Vince Coultis explores hiring and training in a world of constant change
At the 2012 WCAA conference, The McClatchy Company’s Sales Training and Development Manager, Vince Coultis, gave an engaging presentation on hiring and training in a world of change. He opened by inviting six volunteers to the front of the room, broke them into pairs, entwined them with rope and challenged them to untangle it, while never letting go. When they didn’t succeed, Coultis demonstrated the solution, and asked participants to re-create it. As they struggled, and ultimately failed, Coultis was making a point. When a paper has a difficult problem, they often bring trainers in to show reps the proper response. However, often these trainers only present a solution and fail to actually teach it. With this, he emphasized the importance of a good training program.
Mobile has already become a serious facet of the newspaper and advertising industries, and according to a recent BI Intelligence report, video is one of the prime uses of mobile. When keeping up on technological developments, it’s important to take these trends into consideration when adapting and structuring your newspaper’s advertising, mobile video included.
The WCAA was excited to host the inaugural DRIVE Contest and Awards Ceremony at our 2012 conference in conjunction with Classified Concepts. As seasoned WCAA members know, we have had a long history in sharing the industry’s brightest ideas, but we wanted to take it a step further. Breathing new life into our traditional Bright Ideas contest, we enlisted the help of Classified Concepts and thus DRIVE was born.
This year’s WCAA Conference was honored to host the inaugural D.R.I.V.E. Awards Ceremony. Classified Concepts, who designed this contest with WCAA in mind, called for papers to show off their best ideas as they asked, “Are you a revenue driver?” This session was simultaneously broadcasted as a webinar for papers who could not attend in person. At the end of the session, attendees were asked to text in their vote for the best idea.
On Tuesday at the 2012 WCAA Conference, Jamie Naughton, the Speaker of the House at Zappos.com, discussed the importance of building a company brand that makes employees a proud member of a team, rather than another cog in a machine. Zappos.com is an online shoe and apparel store founded in 1999 based in Henderson, Nev., not far from this year’s conference in Las Vegas. 
This year’s WCAA conference put event marketing in the spotlight. Along with a keynote presentation by Jason Taylor, the President of The Chattanooga Times Free Press, three well-known WCAA members took the stage to talk about their event experiences.
The final day of the 2012 WCAA Conference focused on event marketing. Session moderator Cindy Hefley invited three active WCAA members to take the stage and share their best practices. Michelle Ackerman, Advertising Director for the Colorado Springs Gazette and 2003 WCAA Past President, explored how event marketing can increase real estate revenue.
Jason Taylor closed the 2012 WCAA Conference in Las Vegas with an exciting presentation on creative ideas to boost event marketing revenue for your newspaper. He used his first-hand experiences creating beloved community events as the President of The Chattanooga Times Free Press.
On Monday, Sept. 24, the first full day of the 2012 WCAA Conference, Shannon Kinney gave an illuminating presentation called, “Revenue Opportunities: What Would Google Do?” Kinney, the GM and Client Success Officer at Dream Local Digital, Inc., discussed how newspapers and their ad departments must reinvent themselves in order to remain relevant and offer their clients and readers a valuable product.
The Western Classified Advertising Association welcomed a new President and Board of Directors at the 62nd Annual WCAA Conference in Las Vegas, Nev. As current President Bill Cummings stepped down, Nate Rodriguez, Director of Multimedia Advertising and Training at The Ventura County Star, took over the reins — or gavel, as it were — of President of the WCAA.