Full Transcript

Tom Garrity 
Welcome to the Garrity group water cooler conversation for the month of March. I’m Tom Garrity and I have the opportunity to be joined by Amanda Molina and Andie Mirabal of the Garrity group. And hey, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, or it’s the St. Patrick’s month. And so none of us are wearing green because we’re recording this. Not on St. Patrick’s Day, but actually on Friday, March 11. So we are all in the green free zone. What’s you know, so there you go. I have four magic topics that the staff might have an idea about, but why don’t we just jump right in? First off the Oprah Winfrey interview with Harry and Megan, Oh, my gosh, what happened? What’s your key takeaway? Andie, you seem to be somewhat in tune to what’s happening with all of this, what’s your feedback on it?

Andie Mirabal
my feedback, I would say, overall, and so I did watch the interview. And I would say, something to keep in mind is when making claims to have some sort of means to support them. And I think the vagueness of a lot of their answers, made it. It made it really difficult to watch. And so I would say that was probably one of my biggest key takeaways.

Tom Garrity 
And just so you know, in full disclosure, I did not watch the Oprah interview. It’s not be for any other reasons. I wasn’t on my radar until the next day when everything kind of came out. And I was like, going, Wow, I guess I missed that interview. Amanda, what was your key takeaway?

Amanda Molina 
I would have to agree with Andie that I was a little disappointed in, in how vague they were about some some pretty substantial and serious claims. I did not catch all of the interview, but I watched, you know, some some recap of it. And while I think Oprah is a fantastic interviewer, I do wish she would have it was a little friendly. I thought, I thought if you’re gonna if you’re gonna come to the table with these with these big claims, let’s, let’s back it up with a little more dirt, if you will. You know, it is it’s a it’s a huge interview. And but it was some interesting information. I it’s, it’s amazing what we, you know, how much of the week that that topic has taken up is as far as on the news and online. So it’s interesting what, what we follow as a country now, that’s for sure.

Tom Garrity
Yeah, you know, I, for me, the key takeaway, listening to all the follow up coverage was, you know, praise in public criticize in private. And it seems as if, you know, that got flipped around, where it was criticized in public and praise in private, if that even took place. So, you know, hopefully, we can all you know, have a few lessons that we can learn from the interview with the not so royal family anymore. And that’s not I don’t send me emails, send them to Amanda at Garrity PR. Okay, so second topic. You know, last month, we talked about COVID. And being a year, I guess we were a little ahead of the curve, because now in March, everybody’s doing their COVID stuff. So keeping with that COVID theme, let’s talk about school. And you know, some of the observations on school communications that you’ve been seen. Amanda, why don’t we go start with you on this one?

Amanda Molina 
Yeah, as a parent who has school aged elementary school children, it it’s been nice to hear that there some some headway when it comes to kids getting back in school. I know that they miss seeing their friends and teachers. But from a communication standpoint, you know, it has been interesting to follow. It feels like when the governor makes a statement, or PE D makes a statement that we have our our school districts falling a little bit behind. Oh, we’re shocked. Oh, we didn’t know this is coming. And it’s should? It seems like there’s that real lack of communication for the people who are really having to do the, the, you know, the work in schools and really having to prepare the students and prepare the teachers, or are they just presenting it is that way that they’re shocked? I don’t know. It would be interesting to really get into that that web of communication, because from an outsider standpoint, it looks a little messy.

Tom Garrity 
That’s a good assessment. Amanda. Yeah. When we take a look at you know, what is theirs, it seems that there’s it’s a bifurcated mess. you have the message that comes down from the state saying oh the water is fine come on in and you have the local school districts going whoa hold on no there’s sharks in the water you don’t want to go in there type stuff and you know COVID is a very serious issue but it seems as if that after a year that the school districts would have had enough you know you know forethought to think that this was a day that was going to be coming up at some point in time andy what are your observations with respect to this issue

Andie Mirabal
so it’s similar but from the other end i think um so i have a lot of family that are educators and you know just kind of seeing the topic on social media from both parents and teachers i think there’s a real need for them to want to feel heard and i think kind of you know similar to how like we treat normal reviews and normal normal feedback on behalf of our clients a lot of times people just want to feel heard and i think that there’s that lack of communication whether they are being heard there’s a lack of communication that they are taking their you know opinions and insights into consideration um in terms of how they’re addressing the situation because i think it’s been you know as you mentioned like a year it is it’s been coming it was bound to happen where everyone’s going back to school and i think there’s still a lot of concerns on behalf of parents and teachers that don’t feel like they’ve been addressed

Tom Garrity
yeah different twists great observations a different twist on the education continuum is with community colleges and four year universities and what really kind of catches me there is that here are institutions of higher learning not just in new mexico but throughout the country that have really promoted the fact that you know the campus experience the student life is something that is to be treasured and is one of the great things that you have well a lot of universities i think are having a hard time communicating that value proposition because they’ve already given up so much real estate literally and figuratively by saying you know what we can you can learn remotely so i think that you know higher ed is going to have really a huge challenge of trying to win back you know those those students to basically justify the dorms the classrooms the food service you know so i think that the greatest transition going in even though this wasn’t the question going into the recovery is how are the universities going to respond yeah one of the things that i think we’re all responding to now is cabin fever right i mean winter has passed for the most part who knows it’s mid march we could have three inches of snow tomorrow here in new mexico and along those lines we’re all ready to get out and start traveling the state and i’ve seen a lot of surveys over the last several weeks about people starting to pick up and just travel america what what’s what do you think this means for people in the tourism industry of course we work with had the opportunity to work with balloon fiesta which is coming up in october what opportunities are there in communications from a tourism perspective what are the things we need to be taking a look at and i’ll just leave that open over wants to jump in first on that

