We are joined by Amy Kaminski, Principal at Mulberry Public Affairs, and Rob Vescio, Principal at Dentons Cohen & Grigsby Public Affairs, to explore government affairs strategies your technology company should take in the midst of an economic crisis. We will discuss opportunities and challenges that arise at a government level during economic downturns and ways that technology companies should be engaging their elected officials.
Transcription:
Good afternoon and welcome to today's business. As usual, this is Audrey Russo. I'm president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Technology Council. And I'm joined by Jonathan Kersting, who's all things media at the tech Council and passionate about storytelling, as well as being the Vice President of visibility. So a few things before we jump into our call. I'm pretty excited about the conversations that we're going to have today, but a few things is that it wouldn't be possible without a relationship with Huntington bank. They've been with us as we've pivoted and has started these daily calls. I think we're in our 60 something call. So exciting. So that's pretty great. And so thanks to Huntington bank and the work that they've done in helping their work and leadership in the SBA work that's it affecting most of us these days, so really want to thank them and I want to thank synergy staffing for their continuous support. They are able, they were actually able to help us with 1000 displace workers and virtual job fair that we did a few weeks ago. And if you need talent and you need support and information technology, reach out to synergy, staffing. So Tomorrow is Friday. It's the end of our week and we will have Esther Busch from the Urban League. Joining us tomorrow at noon. And tonight, they're getting ready to release their Pittsburgh Black Lives update. So we hope to get some information from Esther tomorrow.
So we've muted your microphones and to make sure that we can, you know, suppress any noise as well as we have a chat and the chat is intended for you to ask some questions, but it is not intended for you to sell your wares. This is not the intention of today's exchange or any of the days that we have on zoom. But it is interactive. So today we being joined by two seasoned Government Relations professionals, then they're going to talk about the importance of technology leaders to have their voices heard in major policy discussions. And this is really important, and it's part of the core of the work that we do at the tech Council. But in times of crisis, then policy is moving fast and fluid. It's essential that we have communications that are key to our policy leaders. So we really work on this all year long. But given today's climate, and all the things that are happening right now in our footsteps, this is a very timely conversation with two people who have a lot of capability in the space. So on that note, I'm going to welcome Amy Kaminski. She's principal at mulberry public affairs, and Rob vest co principal at Denton Cohen and Grigsby. So I'm going to start with Amy I'm going to bring Amy on and we're going to talk about a little bit about your company Amy, and your work. Then talk about why it's so important for tech leaders to be investing their time in developing communication channels to their elected officials, and of course support the work that we do at the tech Council. So thank you, Amy. Thanks for joining us.
Thank you, Audrey and Brian and Jonathan and everybody at the tech Council. It's great to be on today's call. I've been listening to a lot of the Pittsburgh technology Council's noon briefings and they're fantastic and I just have to tell a quick story right off the bat. A couple months ago, towards the beginning of this you had 412 Food Rescue on your program and one of the clients that we work with at mulberry public affairs is crown castle and they happen to hear the connection or hear the segment with 412 hundred rescue and we're really intrigued and they had the opportunity with their southpoint location of their workers are working remotely obviously and they have a cafe on site and wanted to provide meals to the community. So the connection between the 4123 rescue that we heard on your show, and crown castle has enabled them to put almost 2000 meals out into the community on a weekly basis over the past two months. So thank you for giving a spotlight to four one too, and then also allowing us to reach out to them and help make those connections that really impact the community, especially during this time. So that's really important. So mulberry public affairs is almost two years old. We'll be celebrating our two year anniversary in a couple weeks here on July 1. So that's very exciting for us, where a woman owned business were two of us are bipartisan. We decided to go out on our own and focus on some strategies and the larger core competency than than we previously did in our other lives as strictly government affairs professionals. So we are Do a lot of the traditional government affairs meeting with legislators helping our clients tell their stories, but we really take a very broad approach and helping our clients also do some public relations, drive their awareness of their issues to make sure they are getting the spotlight on their issues that will ultimately help them meet their goals, whether that might be public funding from the government sources, grant writing, things like that, or if they particularly have legislation they want to pass, whether it's at the local state or federal level, so we help them get potentially build a coalition, something that we're doing in terms of building coalition and that the tech console is also a part of is the PA partnership for 5g helping to advance and educate the community on the needs for 5g and deployment for 5g in the community. So there's a it's a growing coalition of 50 members and we help to develop that coalition and help educate the public about the needs for 5g in the community. So that's a little bit about mulberry and some of the work that we do and help take a look at a whole holistic view of government affairs and public relations combined to really create public affairs.
