I’m behind on my writing. A nasty cold, a couple of speaking engagements, and some urgent client work have made it tough to find time to blog. I spoke a week or so ago at the Airports Council International Media Relations conference at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. The conference was very interesting – it was an assembled group of communications professionals from major airports across the country. I have rarely given much thought to the unique challenges of managing an airport’s reputation, so this conference was a real eye-opener. The presenters before me did a great job of talking about the implications of user-generated content. Think about it – a routine arrest for drunk or disorderly conduct can be captured via a mobile phone, shared with the media, and then blown out of proportion on a slow news day.

This got me thinking about our personal responsibility when it comes to creating content online. People seem to think if they capture an image or incident that there are no restrictions on how it is shared. I am starting to disagree. I think we all have a personal obligation to make sure that any content we create is used in context, and that all parties are treated fairly. In the examples I saw from the airport conference, reporters were getting their hands on assets created by the flying public, and were then running stories with little fact checking and making assumptions that were completely false. This puts an unfair burden on the airport communications professional to set the record straight, and more importantly it can create fear and anxiety in air travelers. Given as much as I travel the last thing I want or need is more anxious people in airports.

We know that people are unintentionally creating news reports, and we also know the media are running stories based on this content. If we are all journalists now, don’t we all have an obligation to ensuring that the stories we create or contribute to are true, in perspective, and helpful to the general public? It is almost though, in some cases, the tables are turned and the citizen journalists have to uphold a higher standard or reporting. I know I plan to – I travel with an iPhone, a BlackBerry with camera, and a digital camera with video capability. They’ll remain in my pocket the next time I’m dashing from gate to gate.

Equally as interesting as the conference was the time I got to spend with the DFW Int’l Airport public affairs / communications team. Ken Capps, VP of Public Affairs at DFW hosted a dinner at the awesome restaurant in the Grand Hyatt at the airport. He had many great stories about running comms at an airport, and I greatly appreciated his insights and hospitality. More importantly, I appreciated his commitment to transparency in digital communications, and was excited to hear about his plans to push the digital envelope in the next iteration of the DFW website. He has a great team that I got to spend some time with – Megan Bozarth who is the marketing manager, and Cynthia Cooper, a marketing specialist. They are working together on DFW’s web presence and are very committed to providing a great experience for air travelers. Brian Murnahan spoke about the challenges of media relations for an airport, and Sarah McDaniel-Langhorst also had an interesting perspective about working in a comms role for an airport. I always assumed the mentality was along the lines of “get them in, get them out,” but Ken and his team are truly committed to creating a pleasant experience throughout the entire airport. That can’t be an easy task – this is an airport that is bigger than all of Manhattan! I’m quite jealous of my colleagues James Florez who is Managing Director of our Dallas office, and Kent Pingel who is day to day project manager on our work for DFW, in that they get to work with this awesome team every day.