Kathy (Gerhardt) Mccarthy Email & Phone Number

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Actively guide and manage our PR and Social Media teams to ensure we develop strategies for all communications, social media, and public relations messaging and collateral that consistently articulates Meet Minneapolis’ mission.Plan, manage and oversee the development and execution of communications and media relations strategies for Meet Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Convention Center, and Sports Minneapolis, plus projects related to our Public Affairs team. Create, write and edit news releases, organizational talking points, speeches, internal and external messages, and video scripting for Meet Minneapolis leadership and key partners. Additionally, provide executive media training and act as a spokesperson for the organization.Manage major projects such as our New York City media initiative (including regional partners), handle script writing for annual meetings and the Minnesota Sports Awards gala event, plus oversee special video production projects and PR agency project-based work.Directed and managed Meet Minneapolis’ media relations and social media strategy for two of the most high-profile events the city has hosted: Super Bowl LII (2018) and the 2019 NCAA Final Four. Our Super Bowl work resulted in more than 500 stories and nearly 1.5 billion media impressions, plus we added more than 1,400 new followers and over one million social media impressions.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Directed a team of three and reported directly to the Chief Communications Officer. Crafted strategies and handled public relations, media relations and corporate communications for Travel Leaders Group – the largest traditional travel agency organization in North America with over $21 billion in annual sales through nearly 7,000 travel agencies.Regularly collaborated with executive leadership to clearly articulate each brand’s voice and message. Extensively wrote internal and external communications for executives, employees and franchise owners – including executive talking points. Provided key leadership in managing crisis communications and served as a primary company spokesperson.In 2016 alone, I played a significant role in gaining news media coverage for Travel Leaders Group’s various brands, which cumulatively included more than 6,600 news stories and an ad value equivalency of over $6.3 million.Architect and project manager for three, major travel surveys each year. The news media coverage included nearly 2,200 news stories, worth over $2 million in ad value equivalency. Survey data has been used by media outlets such as: ABC News, Associated Press, Bloomberg News, the Chicago Tribune, CNBC, Detroit Free Press, Forbes (online), Houston Chronicle, The Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, The New York Times, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Travel + Leisure (online), USA Today, WSJ MarketWatch, and more.

Plymouth, Mn

As the Manager of Public Relations & Communications for Travel Leaders Group, I was responsible for the strategic positioning of our company brands with consumer, business and trade news media. Wrote and delivered clearly articulated messages, specific to each brand’s voice, for major consumer and trade media, as well as franchisees and employees.In addition to being a spokesperson for the company, I worked closely with our Travel Leaders Associates assisting them in forging stronger relationships with their local news media and providing media consultation and opportunities for interviews in print, radio, television and Internet news media outlets. Managed staff, wrote key industry talking points and news releases, conducted media training for executives and travel agents, spearheaded major survey initiatives driving significant media coverage for Travel Leaders, and much more. Since the successful rebranding of our company in 2008, Travel Leaders has been featured in over 18,000 news stories with consumer impressions well over 6 billion (the equivalency in ad dollars is well over $14 million).

Handle media/public relations and franchisee communications for Travel Leaders and Results Travel - part of Travel Leaders Group (formerly Carlson Leisure Group).Created and conduct advanced media training seminar for our travel agents located across North America.Develop and implement PR plans; track media coverage; write, edit and proofread materials for various PR/Communications vehicles; and much more.

Responsible for all PR, media relations and communications for Carlson Leisure Group (CLG) and its brands: Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Cruise Holidays, SeaMaster Cruises and Results! Travel.Acted as spokesperson for all CLG brands and proactively sought PR opportunities. Created, wrote and distributed news releases with a particular focus on consumer-facing brands.Handled all media and publicity for national conferences including: hosting media, writing news releases, creating daily publications, etc.

Responsible for generating and pitching story ideas, writing 8-20 stories/day when anchoring, editorial decision making, live reporting, conducting interviews and writing for long and short format stories, preparing and editing features for broadcast with creative control and final approval of finished story.Results: 2003 Emmy Nominee (Sports Feature): Broken Bat, Busted Ball. 2002 Emmy Nominee (Sports Feature): Road to Respect. 2002 National Headliner's Award - 1st Place-Outstanding Sports Reporting, KSTP Sports Department's coverage of Korey Stringer's death.