Great, thanks. I'm going to jump over to rob and bring Rob on. So Rob, thanks for joining us today. appreciate all the work in the long partnership we've had with you as well. So what do you talk a little bit about why companies need spent, you know, to spend time educating elected officials, about their work in their industries? It's something that you know, while we're, it's near and dear to the work that we do each and every day, but the importance of technology leaders and maintaining that that kind of contact as well during crisis and non crisis. You talk about that, Rob? Well,
thanks, Adrienne and Brian for inviting me. One of the first things you have to understand is the elected officials need your expertise. They don't have the expertise that they have. You have in your field, you are the experts, they have to hear from you. When they haven't met, just think about the thousands of bills that are introduced the, you know, cycle where come up with the ideas that honestly that a lot of them are not well thought. That's where they your industry to come in. They need you to have those conversations. And look what just happened in the pandemic. In March, you know, things had the governors are shutting down, shut down a lot of these companies and organizations. So for the first time, I can tell you in our office got flooded not just from our existing clients, but also our legal clients. We had companies from from outside of Pennsylvania and inside Pennsylvania, that were affected by the governor's order on the shutdown. Think about if you had relationships already with those elected officials, you know, for a lot of you You probably call the governor's office or House or Senate member for the other, you know, had that relationship already built in. So they need to have that, you know, that advocacy on whether they were essential or not. And so they already had those relationships already built in. You don't want to go to the government or elected officials when you only have a problem, you should all have conversation, but these individuals, they have to understand exactly what's going on in the marketplace, what's what's impacting your business. And to do that, you should always have regular communication even if you're just going in and pop it in and say hey, listen, you know, things, things are going well, this is what's working, these are the strategies, it would be helpful if the government were to essentially look at these are these programs are working or these are not working, you know, they need to hear from you because they don't they don't fully realize or understand what your industry does, and you're living it on a daily basis. They're dealing with all different sectors of what's going on in Pennsylvania and you know, the world economy at this point. So my my What I would say is you should always work with you should first off, know who your house and Senate members are. You should invite a man having tour your facility, if possible, and then at least have conversations about what you are doing your products you're working on it, you know, before you get into what you need from the government, if that's helpful.
And so, you know, we talk we talk about what is do it yourself, right, there are certain things that you can do yourself in tech, what are some additional things that they can do, whether it's each and every day or when they're matters? I mean, obviously, get to know the people who you represent, know who they are, know what their policies are, but what kinds of things can you do before you actually even get big enough where you get engaged with people like either one of you? What are some things? Yeah,
so I mean, essentially, Amy, first off, I applaud Amy and her partner, which would they do because As you know, they provide a great service. And so we're just so you know, we're kind of the opposite spectrum recently and even bigger now. So in February coating Grigsby is a law firm that I personally with we we combined with the world's largest law firm in dense and so as of February we are deadens Cohen and Grigsby which was amazing because as here we go and mark with with COVID it's like our first on like we just this combination one month later we were in the COVID now it's helped a great deal you know, the challenges worldwide in every state. But if you look at the things that we have, you know, what Amy this company is able to provide you versus bigger company it's you know, you got to watch like in terms of when you're looking at law and so forth and doing your you know, you should always conversation with it. He's like Amy's because do a lot of the speech and the stuff in the real name implies, essentially, it's good, what they what you need for smaller entities before you into the bigger entities in Congress. Because we deal with a lot of international national companies do have some trade associations, trade associations, and so forth. But for the do it yourselfers it's simple. We are here as a resource. At the very least you're not just you know, calling we're not. Are you just for initial conversation? You always have a conversation with us just to say, hey, look at what we're trying to do. What's the best approach a lobbyist right now? Do I not and in most cases, we can at least give you that before you start spending that money, a lobbying firm, you should probably just have that conversation with us to see what your needs are. We can tell you what's available to you. And then from there, you can decide whether or not that's the right step, not only with Amy, do you want to add Well,
I want to go jump to Amy and talk about you mentioned a little bit about associations and some of the associations that you affiliate with them. Obviously, in transparency, we are in association. And there are many issues that are near and dear to the work that we do. I'll bring Brian on in a little bit to talk about some of the imminent issues that are right at our feet as of today even. But we'll talk about the importance of that. And because you've been a convener and a participator, in many of those.
