About Us
David Swofford
David Swofford is a 25-year veteran in the public relations and media relations business with extensive experience in the management of communications within the fast-growing online games sector.
David started in games PR in 1994 at Origin Systems in Austin, Texas. During an eight year career at Origin and its parent company, Electronic Arts (EA), he directed PR campaigns for some of the top computer game series in the business including Ultima, Wing Commander, System Shock and Crusader. He also managed PR for several of EA’s affiliated label products including Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri from Firaxis Games.
While working on the Wing Commander products, David engineered several Hollywood-style PR campaigns and managed the first ever costume donation from a video game to a Planet Hollywood restaurant that included actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell and Tom Wilson.
In 1997, David launched the PR campaign for the ground-breaking Ultima Online massively multiplayer online game and generated a wealth of trade and consumer-level press for Origin, EA and the game’s creator, Richard Garriott. Feature stories were placed in the New York Times, Fortune, Newsweek and Wired among others.
In 2001 David moved to NCsoft in Austin to direct that company’s North American and European PR efforts. While there, David directed teams that launched multiple MMO game titles such as Lineage II, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Guild Wars and Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa. David also helped direct corporate PR efforts for NCsoft in the western territories (US and Europe) and managed multiple analyst and business tours for the company’s executive team.
In 2012 David began working with legendary game designer, Chris Roberts, and helped launch the record-breaking, crowd funded space combat game, Star Citizen. To date Star Citizen has raised more than $700 million and is one of the largest crowd funded projects in the world.
In 2014, David's alma mater, Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas inducted David into the College of Media and Communication's Hall of Fame.
Prior to his career in PR, David was an award-winning journalist at CBS affiliated stations in Lubbock, Texas (KLBK-TV, 1978-1982) and Austin, Texas (KTBC-TV, 1982-1993). While in Austin his reporting was honored multiple times by the Associated Press and took him across the country covering national political conventions and meetings of state such as the Reagan-Gorbachev Summit in Washington, D.C. He even ventured into Central Mexico to cover the migration of the Africanized "Killer" Bees on their trek toward Texas.
At Conley Swofford Media, David continues to develop and implement successful PR strategies for his clients which include private astronaut Richard Garriott, game developers, local inventors and documentary filmmakers.
Cathy Conley
In a career that spans more than two decades as both a journalist and public relations executive, Cathy Conley brings a wealth of communications experience to her clients in the world of business and public affairs.
Cathy spent most of her career as a journalist writing, producing and delivering the news to newspaper, radio and television audiences across Texas. Whether to an audience of ten thousand, as a local television news anchor, or ten million as a syndicated statewide news reporter, Cathy knows effective communication is key to professional success.
Cathy started her career as a newspaper reporter in the Rio Grande Valley where she covered the courts, the economy and education.
As a news reporter in Austin, Cathy covered city hall, the courts, and the Texas Legislature. She anchored the #1 newscast at NBC affiliate KXAN-TV where she also took on several special assignments. Cathy secured the first interview with then First Lady of Texas Laura Bush in the Governor’s Mansion and one of the last interviews with Pulitzer Prize winning author James Michener in his home prior to his death.
Cathy, who has a degree in journalism and political science, has worked at the Texas Capitol where she served as press secretary to a state senator who went on to become a U.S. Congressman. Politics is in her blood as her late father, Carl Conley, was a member of the Texas Legislature.
In 2002 Cathy started her own PR company, CSMedia where today she continues to create highly successful PR campaigns for local, national and global clients. Whether it’s a sporting event featuring Pete Sampras and Anna Kournikova in Chicago or Dallas, a high tech firm moving manufacturing from China, or a business promoting a patented product, Cathy creates dynamic media campaigns with measurable results.
Cathy is also a mediator who received her mediation training from the Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution at the University of Texas School of Law.