TCC Insights

Food trucks serve up street food…and social media know-how?

 By: Kellie Mazur, Administrative Assistant

Food trucks have long been embracing the power of social media. In a way, social media is the fuel that keeps the food trucks going.  Very practically, our four-wheeled friends tweet their whereabouts for the day. Although at Travers Collins we pride ourselves on memorizing the Lloyd’s Taco Truck schedule, in the off chance we lose track of every other Wednesday, a friendly Twitter reminder ensures us a coveted spot in the local food truck’s line.

I Met The President

By Bob Travers, Principal

On Saturday, I had the good fortune of attending the 126th annual white tie Gridiron Dinner in Washington as the guest of Stan Lipsey, publisher and president of the Buffalo News.

For those who may not be familiar with it, the Gridiron Club and Foundation is one of the country’s oldest and most highly regarded journalist organizations. Annually, it hosts a dinner roasting many of our national political leaders. This year it was the first appearance by President Obama. Every US President since 1885, except Grover Cleveland, has spoken at the event.

The evening began for me with a small cocktail party hosted by Lipsey at Washington’s Renaissance Hotel which is where the Gridiron Dinner took place and where everyone from Buffalo stayed. Also attending the cocktail party: Robert Gioia, president of The John R. Oishei Foundation; Doug Turner, retired Buffalo News Washington correspondent and a member of the Gridiron Club;

Still Mad, After All These Months

By Joe Sweeney, Copywriter/Associate Creative Director

The cover story of Sunday’s Buffalo News involved a pair of decaying properties owned by local developing giant and 2010 gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino. But what really interested me was a sidebar piece about a billboard that’s been on one of said buildings for months. Greeting drivers on the Niagara Thruway, it screams in bold yellow type, “Spineless Stan Lipsey & The Buffalo News threw WNY under the bus.”

Stepping Up to the Lectern

   By Jeff Bucki, Copywriter


Editor's Note:  TC&C's own Jeff Bucki was featured in the "My View" column in The Buffalo News on June 12.  His column is re-posted below.

This spring, I’ve had the pleasure of teaching a public relations class at my alma mater of Fredonia State University. It was something I’ve always wanted to do, and I’m really glad I received the opportunity. As I expected, it has been a really unique and enjoyable experience.

There’s something really neat about being able to interact with and influence young people. I remember what it was like being in their shoes. For me, a lot it is sharing what I’ve learned along the way, what works and what doesn’t.

In my class, I have a mix of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. I told my students the first week that I was going to give them the inside story on PR. If they were looking for theory, they could get that from the textbook. My goal was to give them the reality of today’s marketing communication world. It’s the real-world insight that adjunct professors bring to the table that serves as our point of difference.

Extra Extra….Read All About It?

By Bill Collins, Principal


Delivering the Courier-Express (Buffalo’s long-dead morning newspaper) was my first job outside my home.  I offer the “outside my home” qualifier because I did get a weekly allowance for emptying the family dishwasher every morning, 7/365, and no slight task in a house of eight people. 

Anyway, I could be described as many things as a kid (think red-headed, freckle-faced hellion, for starters) but high on my list would be the label, voracious newspaper reader.  My siblings and I were bred to read the two newspapers that were delivered daily to our house and we actually would fight over sections on Sunday mornings.  My persnickety desire to read the newspaper from front to back, section-by-section before anyone else could touch it didn’t endear me to my brothers and sisters.