Sure. And thanks, Rob. Thanks for the plug. We've worked together for a long time. So it's great to have a friendly atmosphere. We're very collegial in our industry and it's good to have friends like Rob and be able to support each other. We've even shared clients back and forth when it when it makes sense. So thanks again, Rob, for for talking about our firm so well and all the work that you guys do is fantastic as well. So as Andre said, associations are really important in the government, industry and government affairs because associations bring a lot Wait, you typically have, you know, up to 1000, potentially members, you're all kind of in the same industries have a lot of the same ideals and same priorities. So Brian does a great job. And Audrey does a great job of really looking at what are some of the main issues for the tech community. And I know Brian's going to talk a little bit more about it a little bit later. But what are some of the what are some of the issues that you have? And how can you put that together and really take it to your elected officials as a large group, representing number of thousands of employees and thousands of job dollars that are going into the community and economic development, that is all really vital information that elected officials are going to want to hear about and because you have that strength and numbers, you're going to get a lot more attention than you would otherwise as an industry. All company. And particularly you're going to be hitting on your own, you're going to be constituents of elected officials all across the state. So there's no one more important to an elected official than their constituents. So if you're able to have connections through your association with your elected officials, that just brings a lot more weight to your issues. As I mentioned before, we have we've been running the VA partnership for 5g for about two years now. The Pittsburgh Technology Council is a member of that, as I said, as well as the greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, the Washington County Chamber of Commerce, Robert Morris, and Allegheny County locally just to name a few. We have over 50 organizations that are a member at this point. So that's bringing a lot of weight to the issue of 5g and how important it is for Pennsylvania to get 5g deployment 28 other states have passed legislation And that have allowed them to deploy 5g. And we don't want Pennsylvania to fall behind. So these types of Coalition's really show the depth and breadth of the issue and how it impacts so many different industries. So I thought everything that the Technology Council is doing across the board to help tech companies of all sizes.
That's a, that's a really great example of the importance that transcends everyone who's in innovation and building tech companies. So thank you for for shouting that out. Let's switch gears just a little bit. And then I'm going to bring Brian on but I want to talk about, you know, there is this shift that many organizations and Amy talked about it a little bit with crown castle and Rob, you have experience in this as well, that have stepped up to the plate in terms of advocating for social good, okay. And social good could mean artificial intelligence for social good. It could be the kinds of things that you're talking About the food bank, and you know, the partnership with crown, and I'm sure you have a million others. They've also been lobbying for issues that speak more to their values than the short term issues in terms of profit and loss. And can we talk about the impact and how impactful that is for the business community to be driving these kinds of social changes in state and local and federal? You know, are our federal elected officials, can you talk about that and the initiatives that are there and why? What have you seen in terms of the shift and I can start with Rob, if you want
that's fine. I mean, what you're saying is that you know, the kind of, you know, everyone at this point, and in a leaders are really in upon themselves to jump in and we're seeing it where, based on what we're seeing right now in the country, there are couple main issues going on. on, you know, we're there looking at it. And, you know, I think I think what's happening is a lot of the politics we're dealing with are so divisive. And that's all you're seeing. And you're seeing these, you know, the, these, these these news stations, quote, unquote, that are sitting there on one side of the aisle versus the other and, you know, pandering to the extremes, it's nice to see the corporate community in an organization come in with a balanced approach to trying to kind of write what's working and yeah, which is, it's can tell you there's a lot of these initiatives going on right now. It I mean, I just, it's pretty much everywhere. You're seeing with different companies and what the what they want in their clientele and what there's, to their consumers, that you know, we're we hear you, we're with you, and we're chat. We're adapting to what's going on today. It's like, so I mean, in terms of specifics, I can tell you, I mean, I could see what our I could tell you, we can go Dan's doing it. We are our bubble Arce bull CEO every day coming out with new initiatives, lawyers took on a lot of pro bono efforts around the world, you know, helping deal with these, these issues. And so a lot of using your expertise, we're doing a lobbying side as well, when we can. were, you know, getting paid for this stuff. We're helping out where some of these social justice issues need to be developed. And that's what we're doing from our end. But you're seeing is corporate America, America has absolutely changed. They're actually evolving. And I think a lot of that is in is a direct result of, you know, what happened in the media side of things, which is the diversity that we're dealing with.
