Christine Alongi

Public Relations Expert

Working at  Supersonic Speed!

The fattest binders I’ve ever seen! This is one of the things that struck me during my interview with Christine Alongi, Winnipeg Airport Authority’s director of communications and public affairs, on October 2.  The amount of work each binder entails is mind-boggling. Each binder signifies just one event. It is full of press releases and detailed instructions.  Almost every item in the binder is written by Christine – hundreds of pages, well-written and very organized. As I flipped through this mountain of material, Christine shared with me the importance of setting goals and how to successfully achieve them by planning for every possible scenario. She sends out detailed press releases, background information, writes speeches, and sets up social media plans, communication plans, and specific goals for each task. Writing is a very large part of her career and she emphasized how important it is to always know the key messages of communication for every event and situation, allowing very clear communication with her team, the media and the public.

Christine organizes a Meet and Greet for Olympian Desiree Scott

Christine has organized many large events such as the opening of the new Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson Airport terminal and many meet and greet events at the airport. Christine was team lead for Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Winnipeg in July of 2010. Queen Elizabeth and her entourage were the first passengers to use Winnipeg’s new airport terminal before the terminal was even open to the public. Not only was there the challenge of the arrival of Her Royal Majesty the Queen, but the arrival was at an airport that was still a year away from completion. The Queen would have a group of 1200 people waiting to greet her at the airport. Not one detail was permitted to be overlooked or allowed to go wrong. Christine’s organization, clear writing and communication skills shone throughout this event. After 100 practice runs, the day of the event went off without a hitch. Christine did her job magnificently and was able to receive personal thanks from the queen herself.

Christine Alongi speaks about the Queen's arrival at the new Winnipeg airport terminal.

While I was interviewing Christine in her office, I felt an underlying current of activity. It was as if all kinds of electronic gadgets were hovering, sometimes buzzing and dinging, ringing and pinging, waiting for me to finish so they could get on with the work they required of Christine. The phones were vibrating, and ringing, the airport radios crackling and talking in the background, the Twitter accounts, Facebook page, emails, blogs, media requests and airport staff waiting for her return. At one point her “ready alert system” alarm went off. That was the second time that day. The first time it went off was in the early hours of the morning when the airport was asked for assistance in the firefighting efforts of the large St. Boniface fire going on during the night. Although the airport equipment wasn’t able to be used for this particular purpose, she was able to have a special type of firefighting foam put on standby. Thankfully her second alert of the morning didn’t require her to run off and cut short our interview. Christine also has a 24 hour media line phone number which CBC took advantage of during the night. She is prepared to deal with any situation that might come up, ready to share and keep open all lines of communication with the media and the public. I couldn't help but wonder if she gets any sleep!

Christine belongs to a number of organizations including CPRS, IABC, the Canadian Airports Council, a local crisis communication group and many others. She has been a guest speaker at all of them and also speaks to the PR students at Red River Community College every term. Her PR journey started with a University of Winnipeg Arts degree followed by a diploma in business administration from Red River College. She worked for Moffit Communications for a number of years as a project manager for a variety of media groups, always in a corporate environment. Her career has taught her to respect media, to understand the deadlines and pressures of  their job thereby allowing her to have a very positive relationship with media in her present role. She was hired by the Winnipeg Airport Authority in 2003, creating a new position as director of communications and public affairs.

 

Before our interview came to a close, Christine shared some key PR tips with me. She reminded me that stakeholder relations are very important, not to be afraid to contact them, and to always keep communication lines open. She stressed that it is important to know your audience, to engage in your community, to dialogue and never forget to listen to them. Most importantly, to be successful as a PR professional, you must plan, plan, plan and make sure to measure and evaluate every plan.

As busy as Christine is, she never made me feel like I was an intrusion in her day. Instead she was warm and engaging and willing to answer all my questions as well as email me samples of some of her events and media relations projects. She made me feel as if this interview was just as important to her as all of her other interviews. Since I work in the tourism industry, I was interested to see what kind of PR work our international airport receives and from my first call to Christine, she was inviting and open and ended up giving me a full hour of her time. As I left she was heading off to another interview, this time with the local radio station CJOB. I came away from this interview in awe of what a truly successful efficient public relations expert can achieve...all while looking professional and keeping a smile on her face.