In December, Edna Adams – Public Relations Specialist in the Office of Communications – was named a Rising Star in PR Daily’s Top Women in Communications awards program.
“I’m so honored to receive this recognition for the work I’ve done, but I’m even more honored to do the work for Macon-Bibb County,” says Adams. “The people I work with really make this all so fun and rewarding.”
“Edna has been at the leading edge of changing local government communications. From her writing to her event planning to her media strategy, she tackles it all with depth of thought, dedication, and, best of all, creativity,” says Mayor Lester Miller.
“What sets Edna apart from her colleagues is her ability to balance all that is required of her…while pushing the envelope on creativity in communications so that the event, the story, the message all stand out in the crowded onslaught of information are bombarded with every day,” says Chief Communications Officer Chris Floore.
Each week, she publishes The Hub, and it includes 10-15 stories, from original features to public notices to community partner information. In addition to the amount of writing, picture taking, and layout that this requires, she is the lead for planning events, from press conferences to groundbreakings to celebrations to major announcements. There are some weeks where she will coordinate 3-4 major events that require significant planning, major equipment, scheduling of elected officials, message development, talking points, and full media coverage.
In the past year alone, her events include setting buildings on fire to help the Fire Department make announcements; opening the new pickleball facility on January 1 with a pickleball drop countdown; volunteers packing boxes of food at the Food Bank Grand Opening; reopening an airport runway with planes flying overhead; and more.
She even takes the events personally, putting a touch to them to make them more interesting for the media and the public. She has been a key organizer for the community’s Hispanic Heritage Festival, growing it from a few vendors in a small park to having several hundred people, dozens of vendors, and musical performances in one of our largest parks.
“The results speak for themselves,” adds Mayor Miller. “Walking through the community, people ask me about the stunts, showing they saw the coverage and remembered it. The creativity in our event planning means we are getting through the noise and reaching our audience.”
About the Office of Communications
The Office of Communications includes Edna Adams, Olivia Walter, and Chris Floore. Their charge is to find the best ways to let people know what the government and its partners are doing to improve the community through strategic communications, media relations, video & photography services, a weekly e-newsletter, event planning, message development, social media, online content, crisis communications, and more.
These recognitions follow nearly 30 individual, team, and project recognitions from NACIO, the City-County Communications & Marketing Association (3CMA), National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC), PR Daily, PR News, PRSA Georgia, SeeClickFix, and the Georgia chapter of the Solid Waste Association of North America.