Creating Connections with CAPIO Communicators

Pictured: From left - Mike Skufca (Account Executive), Cora Dinatale (Sales Development Representative), and Madeline Weber (Senior Marketing Specialist) showing their enthusiasm at our Govstack team booth at the CAPIO 2024 Annual Conference. 

If you’ve been lucky enough to dunk your toes in a luminescent ocean and watch the light and energy dance across the water, then you’ll understand the feeling we experienced at this year’s CAPIO Annual Conference. Let’s just say, it was exhilarating!

This year the event was held in the stunning oasis of Indian Wells, Palm Springs. The energy level we immediately encountered set the stage for the rest of the conference.

The room was packed with new faces, bubbly conversations and lots of toasting as we celebrated the start of a very enriching few days.

The highlight reel

Throughout the event, our team made many friends and connections with PIOs from across California. We attended a buzzing newbie social, picked up a game of golf and pickleball, tuned into inspiring keynote address, and had great lunches where we learned to “punch it, Margaret!” from Anne Bonney and public speaking tips like “what, so what, now what?” from Matt Abrahams.

We also participated in cocktail hours and restaurant roundups and sat in on an insightful session where we learned how to proactively educate and communicate about wildfires. The conference ended on a high note that included dinner and the opportunity to kick up our heels.

We also had the great privilege of meeting some of our clients face-to-face, including Greg from City of Lemon Grove who just launched their site earlier this year with Govstack.

These unique opportunities allowed us to create genuine connections with PIOs, and have set the stage to build lasting partnerships. We are thrilled and excited to see how passionate communicators are about leveraging their online presence to help keep their communities up-to-date

Key takeaways

• There is a lot of pressure on communicators to execute and deliver day-in and day-out.
• Most communicators are the glue that keeps their websites running and up-to-date.
• Communicators are passionate individuals deeply invested in making a positive impact for their communities.
• Communicators crave flexibility for updating content as they are constantly adapting to their busy roles.
• Accessibility is top of mind as communicators must meet standardizations for the latest WCAG 2.1 Level AA that has recently been enforced.
• Confidence is contagious and gaining inspiration from peers is vital to propel PIOs careers in local government.
• CAPIO inspired even the most introverted to come out of their shell and have some fun! 😊

The future of communicators

Gaining this wealth of knowledge around our PIO peers has been incredible. It will be critical to our strategy for empowering them to do their jobs, as we continue to refine and enhance our products to allow our biggest fans and users to thrive.

If you’re a public information officer who needs to ensure your content is inclusive to all and complies with the fast-approaching accessibility WCAG 2.1 Level AA deadline, contact us to learn about our unique offer for how our digital solutions can help.

P.S. - Thank you to CAPIO for providing us with these environments to form new long-lasting relationships and for welcoming us into the CAPIO community! Can’t wait to see you all again in Napa Valley at next year’s CAPIO 2025 Annual Conference!