Amanda Molina
i mean i’ll i’ll get started while this all seems like a light at the end of the tunnel and we’re all very excited to see things and see people from from that leadership standpoint i still think it’s it’s important that we take all of this very seriously as far as processes go with one of those being you know taking making sure that everybody on staff or whoever’s working with crowds has taken the proper safety classes and because a lot of us have been stuck behind a computer for for months and months are we really taking the public you know interest at best heart and what are we doing to really prepare our organizations to do that and then you know finding out what that again is andy brought up our folks being heard and that’s something i think that balloon fiesta prides itself on and we as a company push our clients to understand that you know what are truly your volunteer concerns what are those who are your sponsoring your event and what are your guests concerning your participants concerns because we we might think we have an idea but when it gets down to the nitty gritty of understanding what each one of those interested parties is concerned about and wants to to make sure you know that they feel safe making sure that we’re hearing hearing that from them directly

Andie Mirabal
i think most important moving forward and I think something that’s gonna play a big role is also helping set those expectations as an organization for the experience. And, you know, I think there’s going to be a whole lot more planning that goes into traveling. You know, some, I’ve heard talks of like some airlines requiring proof of vaccination, you know, will events be doing the same? Do you need to have a mask do not need to have, you know, something else in terms of personal protective equipment. And so I think, setting, setting those expectations and making sure that guests are prepared, as prepared as they can be, to attend your events will be really important.

Tom Garrity
Yeah, when you look at events, and or even attractions, you know, places where people lodge for overnights, I mean, who says lodging anymore? But anyway, you know, as far as hotel stays and stuff, it really comes down to, as you mentioned, any city, Andy, Amanda, setting that expectation, you know, what is that guest experience going to be like, and I’ve had a chance just for, you know, family reasons to do a bit of traveling between here and Texas, staying in, you know, hotels from time to time when I’m making that trip. And it seems as if you know, the national brands have really done a good job of setting what that expectation is, as far as with, you know, the social distancing, you know, putting the plexiglass up stuff we’ve been doing here in New Mexico for at least the last year or so. So I think that that is, you know, really kind of, you know, that there are no new ideas, they’re just old ideas that are recycled philosophy, I think it’s good for small businesses, private chain, hotels, even smaller events, to take a look at how the larger events, larger hotels, the corporate folks, go to Rio, do your research on them. Because you know, they have the research department, they have access to the scientists into the medical professionals who are able to really identify what those best practices are. So you know, I think that, you know, in many ways, setting that guest experience already, you know, been set by some of the corporate companies, and New Mexico companies specifically have an opportunity to basically, you know, take what fits best for them. And, you know, really kind of put that great personal touch on it, as everyone is starting to welcome folks back into New Mexico, restaurants and attractions and things of that nature. Yeah, how long is it going to take anyone to go back to the movie theater? I mean, I didn’t go to the movie theaters, maybe, you know, three, four times a year before all of this. And I’m kind of thinking, you know, I mean, if they have the social distancing, and you know, if I don’t feel like you know, you know, the, the Juju bees on the floor of the, of the of the theater, or, you know, we’ll stick to my shoes anymore, because I think everybody’s gonna be a lot more a lot cleaner and stuff. I think I’ll go back. You know, because I think there’s some part of America that we just need to, you know, reefa miliar eyes ourselves with as far as the best parts, but what do you guys think about that move next time to movie theater?

Amanda Molina
I heard so I personally don’t attend a lot of movies in the in the theater. But I do think just, I know from you know, talking with people that that is something that people have missed. And I heard a survey yesterday when I was listening to a morning radio show about movie theaters being one of the occasions if you will, or you know, I don’t know things to do that, that folks have missed the most amongst concerts and restaurants, movie theaters was quite up there. So I I do think they’ll rally back strong. There’s some folks who are really diehard fans have seen seeing it and having the experience of a movie in the theater. So I’m hopeful that it’ll it’ll come back quickly and strong.

Andie Mirabal
Yeah, I mean, I’m excited for them to open we typically, we go see all the Marvel premieres and in theater and we go with my dad, and so I can say like, that’s something that I’ve definitely missed. I know they really some on some of these, like on HBO Max, but it wasn’t the same. I do miss that experience.

Tom Garrity
Well, I think everything started to reopen. You know, there’s that path. I think that a lot of folks have been looking for as far as to you know, what that what the next next looks like so you know, thinking only good things ahead. Any other final thoughts as we kind of wrap up up this water cooler conversation on this Friday, March 11. No, I’m

Amanda Molina
excited this weekend to start sports with my kids again.

Tom Garrity
Oh, really?

Amanda Molina
Yes, soccer is kicking up and it looks like it’s gonna be somewhat, you know, somewhat normal nests and social distancing involved. But I’m excited for the kids to get all kids in New Mexico to get back to some activity and some outdoor sports. So looking for except

Tom Garrity
outstanding. All right, well, thank you all very much for watching and listening in on us as we kind of catch up from the week that was and for participating in our March water cooler conversation for more insights on public relations and how we might be able to be of assistance to you. Please feel free to visit our new website, which we haven’t talked about yet. We’ll talk about that in April. At Garrity PR calm thanks for watching.

Published March 30, 2021