The Art of Getting Noticed with Shawna Randolph

Right from childhood, Shawna Randolph loved to share news.

“I would cut little articles out of the Edmonton Sun and pretend—because I was eight years old—to be typing the article in my own words onto the typewriter,” she recalls. “I would make my family sit down on the couch and I would read to them best I could from the actual article.”

From that early impulse to connect and inform, Randolph found an enduring career in journalism and communications. She’s widely-known as a former television news journalist and anchor at CFRN/CTV, and continues to help organizations tell stories through her own company, Shawna Randolph Communications.

In other words, she’s the perfect person to facilitate Arts Exchange: The Art of Getting Noticed.

Arts Exchange is a semi-regular gathering organized by St. Albert’s Cultural Services department, intended for local artists to gain new skills and insights while coming together as a community.

This particular Exchange, led by Randolph, is dedicated to offering practical media training to arts organizations. It will cover everything from how to intrigue traditional media outlets with story ideas to improving an organization’s direct communication strategies.

“I’m going to be making sure people understand: this is the world of media these days,” she says. “This is why the people you may interact with may do some of the things that they do, but you use that knowledge to form really strong relationships with them.”

Randolph will draw from real-world examples, and offer a sense of the contemporary media landscape. After all, there are only so many outlets these days—managing to stand out is no easy feat. Beyond that, Randolph notes that there are further skills to be utilized with the tools that almost every organization can access, including “strategies on how people can be really effective with their social media, with their website, and other tools of communications to connect with their audiences,” she says. “If they are creative enough, they can get the attention of the news media through their own communicating channels.”

Randolph’s experience with all of this is direct and ongoing: she continues to develop successful strategies and campaigns for many organizations, both locally and across the province.

“It's so rewarding to let the public know about all the hard work that goes out there to provide these exceptional experiences,” she notes.

“Instead of just simply telling people about it, trying to make whatever someone is promoting really worthwhile, really consequential, and compelling.”

Arts Exchange: The Art of Getting Noticed is happening on Tuesday, October 27th at 6pm at Progress Hall. Tickets and more information at stalbert.ca/events/calendar/arts-culture/arts-exchange-fall/.

Article written by Paul Blinov

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