is a messy, imprecise process at once intensely individual and necessarily embedded in a community — Rhizomatic Learning. You can follow him on twitter at @davecormier or follow his thoughts at davecormier.com
Workshop Presenters
Richard Truscott, APR
Director of Provincial Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business
President, CPRS National
Richard Truscott is Alberta Director for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). CFIB is a non-partisan, not-for-profit political advocacy organization founded in 1971 that represents the interests of 109,000 small and medium-sized businesses across the country to all levels of government.
Richard has more than 20 years of experience in public relations, communications management and public policy. Prior to joining CFIB, he worked as Senior Public Relations Strategist with Venture Communications, one of Canada’s largest independent marketing and advertising companies, where he led a team creating public relations campaigns for companies like Toyota, EnCana and the Forzani Group. In his current role as Alberta Director for CFIB, Richard serves as the lead spokesperson and lobbyist on behalf of the organization’s 10,000 members in Alberta. He is a frequent opinion editorial contributor to the Calgary Herald, the Edmonton Journal, and a number of daily and weekly publications across Alberta.
Richard has a diverse educational background, including a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree from the University of Calgary, a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree from Queen’s University, and an Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) from the Canadian Public Relations Society.
Richard has a long record of service on behalf of CPRS, including serving as president of CPRS Calgary in 2006. He has been chair of the CPRS National Membership Committee since 2006 and has led the development and launch of a number of new initiatives, including the bi-annual national member survey, the Member Referral Program and the National Student Member Program. He was elected to the CPRS National Board in 2009 and currently serves as president.
Workshop: Navigating through effective government-stakeholder relationships
Sean W. Kelly APR, FCPRS
Manager of Public Relations, Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board
Vice-President & Treasurer, CPRS National
Sean has a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Education and a Masters Degree in Political Science from Memorial University. He received his APR in 2002 and was inducted into the College of Fellows in 2009. He heads the Public Relations Department at the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board. Sean was a public relations and policy advisor to the Premier’s Round Table on Environment and Economy and to the Joint National and Provincial Round Tables Task Force on Sustainable Marine Environments and Coastal Communities. He has chaired several intergovernmental committees on environmental education and communications.
Sean teaches public relations on a part-time basis at Memorial University. He was President of the Newfoundland and Labrador Chapter of CPRS from 2003-2009. Sean has received the CPRS Award of Attainment, the Don Rennie Memorial Award, the CPRS Lamp of Service Award and the Silver Award of Excellence for Issues Management/Crisis Communications. He has been a speaker at several national and international conferences, including the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environmental Education and Communications (Eco-Ed). He was nominated twice for the Newfoundland and Labrador Public Service Award for Excellence.
Workshop: On Solid Ground: Reputation Management
Mark LaVigne APR, FCPRS
President, Hunter LaVigne Communications Inc.
Public Relations and Communications Committee, CPRS National
Mark H. LaVigne established Hunter LaVigne Communications Inc. in 1997, an Aurora-based creative communications consultancy with proven associates across the country.Hunter LaVigne Communications Inc. (HLC) specializes in the organizational/news interface, including: media relations; media training; media events planning and management.
For five years, Mark was a national on-air radio journalist and for the last 21 years, he has worked in public relations agencies. While with "downtown" public relations agencies from 1990 to 1997, and in his own firm since then, Mark has worked with a variety of clients in both proactive and reactive media relations campaigns. Public Affairs experience includes work with the Canadian Publishers’ Council, the Environment and Plastics Institute of Canada (EPIC) and the Ontario Funeral Service Association.
After completing a Master of Arts in Journalism at the University of Western Ontario's Graduate School of Journalism, Mark worked as a radio journalist in Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto. Prior to UWO, he completed an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications and English at York University.
He is a member of the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) College of Fellows (appointed 2010), an accredited member (APR) of CPRS, is a Past-President of CPRS (Toronto) and served on the national CPRS board for six years, including as an elected Vice-President/Secretary. He is currently chair of the national organization’s PR and Communications committee. He has won a CPRS Toronto Bronze ACE (Achieving Communications Excellence) Award in the Special Events category for CrosSled (2002), in the New Product or Service Launch category for Sunrise Soya Foods (2003), CPRS Toronto Mentor of the Year (2007), Award of Merit, special events, national CPRS awards (2007), Certificate of Recognition from CPRS National (2008) and Volunteer Service Award from CPRS Toronto (2008).
He regularly conducts media relations workshops, moderates or participates in industry panels and delivers guest lectures at colleges and universities including McGill, McMaster University and the University of Western Ontario.
Mark sits on the Advisory Council to the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of Western Ontario and has taught part-time in the Corporate Communications Program at Seneca College, a graduate level PR program.
Workshop: Working as an independent PR practitioner - the ins and outs
