Learn how to communicate on the toughest stage of all: Live TV.
Event Details
During this 90-minute seminar, former Chicago Tribune columnist Melissa Harris and former CBS 2 anchor and investigative reporter Susan Anderson will lead participants through the most challenging venue for communication: live television. Melissa and Susan will explain how to prepare for TV and stage appearances as well as conduct mock, on-camera interviews with attendees.
Speaker Profiles
Melissa Harris (Speaker) '16
Executive in Residence, Polsky Center
As an Executive in Residence at the University of Chicago's Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Ms. Harris advises startups on all aspects of marketing and communications. In addition she teaches seminars on the press, content, social media and television. Prior to joining Polsky, she was vice president of marketing at real estate private equity firm Origin Investments, where she helped the firm raise more than $70 million and launch its online investing platform. Prior to that she capped her 15-year journalism career as a Pulitzer Prize-nominated business columnist at the Chicago Tribune. She has been named among the 50 most influential people in Chicago tech on Twitter by both BuiltInChicago and Chicago Inno. She has her MBA from Chicago Booth, master's degree from Johns Hopkins and journalism degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern. She can be reached at mmharris@uchicago.edu.
Susan Anderson (Speaker)
Owner, CEO, SEA Communications
Susan Anderson, the founder and president of S.E.A. Communications, Inc., has more than 20 years of experience as an on-air, award-winning television journalist. Her company provides customized media consulting and coaching, communications strategy, executive speech and presentation training, and issues facilitation. Clients include Bank of Montreal, Kellogg's, Kraft Foods, Classic Residence by Hyatt, Loyola University Medical Center, and Rotary International.
S.E.A. Communications analyzes communication challenges, explores solutions, and trains those responsible for executing the strategy. Ms. Anderson has coached numerous CEOs and other executives as well as customer service representatives and plant managers. Her goal is always "clear, concise, compelling" communication, whether responding to a crisis or a celebration.
Anderson was among the first wave of women into television journalism. She began her career in 1972 as a general assignment reporter with WBBM-TV (CBS). Four years later, she founded Factfinder, the first local television consumer/investigative unit in the country, which she headed for nearly a decade. In 1980, Ms. Anderson became a news anchor. In 1989, she created and reported All About Health, a daily segment on Channel 2 News. In 1997, Anderson created S.E.A. Communications.
Questions
Melissa Harris, '16
Polsky Center Executive in Residence
312-401-7326