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PR News will kick off 2018 with its celebration of the Top Women in PR on Jan. 23 at New York’s Grand Hyatt. This annual luncheon event tends to be much more than a parade of illustrious business executives. Top Women in PR honorees typically share their deepest-held lessons learned and, most significantly, talk about the mentors who have meant the most to them.

For both NBC and Time’s Up, using the beginning of the year to announce a fresh start was a deft move. For Time’s Up, the announcement served to capitalize on, and breathe new life into, the momentum built by #MeToo in the closing months of 2017. And for NBC, which saw a ratings surge in December, the announcement was a silver lining emanating from the darkness of Matt Lauer’s ouster, one way to turn a new leaf in the new year.

Accusations that Apple slows down the processing power of older iPhones in order to force customers to buy new versions has accompanied almost every new product launch. The rumors never attracted much news cycle traction until this holiday season, and now Apple is paying for it.

A dual-degree Marketing and Public Relations senior, Maddy Gildersleeve has excelled inside the classroom and out. Just within the past year, she has garnered experience as a digital marketing intern for Meredith Corp., a social media and marketing strategist for Power Life Yoga and an account management intern for FCB Chicago, where she played critical roles coordinating project timelines and conducting digital media research.

The city of Erie received 65 inches of snow from Christmas Eve through Dec. 27—breaking a 59-year-old record for a two-day snowfall in the state. And this PR News reporter just happened to be visiting Erie for the holidays. Here are a few observations on Erie’s communications around the storm.

With Franz Paasche leading the way, PayPal’s communications function has helped shift perception of the company from its legacy reputation as a “button on a website” for online payments to an innovative financial platform that collaborates across the industry to provide secure commerce experiences wherever users are actively engaged. And after recent tragedies, including Hurricane Harvey, Paasche has acted as a key advisor in the development and launch of a disaster relief campaign.

As we enter the final days of the final week of 2017—a time when you or everyone around you is on vacation—this is the perfect time to adopt some processes so you can hit the ground running next week. And so here are 9 tips that will help you attack 2018 with renewed vigor. The best part is that they take very little time and the payoff can be large in terms of productivity and networking. In short, they’re a way to identify what you can prune so that you’ll have more time for issues that matter.

Marketer of the Year Dawn Callahan is an award-winning marketing visionary who is part of the leadership team that took Boingo Wireless from a small startup to a global Wi-Fi leader. Meanwhile, Callahan’s co-winner Luke DeRouen has been responsible for solidifying Arby’s brand communications strategy over the past three years—a strategy that has resulted in the brand delivering exceptional programming and increased sales results.

Knowing how to handle a crisis arguably is the most important skill in a PR pro’s toolkit. When it’s a social media crisis, the need to act quickly often can be paramount, requiring PR pros to have items ready to deploy almost immediately. Here are a few tips that will bolster your efforts at apologizing for a crisis on social media.

Shortly after Media Relations Professional of the Year Wimberly led a launch of the Galaxy Note7, the world turned its attention to incidents of the Note7 battery catching fire. Far from losing her cool, Wimberly immediately orchestrated a full and transparent response to a crisis without precedent. Not only did her campaign help recover 98 percent of the recalled devices, it also set the stage for future successful product launches.