Washington, D.C. – Government relations professionals from around the country came to Washington, DC to attend the Customer Day Conference: The Art and Science of Influence sponsored by the Capitol Advantage family of companies on November 15-16, 2007.

A Capitol Hill reception kicked off this two-day event on Thursday evening. Representatives from various non-profits, associations, corporations, and universities traveled to the Rayburn Building’s Gold Room to meet with Legislative Correspondents and Systems Administrators from hundreds of U.S. Senate and House of Representatives offices. The reception “Real People, Real Messages” aimed to create an open dialogue between GR professionals responsible for creating advocacy campaigns and the Hill staff who handle constituent mail. 

Conference events on Friday began with customers of Capitol Advantage, Capitol Advantage Publishing, Knowlegis and 720 Strategies visiting the inaugural Influence Fair, which offered customers an interactive forum to view new products, discuss innovative uses of technology, play games, and take away practical applications to increase the influence of their advocacy programs.

The rest of the conference consisted of five sessions based on the central theme of influencing government relations outcomes.  Dr. Frank Luntz, a political consultant, researcher and pollster, was the featured key note speaker, and customers learned powerful and successful examples of influential strategies throughout the day.

Dr. Luntz incorporated audience participation, humor, and current events in the presentation of his best-selling book Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What They Hear.  Dr. Luntz’s interactive session focused on how simple language decisions made by associations and corporations can influence citizens and politics.

In other sessions, clients built a 12-month plan for strengthening the influence of their advocacy campaigns, discussed the fundamentals and future of targeted advocacy, and learned about new influential tools and services developed in the past year.

“They were all excellent. A Good mix of practical pointers and “big picture” concepts,” said Ann Ritter, Policy Strategist at the National Nursing Centers Consortium.

Other guest speakers included: Jon Bernstein, President of Bernstein Strategy Group; Carol Darr, Adjunct Lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and former director of George Washington University’s Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet; Max Sandlin, Former Congressman and Co-Chairman of Fleishman-Hillard Government Relations; and James Vaughn, Political Consultant.