Forums on Public Issues

To create change and move policy, academics, advocates and researchers need to reach beyond the media to engage people who can make a difference and generate action. We are skilled at creating forums, both large and small, that target key change agents.

When planning such events, we can handle the details or help clients manage them. Our services include:

  • Providing strategic counsel for events, including identifying goals, audiences, and messages
  • Developing the agenda and securing moderators and panelists
  • Managing all logistical details, including the venue, equipment, mailing lists, invitations, and RSVPs
  • Drafting all materials, from talking points and speakers’ bios to issue briefs and press materials
  • Promoting events to targeted audiences, and filling the room with the right people
  • Staffing events on-site, as well as follow-up

Debating the future of journalism

by Andy Burness on Fri, 06/25/2010 - 10:42am

Yesterday afternoon marked a first for Burness: after 25 years of managing events alongside our nonprofit partners, we tried hosting one of our own. Over lunch at Washington’s Busboys and Poets, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Alex S. Jones took the stage alongside Nicco Mele, who has made his mark as Howard Dean’s internet operations director, a Harvard lecturer and co-Founder of EchoDitto.

The question of the day was simple: “Are we losing the news?” In a digital world, are investigative reporting and hard-hitting journalism endangered, or just evolving? And either way, what does it mean for citizens, government and organizations? Both Alex and Nicco brought their unique perspectives to the debate, and it was encouraging to see them agree as much as they disagreed. The discussion flowed into a spirited hourlong question-and-answer session, with audience members adding their own insights about the changing state of journalism.

Above you’ll find a short "teaser" video with a few excerpts from the debate, and the full video will be posted in this space later today. I’d encourage you to watch!

Update: Here's the full video recording, and here are photos from the event:

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Health Affairs Briefing: Moving Forward on Health Reform

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Date: 
Tue, 06/08/2010 - 8:30am - 12:30pm
City: 
Washington, DC
Sponsor: 
Health Affairs
Event Type: 
Briefing

 

Implementing provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act poses a huge challenge for the public and private sectors alike.  Thousands of decisions and regulatory changes must be made to re-structure the U.S. health care system, expand health coverage, and begin the effort to control costs.  The June 2010 issue of Health Affairs details the terrain that lies ahead. 

 

Health Care Briefing: Will Health Professionals Be Prepared to Meet The Demands of Health Reform?

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Date: 
Thu, 05/13/2010 - 9:15am - 11:00am
City: 
Washington, DC
Sponsor: 
Macy Foundation and AAMC
Event Type: 
Health Briefing

Will Health Professionals Be Prepared to Meet The Demands of Health Reform?

Adapting Continuing Education for a New Health Care Era 

May 13, 2010 – Washington D.C.

 

Health Affairs Briefing: Reinventing Primary Care

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Date: 
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 8:30am - 2:30pm
City: 
Washington, DC
Sponsor: 
Health Affairs
Event Type: 
Briefing

 

An American epidemic – and momentum to end it

by Kay Campbell on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 12:32pm

Today, there is broad agreement: childhood obesity is a public health epidemic. One in three American children is now overweight or obese. Obese children are at increased risk for other serious problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, gallbladder disease and certain cancers.

But momentum around fighting this urgent health problem is building. Lawmakers are holding hearings on strengthening school health programs. Michelle Obama’s national “Let’s Move!” program to fight childhood obesity is kicking into gear. And last week, that new energy and momentum was on display at a briefing hosted by health policy journal Health Affairs (a Burness client).

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Restoring Science to its Rightful Place

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Restoring Science to its Rightful Place

In the late 1990s, the U.S. Congress helped launch, through funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a renaissance in American medical discovery. During the renaissance, human genome sequencing was completed, powerful new research tools suddenly made the impossible seem possible, cancer and other disease rates began to decline as better diagnoses and treatment options were identified, and the potential to transform medicine seemed limitless.

Briefing: First-Ever State-by-State County Health Rankings

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Date: 
Wed, 02/17/2010 - 4:30am - 6:30am
City: 
Washington, D.C.
Sponsor: 
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation & The University of Wisconsin
Event Type: 
Briefing