Workshop Summary - Marko Sakren Opens the Box

Hello, PICA People! We recap the presentations of our speakers to help refresh your memory about what you learned in the workshop. One user tip is to forward a link to this blog to any of your work colleagues who might benefit from the information...this is a great way to share the information you learned, making your workshop tuition dollars go even further!

Today's recap is from Vice Chairperson, Becky Marshall. She's recapping our session with Marko Sakren of Red Rock Media Group, Inc.

Thinking Outside the Box…Without Missing the Target

Each of us around the workshop table takes a turn reciting our name, company name and job duties. We tick off our laundry list of job duties: brochure design, newsletter writing, event planning, presentation development, advertising, community support…the list goes on-and-on for the group of us participating in the 2010 PICA Communications Workshop held in Las Vegas last month.

What the group discovered during this exercise was that in our positions, we are responsible for a slew of duties that can become quite challenging at times. Once it becomes overwhelming, we tend to spread ourselves thin…and, as a result, creativity goes right out the window.

Marko plays "Name That Product" with Carol, Carol and Rick to help them break out of their usual methods of thinking.

Workshop speaker Marko Sakren of Red Rock Productions shared with us some ideas on how to think outside the box…without missing the target. What exactly does this mean? To put it simply, as insurance communicators, we must learn to step outside of our comfort zone when it comes to communicating…in both the written and spoken word. At the same time, we must continue to meet our targets (i.e. deadlines, budgets and approvals from co-workers, supervisors, executive management).

During this session of the workshop, PICA workshop attendees explored ways of communicating to publics in a more creative and entertaining manner. We learned that once we step outside the comfort zone and begin thinking outside the box, it is necessary to identify some of the challenges we face that prevent us from fully fulfilling our responsibilities as communicators. During his presentation, Marko offered the group suggestions on how to overcome some of those challenges and ways to implement solutions back at the home office.

Marko’s presentation material sparked dynamic conversation between PICA attendees. In the conclusion, the group discovered that if small steps are taken to think outside the box, our communications will develop into more creative and effective pieces without missing the target.