A Year of Highlights, Successes, and Triumphs for Our Clients

Here at Dale Curtis Communications, we’ve always been proud of the work we do for our clients, but 2023 was one of our best years ever. So, in the spirit of an end-of-year “Top 10 countdown,” please bear with me as I brag about our greatest hits of the year (in no particular order).

Media Relations

Content and Messaging

  • Podcast Placement: As part of an effort to present SAP as actively engaged in helping the U.S. federal government, DCC secured an opportunity for one of the company’s top federal customer advisers to appear on the “Citizen Digital” podcast published by ITIF. DCC helped script the podcast, which was promoted by SAP and ITIF on their social media channels and included in ITIF’s weekly newsletter, reaching more than 30,000 people in the federal IT space. Citizen Digital Series: What Happens Behind the Scenes of Digital Transformation? With Leslie Casson Stevens | ITIF


  • Handling a Hot Issue: Over the course of almost 12 months, DCC helped gun-violence-prevention group Brady United strategize numerous initiatives and drafted, distributed, and earned media coverage of dozens of statements on mass shootings, court decisions, policy actions, and research reports. We also helped draft and place an op-ed by a leading medical expert on “family fire” – unintended shootings in the home – in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Sakran and Brown: ‘Asking Saves Kids Day’ reminds parents of the dangers of unlocked firearms


  • 9-1-1 Op-Ed in Texas: We're proud to support our client NENA - The 9-1-1 Association as they work to foster better 9-1-1 emergency communications in every community, including advocating for legislation to provide up to $15 billion for the Next Generation 9-1-1 technology transition. Their obstacles to success have included a senator from Texas who has been cool to the funding proposal but is in a position to help make it happen. DCC helped raise the issue’s profile in Texas by coauthoring an op-ed for the president of Texas NENA and getting it placed in the Dallas Morning News, as well as generating significant statewide media coverage of NENA’s annual conference in Dallas.

Communications Strategy and Management

  • Relaunching a Local Company: Having served as a strategic communications adviser to the industry group WISPA and several of its members, Dale Curtis Communications is uniquely knowledgeable and connected in the “fixed wireless” internet service provider industry. In 2023, we helped announce the merger of two such ISPs to create a new company – 360 Broadband – whose mission is to provide affordable, reliable voice, data, and related services to homes and businesses in the Oklahoma-Texas-Arkansas region. DCC developed the core messaging; drafted and set up the distribution of an announcement to all employees and hundreds of customers; and planned and executed the public announcement, earning valuable coverage in hometown media outlets.


  • Promoting a Major Report: DCC designed a custom, comprehensive PR strategy for the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED), then planned and executed the rollout of a nationwide member survey on under-staffing in 9-1-1 centers. More than 370 media outlets nationwide covered the news or published the IAED press release, including the Associated Press, CBS Texas, and Fox 9 News Minneapolis. The coverage also prompted almost 100 click-throughs to the IAED website.


  • Branding and Visibility:  Allied Telecom is one of the Mid-Atlantic region's premier providers of telecommunications and connectivity services, but it is relatively unknown outside its customer base, having under-invested in marketing and PR. DCC conducted original research and developed initial elements of a strategic PR and marketing program. We helped them confirm what they always suspected: that Allied is the largest and oldest black-owned telecommunications service provider in the United States, a unique and valuable branding differentiator. We also helped Allied secure a place on the Washington Business Journal's Top Small Tech Companies list and executed a mini-campaign to leverage that message in marketing.

Event Support

  • Maximizing a DC Event: In late 2023, IPC had an excellent opportunity to tell its story when the U.S. Department of Labor granted official approval of IPC’s national apprenticeship standards. DCC helped with detailed planning and coordination of multiple tasks and actors; scripting the announcement and the signing ceremony; alerting the news media; and drafting social media posts.

  • Event Support: Our client ASME – The American Society of Mechanical Engineers celebrated the 50th Anniversary of their Federal Fellows program, which places mid-career engineers in advisory positions in federal policy-making offices. For a celebratory reception at Decatur House near the White House, Team DCC provided counsel on planning the event, including extensive support with scripting the event, creating posters about the Fellows, and producing a testimonial video featuring several fellows to be used to further promote the program.  

One more: In June, during LGBTQ+ Pride Month, DCC was pleased to be featured as an LGBT-owned firm as part of the “CEOs You Should Know” series, which appeared on NBC-4 and on iHeartMedia radio stations in the Washington, DC area. Thanks again to my dear friend and colleague Heidi Parsont of TorchLight Hire for recommending me, and to M&T Bank for sponsoring the series.   

This is a sampling of the content and communications work that Dale Curtis Communications does for our clients. Does your organization have a tricky communications challenge? If your company, association, or nonprofit needs to better define your brand and your message, or convey your messages effectively to key audiences, contact us today. We’ll be happy to brainstorm with you.