Details are important, especially when communicating in a local community where things can be taken the wrong way. Hugh Clapper talks with Marissa Baum, head of communications for the town of East Hartford, about being a communication leader for residents and businesses. Marissa shares how a career in marketing, communications, fundraising, and development in arts and cultural institutions led to campaign work, local government, and a passion for telling stories of impact on a day-to-day, micro level.

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From booties in seats at a free, family-friendly fall festival to earned media coverage, positive brand and reputation management, and tools like the My East Hartford 3 1 1 center, Marissa walks through metrics, storytelling, and community engagement. She talks about rebranding, civic pride, accessibility, language barriers, the digital divide, policies and processes, patience and perspective, empathy, and trust in government as good government with residents at the center.

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👤 Guest Bio

Marissa Baum is head of communications for the town of East Hartford, Connecticut. She joined the town in January of 2024, shortly after Mayor Connor Martin was elected. Before local government, she spent her career in marketing, communications, fundraising, and development in arts and cultural institutions, including the Connecticut Historical Society, later rebranded as the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, and the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. After a major rebranding project and extracurricular campaign work, she shifted to Mayor Martin’s administration as head of communications, lives in town as a taxpayer, and focuses on stories of impact for residents and businesses.

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📌 What We Cover

• Details are important when you are communicating, getting the message right, and trying not to offend anyone in your local community.
• Booties in seats, bodies in the door, and what happens when a free, family-friendly annual fall festival with performances, artists, vendors, food trucks, inflatables, and an inflatable corn maze competes with other great events in the Greater Hartford area.
• Metrics that include attendance, earned media coverage, positive earned media coverage, brand and reputation management, how residents talk about the administration, and how residents use tools like the My East Hartford 3 1 1 center.
• Rebranding in East Hartford with North Star, edge cities, differentiation and distinction, community engagement, stakeholders, focus groups, one-on-ones, community listening sessions, surveys, and a brand barometer tied to feelings, civic pride, and civic engagement.
• Creative committees, business owners, longtime residents, commission members, town council, school district representation, and age, gender, ethnic, and geographic diversity in telling the story of East Hartford.
• Budgets, triage, fiduciary perspectives, economic development, business recruitment, resident recruitment and retention, and telling a clear story about why you should open your new headquarters in East Hartford without raising taxes for this process.
• Accessibility that includes ADA, language barriers, the digital divide, thirty-some odd languages at the local high school, Language Line, Department of Justice Title Two rulings, screen readers, color contrasts, PDFs, and good government with information that is accessible, digestible, and understandable.
• Processes, pace, subject matter experts, service to residents and businesses, local government as about service, patience and perspective, quality of life, immediate gratification on a micro scale, rising tide lifts all ships, empathy, and building trust in government.

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Town of East Hartford
• My East Hartford 3 1 1 center
• North Star (rebranding firm)
• Connecticut Historical Society
• Connecticut Museum of Culture and History
• American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Missouri
• Department of Justice Title Two rulings
• Language Line