Right, right. I think it's, I mean, we did have a lot of initiative around triple bottom line kind of reporting two decades ago, but it's really shifted even more in a more granular fashion today, at least the view that we have that people like Brian and I in the tech Council have So, Amy, is there any mayor's associations like yours? Absolutely playing a role. I mean, you guys are doing tremendous job with this. And this is what we need more of the associations, you know, with corporate corporate America's what need to draw the agenda.
I agree. Thank you. Amy, do you want to add anything to that in terms of the view that you have? If not, I have a bunch of other questions as well. The courtesy to answer that.
Yeah. You're welcome to move on to another question.
So one of the things I want people to, to think about in terms of the kind of work and services and I know any in your world, that you actually help with grant writing. So there are other things that when people think about in terms of public policy and relationships, it's one thing for Audrey to just sit alone in her own cube or office and think she can do grant writing, but it's another thing to really be strategic in terms of your business and know all that's out there. So can you can you talk about that
Sure, one of the services that we have we do at mulberry is to help with grant writing. And a lot of that is more geared towards nonprofits. Obviously, the majority of government funding, particularly for programming goes to nonprofits. And I'll use a client example again, as I like to really help it helps illustrate what we do. One of our clients is the breaded frantic Carnegie Library Association, and they are the oldest Carnegie Public Library in the country. Great community library vital, very vital organization to the community that they serve. They serve 15,000 residents in Brandon, North Braddock, East Pittsburgh, shell plot and Turtle Creek. And when they've been closed, it's really impacted their community and it really demonstrates how important an organization like theirs is to the community because people use the library, just get access to computers. To get connectivity just within their community, so people who were previously able to go to the library and do their work or just do their normal day to day business, because they had connections aren't able to do that anymore. So one of the grants that we helped them right recently was the Institute for Museum and Library Services. federal grant, as part of the cares act program had some very targeted emergency funding around COVID and allowing libraries and museums to do special programming that would help impact their communities and help support their communities during this time. So we helped them put together a grant that will hopefully get funded Fingers crossed to help them support their outreach from of, of mostly connected perspective, helping them buy laptops, helping them buy hot spots that they can put out into the community to help their members and their patrons continue to stay connected, while the library might be physically shut down or have reduced hours. So we as mulberry, what we help them do, as part of that is really come up with a plan. How are we going to attack the grant who's going to write what making sure they're using the right language that will hit on the right points for government audience, and then also talking with the elected officials and helping to get their support for their grants, letters of support can go a long way in helping them those types of things. So we just really help guide them through the whole process and making sure that they are using the right messaging.
That's great. It's great, really, it's really something that people need to know more about. And, and I know that that, you know, Rob has had an upfront view in terms of areas that are hard hit by the pandemic, which include tourism services, And anything related to the amenities of our economic growth. But I want to switch. I want to just pause for one second because, you know, public policy and the issues that affect us. So for today, and some of the some of the rulings that have happened today and yesterday, affect the tech community, and I would like to bring on Brian Kennedy. He is if you don't know him, he's actually our vice president, who oversees government affairs, public policy and operations. And I want to bring Brian on because I want to talk about this is a perfect example of what is so important that affects the tech community. And it is it's going to impact us but I mean, starting almost immediately. And so Brian, I'd like to bring you on to just talk about what are the matters at hand, what's happened at the Supreme Court what's happening in Washington, and what how that is affecting the workforce, particularly as It relates to people who are foreign born that are highly educated, and are part of our economic drivers here across the innovation ecosystem. So Brian, come on.
So, hello, Hey, thank you, Robin and Amy for coming on and joining us and folks who are listening to let you know these, these are two of the movers and shakers in Harrisburg, who I call frequently, when bad things are about to happen or good things can happen. And I asked her advice all the time, and I don't pay for it. So thank you both for that.
That will check it out. Okay.
