Two School of Journalism students are reporting from the national Public Relations Student Society of America conference in Philadelphia Oct. 19-23. Senior Diana Biette and junior Mary Reisert, both IU chapter PRSSA members, are networking with students from around the nation and taking notes in workshops for ideas on recruiting new members and helping them in the job search.
Here are their reports from Day 1, Oct. 19:
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| Courtesy photo |
| Junior Mary Reisert and senior Diana Biette (in red shirts) met up with IUPUI’s PRSSA attendees at a Friday night social. |
Junior Mary Reisert and I have only been at the PRSSA conference a short while, but its safe to say Indiana University has made its presence known and its reputation shine.
After exploring Philadelphia landmarks and local flavor in the morning, the conference began in the early afternoon and we decided to split up to make the most of our experiences in the first two sessions. I attended “Net Profit: Surfing for Success on the World Wide Web,” hosted by Elon University, and “Freedom to Be a Professional: Celebrating Your Chapter’s Independence,” hosted by the University of Northern Iowa.
In the first session, I learned about several different Web sites that can be used to find jobs, network and research. One of these, Second Life, is one of the most important tools that people entering into the communications workplace should learn about. It is a virtual community concentrating on economics. Several companies have launched sites in Second Life and it will be exploding in the next 10 years.
The first seminar also covered blogging and what it can do to advance your chapter and organization. Test your knowledge with these questions and see what you know about blogs.
- What was the first year a blog was ever posted?
- IU alumnus Mark Cuban, owner of _________________, was fined for criticizing referees in his blog.
- How many blogs are posted a second?
- How big is today’s blogosphere?
- What is the number one blogging language?
- (Answers are posted at the end of this report.)
The second session was entertaining and provided great ideas for community fundraisers, such as a Cook for the Cure breakfast fundraiser where the proceeds go to support cancer research.
The next session we attended together to represent Indiana University and find out the 10 best ways to advance our PRSSA chapter. Part of the session was competing in teams of eight people to come up with a 20-second newspaper pitch. We teamed up with Valparaiso University and one Californian, and of 250 student competitors, our team won the whole contest with our idea for a Halloween fundraiser, the Witches and Warlocks Ball.
During the evening networking event, we wore our IU shirts and handed out IU pencils to students from across the country. We were struck by the numbers of students from other schools. Some sent 30 people from their chapters of 40 people. It should definitely be a goal for our campus chapter to send more representatives in the future.
WAIT! Here are the answers to the blog quiz posted earlier:
- The year was 1994 when the first blog was posted.
- Mark Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks.
- There are 17 blogs posted a second.
- The blogosphere is full of 70 million blogs.
- Japanese is the number one blogging language.
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| Courtesy photo |
| Reisert had some free time to explore Philadelphia, including the Reading Terminal Market. |
The first PRSSA activity did not take place until 3:00 Friday, so we used the extra time beforehand to explore Philadelphia. We walked around Chinatown , went to Redding Terminal, a place that closely resembles a farmer’s market, and had a delicious lunch of Amish food.
Once we finished lunch, we had to hurry back to the hotel to make it to our first event. My nerves finally got to me. All of the chapters were represented with at least five people. Since there were two of us, we decided to split up.
The session I decided to attend was split into two different parts. The first part, hosted by the University of Nebraska at Omaha, focused on how “PRSSA Puts the Fun in Fundraising.” The chapter has monthly bake sales and sells PRSSA T-shirts. Each year, the chapter hosts an Italian dinner night and splits the 30 members into two work. Groups. With some of the money raised, the chapter was able to pay for nine members to attend the conference.
The second part of the session, conducted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, focused on how chapters can improve the officer retreat. The chapter has 30 active members and 10 officers. Each year, these 10 officers meet in a cabin for a weekend. They map out their entire year for PRSSA during this retreat.
Diana and I attended the next event together to have more than one person represent IU. Ohio Northern University conducted the first part of the session, “Getting Noticed: Top 10 Ways to Advance Your Chapter.” As a part of the presentation, the audience was split into teams of eight to 10. We had 10 minutes to come up with an idea or an event that could benefit our chapter. We then had 20 seconds to present that idea to the panel. Since we only had two members, we decided to partner with PRSSA members from Valparaiso University. Out of 250 people, our team won the contest! We were really excited.
The University of Memphis concluded the last part of the session. By far, this chapter was the most impressive. The team puts together a media guide each year that is sold for $35. It contains all of the media outlets for their surrounding area.
Once the informational sessions were over, Diana and I were excited about the last activity at the night: a social. Not only were we allowed to wear an IU T-shirt and jeans, but we got to pass out and receive free gifts from other chapters.
I have already learned so much about public relations in one day. There were so many creative ideas that I would love to bring back to our chapter. I was able to try many new things today and meet people from all across the United States. Tomorrow is going to be even better, and I am excited to see what else is in store.
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