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Bobbi's photos appear in the 2012
calendar produced for
Ottawa Photo
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In 2011, Barnard College produced a book honoring Millicent C.
McIntosh, the ground-breaking
first President of the College.
Bobbi (class of 1956) is among just 17 students whose memories
were selected for this compilation.
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Using Fido To Clinch The Sale appeared in U.S. Business
Week, quoting publicity expert Joan Stewart, who cited Simon
Teakettle as the cat who owns the company.
This has been on NBC websites in Seattle, Dallas, Miami, Atlanta,
Chicago, Cleveland, New York City, San Francisco, and Hartford, CT. |
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Barbara Florio Graham
is a writer, teacher and communications consultant
whose clients have included 14 Canadian federal government
departments, 12 national and international organizations, 14 regional
organizations, as well as many corporate and business clients in
the U.S. and Canada. Barbara has contributed to more than 30
magazines and newspapers around the world, websites in 44 countries
in 11 time zones, and 37 print anthologies in five countries. Her
award-winning Christmas Story, first published by Nelson Bros.
Canada for grade seven students, has been reprinted in high school
textbooks for students learning English in Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
Barbara was the 2010 winner of the prestigious Shojai Mentoring
Award from the international Cat Writers' Association. A description
of the mentoring award is HERE, and
a profile of her from the January/February 2011 issue of WOT Magazine
is HERE. |
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A graduate of Barnard College (Columbia University), Barbara
majored in English with specializations in theatre and writing along
with a minor in music. She received her broadcast training at NBC in
New York, and taught at two prestigious private schools in the United
States, the Calhoun School in New York City and The Latin School of
Chicago. While in Chicago she took post-graduate courses in
psychology at the University of Chicago.
After moving to Canada in 1967, Barbara continued a freelance
career that she had begun, part-time, much earlier. First published
at the age of nine, she won a Regional Award in the National
Scholastics Writing Awards for a short story she wrote while a
freshman in high school. She freelanced part time for various
organizations during her career as a teacher and public relations director. |
HOW BOBBI GOT HER NICKNAME
When
Carl & Jean Florio were expecting their third child, they were
sure this time they'd have a boy.
Jean
didn't want to name a son after one of Carl's brothers, because that
tradition in the Florio family had produced lots of confusion. Over
the years, there were two Bill Florios, a Tony, a Nathan, a John, a
Carlo and a Carl, all named in honor of the children's uncles.
She
came up with the perfect solution. Their little boy would be called
Robert: a nice Italian first name but not yet in the extended Florio
family. They began to refer to the little baby to come as
"Bobby." So when the expected boy turned out to be a girl,
there was a hasty change in plan. Her name would be Barbara, but she
would always be called Bobbi by friends and family. |
Bobbi was a successful freelancer for newspapers and magazines
when she wrote her first book. Five Fast Steps to Better Writing
was launched at Ottawa City Hall in February, 1995. The 20th
anniversary edition was published in 2005.
Five Fast Steps to Low-Cost Publicity grew out of a demand
from non-profit organizations to put Bobbi's popular workshops into
book form. It was cited as the reason for the Communicator of the
Year award given to Bobbi in 1990 by the Ottawa chapter of the
International Association of Business Communicators. The book first
appeared in 1987, has been revised twice, and has had multiple printings.
Mewsings/Musings, a compilation of award-winning humor by
Barbara Florio Graham and Simon Teakettle, won an Award of Excellence
in the Cat Writers' Association's international contest in 2001.
A "book shepherd" for self-publishing guru Dan
Poynter, Bobbi is also a regular contributor to Freelance
Writer's Report, SCRIBE (the newsletter for
newsletter editors), and a columnist for The West Quebec Post
and Log Cabin Chronicles.
Barbara has handled public relations contracts for a number of US
and Canadian organizations, including First Aid to Hungary in New
York, the Oakdale Musical Theatre in Connecticut, the Illinois
Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Christmas Exchange of
Ottawa-Carleton, the Canadian Square & Round Dance Society, the
Ottawa YM-YWCA, Medica Publishing, and the Canadian Association of
University Teachers.
Often, writing and public relations have been combined, as in
contracts for Law Enforcement Supply Company (Florida), The
Versailles Group Ltd. (Boston), and the Catholic Health
Association of Canada.
A member of the founding board of the Macdonald Club in Ottawa
(established 1978), Barbara has also served on the boards of the
Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the
National Cultural Sector Training Committee, and the Cultural Human
Resources Council.
Barbara was a member of the Professional Writers Association of
Canada (formerly the Periodical Writers Association of Canada) for 29
years. She served as President of the Ottawa Chapter, and founded and
chaired the Mentoring Committee. Barbara received one of PWAC's first
Outstanding Service Awards in 1992. She is also a founding member of
the Cat Writers' Association,
and has been a member of Ottawa
Independent Writers for more than two decades. She also belongs
to the Media Club
(formerly the Canadian Women's Press Club) and Canadian
Association of Journalists.
Barbara has taught seminars and workshops in writing, media
relations, public speaking and creativity for two of Ottawa's largest
consulting companies, Lemmex & Associates and Performance
Management Consultants, and has also served on the faculty of www.WritingSchool.com.
Shojai
Mentoring Award, 2010
Interview
in WOT Magazine, January/February 2011
Bobbi explains what publishing consultants do in a podcast
posted at: http://www.shareddreamspodcast.com/
Profile of Simon Teakettle and Bobbi in 55 Plus.Go
to: http://www.fifty-five-plus.com/
and look in the Archives for the Ottawa/Kingston edition of the
October, 2010, issue. This article was also mentioned in the
blog/newsletter of The
Publicity Hound, as an example of using a specific angle to
garner publicity.
Bobbi replied to a series of questions on creativity for a popular
blogger, and her answers appear HERE.
2006 Profile
by Kate Aley in the West Quebec Post
THE FLORIO CONNECTION