A lot of this is really closely related, right? The questions that Audrey was asking, you know, you look at issues that companies care about. And at the top of their list is talent, right? It's its talent. You know, to find talent wherever it is and engage their creative skills to help the companies and in order to do that, they Companies have been far more closely aligning their values with the values of the people who work for them. And that is a source of social good in lobbying going back 20 years when Delmonte you know really took a hard line approach on their corporate Pac and going out and and basically saying people that are anti LGBT, you know, will not find a friend in Delmonte even if you are great on business issues that we care about. If you're not aligning with with our corporate values, our talent, it remains the top issue facing members of the tech Council. We have been waiting, for example, today on the Supreme Court issuing a ruling on DACA. And it issued a ruling that was opposite of what most people thought they were going to do and you know, the business community and a lot of other groups were gearing up for a long session rest of the session with Congress to try to address the dreamers and their challenges. But to Audrey's point. There's an issue that is percolating out there right now that could be devastating to the technology industry. And, and not only that, I'll talk about other industries. And that's the issue of immigrant workers, people who come here and help power the success of our companies. USC is is on the cusp of having executive order issued, that will temporarily suspend for 120 days, the issuance of h1 b visas, as well as a whole host of other visas that are so critical to the technology industry. That executive order is also expected to raise the fee for h1 B's from $450 or $460 to $20,000, which would essentially take, you know, immigrant pending immigrant talent away from, you know, out of the reach of startup companies. And this is an issue where I think you weave together these different conversations. The tech community has been as loud as they can be. on these issues for many decades, and what we really need now are the other industries to weigh in. I was talking to Audrey this morning, if you think about, you know, deporting millions of people who earn, you know, 90 to $150,000 and taking them out of the US economy, who does that actually help? And who does it actually hurt? Right? It's gonna hurt grocery stores and barber shops and small restaurants and hospitals, and car dealerships, all the folks that some of the people who support this idea have been industries, they've been trying to be very, very supportive of. We did the tech council took a group of companies down to meet with the White House to talk about immigration reform, but we only took manufacturing firms. And I think it was one of the first times that the White House had really seen the importance of technology and manufacturing today, right. It's not just people working at Facebook, that you need these people working to make your your manufacturing process. His work and your back end systems work and your websites. So, you know, we're gearing up for one heck of a risk, right right now, right? If, if this if this were to happen, and we need people who are not necessarily impacted directly to weigh in, you know, we need the people who have commercial office building.
You know, if you have a firm that employs 150 immigrants, you know, out of 600 of employees, you're going to need 25% less space and a time where you might already need 75% less space, right, given where we are. So the commercial real estate industry should be weighing in on this small restaurants and folks like that. So that's really our job at the tech house is to go out and try to walk in other people's shoes and and you know, influence from that perspective, but also to try to get them to walk in shoes that are familiar to them. So yeah, that that's, that's kind of that's a big issue. Also, you know, if you think about and this is where Rob and Amy come in handy to me so often When you get into an economic crisis, a couple things happen first, the government spends a whole lot of money. Right? They spent a lot of money on the PPP program, that program had a serious birth defect, it precluded venture backed companies from participating in it for the first several weeks of the program, and it took a massive lobbying effort across the country, from the small business community to fix that. And so that's an area we need to pay attention to. On the other hand, when the spending ends, you know, then, you know, you have state governments that are starved for resources. And there are on the other hand, you start looking like not the company that needs help, but the company that can help the government by paying more taxes and so, you know, I would think, you know, I think Robin AB would agree in six months, we're going to have one heck of a discussion and trying to figure out how to balance state budget, while investing in things that we care about, right, like mass transit, Air Service and education. But how do we do that without taxing businesses? out of existence. And this is going to be a really, really challenging discussion. So all of you to what Rob was saying everybody needs to be letting their elected officials know who they are, and what they do, and the kind of people that are powering their success, because everybody can make a difference in this conversation,
thank you so much, Brian, that that actually wraps up our half hour together. I if you want to reach either one of Amy or Rob, we can share their contact info. And of course, reach out to Brian Kennedy as well. Because these issues, we're going to be very aggressive in terms of those issues that Brian just articulated. That is that is close to our core that will affect the region. There are many who believe that part of our growth and our stability. While we haven't really grown, our stability has been based on foreign born and foreign born people who have actually stayed here and build the economy for tomorrow. So I want Just thank everyone for joining us. Thank you Amy Kaminski for the work that you do. And we're happy to help connect the dots so that people can become more engaged for social good and for prosperity as well as equity. And thank you, Rob, SEO for the work that you've done, you're very, very close to lots of pieces of the economy that have suffered very significantly in this time of pandemic and I know that you're working fiercely, to make sure that we, you know, re arrive for Pittsburgh version 4.0. I appreciate your partnership and leadership. And thank you, Brian, for sharing with us the matters of today. So, we are here tomorrow, same time. We have Esther Bush, who actually is the executive director of the greater Pittsburgh Urban League, and we have a packed week next week as well. So thank you all for joining us, and we'll see you tomorrow. You
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