On my flight to Cleveland recently for the Worldcom PR Group Americas Region meeting, the attendant turned a routine flight procedure into a memorable experience. How? He came to our aisle and said: “Ms. Rhoads, Ms. Sosnow, what would you like to drink this afternoon?” Seeing our surprise at his request, he said “service isn’t dead in the world, people have just forgotten that it’s part of their job description.”

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When Harry Met Sally is one of my all-time favorite movies. I’m a real sucker for romantic comedies. Plus, there’s something about Meg Ryan’s and Billy Crystal’s unlikely friendship – and ultimate romance – that’s ennobling. It’s a story of growth. Two opposite temperaments learning to understand, befriend, complement and enrich each others’ lives.

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What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Unless you get a tattoo. Or you work in PR and have a blog post to write.

I was in Las Vegas last week for an event my client (a consulting firm) stages for their retail clients – a function in its 24th year that brought together about 100 people from 60 different companies with whom they represent now or in the past. An impressive gathering, but it hasn’t always been so. It has taken serious TLC over the years to grow it to what it is today.

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Figuring that I was old enough to have learned something in founding and running a PR firm for 30+ years – but not so old that I had forgotten it all – the three Managing Directors of our firm asked me to develop a number of staff training courses dubbed Bliss University.

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Thought leadership is a hot topic these days. Basically, it means showcasing your brainpower to clients and potential clients through research, articles, speeches, surveys and now blogs. We call it the “marketing of ideas.” The September 11 issue of The Economist ran an article on it and our firm has seen the concept move from professional services into financial services and medical devices.

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Are you doing PR for a B2B company that provides a service? Yes, that means you, all lawyers, consultants, financial advisors, asset managers, software developers and search firms. In fact more than half of the US GDP has come from services companies since 1982 , which is why marketing intangibles is a critical skill in our world.

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At a recent event hosted by the Association of Management Consulting Firms (AMCF) Walter Kiechel, former editor of Fortune magazine and author of The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World, discussed how strategy’s great gurus influenced the development and implementation of ideas within their organizations and those of their clients.

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How many times have you weighed the pros and cons of partnering with a traditional media outlet to conduct a survey? As B2B marketers, we know the benefits and drawbacks: partnerships come with a guaranteed media placement, the added credibility of the outlet’s brand and, often, access to a publication’s subscription lists.

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Talking about management talent with an executive search pro is a little bit like listening to Joe Torre evaluate the Yankees or Dodgers. You know you can trust the source and you’ll probably learn something new.

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No question about it, the marketing of professional services can be a frustrating way to earn a living. This holds true whether you’re an employee of a professional firm or a “hired gun.” Common complaints are (a) egomaniacal clients, (b) unreasonable expectations that often flow from “a.” and (c) a paucity of solid content.

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