Wow, what a weekend! After a stressful week of midterms, I found myself glad to be traveling to Detroit, Mich., for the National PRSSA Conference. Detroit is an interesting town full of beautiful, gothic buildings. Not the bustling city I expected, but an interesting place to visit, complete with Greek Town and vibrant city culture.
- University of Oregon Executive Board in Detroit
The conference was full of helpful and interesting sessions and keynote speakers, including PR pioneer Ofield Dukes and Craig Newmark from Craigslist.org. There were many sessions available regarding various of topics including ethics, global PR, entertainment PR, PR for healthcare, sports PR, fund-raising PR, social media, event planning, and corporate versus agency PR. The conference also included a PRSA/PRSSA social where students and professionals mingled at the GM Renaissance Center Wintergarden.
My favorite sessions were on ethics, social media, and corporate versus agency PR. The ethics session, led by several professionals including John Bailey, was interesting because it addressed many ethical issues practitioners may come across when doing work for clients. We learned about a whisper campaign, which involves the spreading of bad publicity in an attempt to bring down a competitor or promote one’s own product without taking credit for disseminating the information.
The social media session was memorable because speaker Jud Branam created an acronym to tie his points together, POST: People, Objectives, Strategy and technology. He made several interesting points that ring true, including the fact that the emphasis lies in what the company can do for the online community.
Lori Billingsley, a professional working with the Coca-Cola Company, enlightened us on the differences in working for a corporation and working for an agency. She recommended starting at an agency to acquire a wealth of experience with a variety of clients before going to a corporation and applying that broad knowledge.
Conferences are an excellent opportunity to advance professional knowledge and get excited for a career in PR. I had a lot of fun bonding with this year’s executive board and meeting so many other students and professionals. To any students looking to get more involved in PR, I highly recommend joining PRSSA and attending conferences whenever you can.
