 |
| Courtesy photo |
| PRSSA conference attendees are (from left) Ali Meyer, Taylor MacKenzie, Kristina Hunter and Darcy Marlett. The conference is in conjunction with the PRSA professional organization. |
The students are Taylor MacKenzie, Kristina Hunter, Ali Meyer and Darcy Marlett. Hunter received a PRSSA/PRSA 2009 Health Academy Grant to attend the conference.
The conference will provide some special events for students, though they will attend some of the same workshops as professionals. They also will have the chance to network with pros in career development sessions.
Meyer and Marlett will be sending blog reports and photos for the School of Journalism Web site about their experiences.
Day 3
By Ali Meyer
With our first full night sleep in days, we were ready to begin the long day ahead of us. We networked with students from Hawaii over boxed lunches. After lunch, we broke up to attend our respective officer discussions. Taylor and Kristina went to the president and vice president discussion, Darcy to the PR liaisons, historians and webmasters discussion, and Ali to the secretary and treasurers discussion. We all came away with ideas on how to improve the IU chapter. Some of these new ideas will be implemented upon our return to Bloomington.
After the officer discussions, we were shuttled to the Marriott Hotel where the PRSA 2009 International Conference to attend the PRSA general session featuring Arianna Huffington. Huffington is the founder of The Huffington Post and is known for her outspoken opinions. She discussed the trends of new media and the impact it will have on how people consume information.
“Promiscuity may not be great in relationships, but it is very good online,” Huffington quipped when speaking about the benefits of using multiple social media outlets.
Wendell Potter, senior fellow at the Health Care Center for Media and Democracy, joined Huffington on stage for an interview concerning ethical practices in public relations.
We were shuttled back to our hotel to attend more professional development sessions. Kristina attended the health care and Bateman Case Study Competition sessions, Taylor headed to the investor relations and ethics session, and Darcy and Ali attended the hospitality, travel and tourism session. These sessions were especially informative for Kristina and Ali as those are the industries they wish to pursue.
At night, the conference Committee threw a “Pier Party” for students to network and mingle once again. We played human bingo as an icebreaker exercise and to learn interesting facts about other students. Networking skills are a key component in the public relations world, and conference has given us ample time to home in on our individual networking styles.
Day 2
By Darcy MarlettOur morning here in San Diego started with the keynote address and chapter roll call. Mona Pasquil, California’s newly-appointed lieutenant governor, gave the keynote address. Pasquil shared the wisdom she’s gained in a lifetime of working as a minority woman in political affairs. She reminded the crowd of students that throughout their careers, the most important thing is to know who they are.
After her speech, we had chapter roll call in which every school represented at conference (five pages worth) stood up when their names were called. The cheers ranged from simple school cheers to elaborate choreographed song and dance numbers.
In the afternoon, we broke out into professional development sessions. I attended a session entitled “Avoiding Social Media Landmines.”
This session included key advice on how to stay out of legal trouble on the Internet and reminded students that once material is on the Internet, you cannot take it back.
The second session I attended was a lecture on public affairs given by April Bolduc, the public relations manager at Sempra Energy. Bolduc recounted lessons she’s learned about handling crisis situations while working at a utility and for at an agency whose client was Walmart. She also discussed the transition from agency to corporate life.
For our third session, I attended a panel on sports and entertainment public relations. On the panel was Karen Lee, a media relations consultant at W&W Media Relations. Lee has work with a wide range of music artists, including Prince. Joining her was Warren Miller, the San Diego Padres’ director of media relations and Nicole Y. Marostica, a director at ABC Entertainment Group. Together they spoke on their wide range of experiences working in music, television and sports communications.
After sessions were finished we had the chance to meet up with adviser Jim Bright for dinner in San Diego’s historic Gaslamp District.
Day 1
By Ali MeyerAfter a long morning of traveling, we finally made it to our destination, sunny San Diego. Once checked in, we attended four chapter development sessions designed to introduce practices to take back to our chapters.
Darcy Marlett and Ali Meyer attended a session presented by University of Texas at Austin on initiating themes every semester to organize chapter events. Indiana State University presented a development session on creating portfolios both on paper and on the Internet. Kristina Hunter sat in on community service session that looked at ways to initiate pro bono campaigns in the local community. She also attended Brigham Young University’s mentor program session. The three of us then attended sessions on galas and career development.
Friday night, we attended the Bring Us Something PRSSA Fiesta to meet and network with other schools’ chapters. The chapters distributed items with school logos and PR-related phrases, including flashlights, ping-pong balls and temporary tattoos. Later in the night, we had a chance to explore the historic Gaslamp Quarter and mingle with other conference attendees.