Patti Schom-Moffatt: The Messenger

Image by: Phillip Chin

Vancouver's reigning PR queen on the value of going global, embracing citizen journalism and learning to Twitter.

When Karyo Edelman general manager Patti Schom-Moffatt got into public relations 30 years ago, it was a pretty simple business: each major Canadian city had its stable of local PR firms that industry, government or non-profits would go to when they needed to publicize an issue or handle a crisis. Today it’s a whole new ball game, with global clients and instant digital communication, and Schom-Moffatt’s deft ability to keep abreast of these changes has helped put her at the top of the heap.

The entrance to Karyo Edelman Communications Inc. – Vancouver’s largest PR firm and the local outpost for New York-based PR giant Edelman – is unpretentious: a ground-level door to the Yaletown low-rise leads to an intercom buzzer, a second glass door and a flight of stairs. Climb the stairs, and you emerge into a hive of activity: employees bustling within a warren of desks, fragments of conversations caroming off the polished concrete floor.

The diminutive 56-year-old is dressed smartly in black pants and a red leather jacket when she greets me, quickly leading me to the conference room, a glass-enclosed fishbowl with a commanding view of the entire open-plan office space. As she describes Karyo Edelman’s operations, it becomes clear that Schom-Moffatt is never far from the centre of the action.

With 36 staff, Karyo Edelman’s annual revenue is well into seven figures and has grown an average of 23 per cent a year over the past five years. Schom-Moffatt credits the success to an expansion from traditional communications and media-relations work to a full range of services, including advertising, event planning, public consultation and web design. But more than anything, success depends on keeping up with the fast-moving world of digital media, she says. “The world has changed,” Schom-Moffatt explains. “We’ve got citizen journalists everywhere; you are no longer going to the media as the only place to get stories for your clients. You really have to understand the world.”

Bringing in the talent to handle the blogging, Twittering and other social networking also means keeping in touch with the latest newcomers to the workforce. “I was one of the first generations of women to work full time in the workplace while managing a family and saying I can do it all. Yeah, great reward!” She laughs. “The younger people in our business are looking for balance in their lives. The younger women don’t have anything to prove. They don’t want their work to be their life. They’re looking for more than just work.”

A native of Winnipeg, Schom-Moffatt started Karyo by herself in 1983 and joined forces with Paul Welsh, who today shares management duties, in 1993. Karyo took a big step into the global world when Schom-Moffatt and Welsh agreed in April 2007 to sell a majority share of the business to Edelman, the world’s largest independently owned PR firm, with more than 50 offices around the globe.

“Most of our competitors are national or global in scope,” Schom-Moffatt explains. “It’s just the nature of the business.” The added scope offered by Edelman’s stake in the firm not only meant that her office was suddenly in the running for international contracts but also that she could attract more senior staff. She points to two recent senior hires who are based in Vancouver but often travel to Toronto.

If her description of a typical day is any clue, it’s clear that Schom-Moffatt lives to work. She’s usually checking her email before breakfast, spends the day managing the office and overseeing employees’ projects, then uses her quiet time at home to work on her own projects, accounts with whom she has built up relationships over the years. She says the recent economic downturn has deferred any thoughts of early retirement, but one suspects that retirement wasn’t exactly a pressing concern. “I think for the foreseeable future, this is my life,” she says.

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