As a PR intern and member of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), you can probably imagine that I was pretty excited when I hopped on a plane to Orlando, Fla., for the 2011 PRSSA National Conference a couple of weeks ago.
The theme for this year’s conference was, “Perception is Reality: Inspiring Effective Communications,” and featured presentations from notable PR practitioners from all across the nation. The conference also took advantage of its close proximity to Disney World, and included speakers like Vice President of Global PR for Disney Destinations, Craig Dezern.
Here’s a list of my five favorite things about the PRSSA conference:
1. The PRSA crossover
One of the best aspects of the PRSSA conference is that it took place about five miles from the hotel in which the PRSA conference was located. This meant that PRSSA students were invited to attend some of the sessions at the professional conference. These sessions offered an invaluable opportunity to not only attend wonderful and informative presentations from prominent PR practitioners, but to also meet and mingle with professionals from all over the country. Two of the PRSA keynote speakers whose sessions I attended included Senior Vice President and Creative Executive of Walt Disney Imagineering, Joe Rohde, who spoke primarily about the creativity and imagination that goes into creating theme parks. I believe this same kind of creativity is absolutely necessary in PR in order to make your clients and their brands stand out from the others. The second PRSA speaker was President of Human Business Works, Chris Brogan, who gave great tips on how to stand out when practicing PR by earning leverage from stakeholder interaction, and how to avoid getting stuck in the traditional public relations and communications practices.
2. The speakers
The speakers at both the PRSSA and PRSA events were full of insight and information. Being able to choose to attend sessions put on by PR practitioners from all realms of the PR field, including non-profit, corporate, agency, sports and government, gave students a chance to learn about a wide variety of PR topics from actual professionals. For example, I attended a session about how to use social media one day, how to effectively produce a public interest campaign another day, and how to build trust with clients in both the for-profit and non-profit areas of PR the next.
3. The nearby attractions
As we all know, PR practitioners work hard, but we play harder, and our trip was not without some extracurricular fun. Our hotel was conveniently located just a few minutes away from Universal Orlando, SeaWorld and Disney World. We didn’t know the next time we would all be in Orlando, so of course we had to take advantage of the attractions, and, being the nerds we all were, we decided to go to Universal’s Islands of Adventure to see the infamous Harry Potter World attraction. Since we had been attending public relations conference sessions for hours prior to this, we definitely noticed the particular touches that were added to the park to engage stakeholders and attract visitors. The English accents of some of the “wizards” and “witches” working there, as well as the realistic aspects of the mythical creatures in the park, did not go unnoticed and, in my opinion, has definitely helped the park to garner the success it has seen since its inception. Despite a near overdose of butterbeer, it was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.
4. The students
The PRSSA National Conference offered a wonderful networking opportunity. We met students from all over the country, and it was really unique to be able to hear the varying experiences and perspectives that they had gained from their different universities and schools. We even ended up meeting some students from The University of Oregon and developed a mini football rivalry. Unfortunately, the Ducks beat our Sun Devils, so we couldn’t do much boasting.
5. The location
Florida has always been a place I’ve wanted to travel to, and I was so excited to get the chance to do so during conference. Despite the humidity, 5-hour flight, and the fact that I didn’t see any alligators like I’d hoped, it was wonderful to visit the state, and the lush, green setting was a nice change from the Phoenix desert. In addition, I think the event planners definitely used their PR skills when picking out the hotel for the conference. Its close proximity to nightlife, theme parks and restaurants was a perfect choice to keep the guests entertained when they weren’t attending PR sessions.
Overall, the PRSSA National Conference trip was a huge success, and I benefitted from learning new perspectives and information from experienced PR practitioners, and from making new connections with both students and professionals. I plan on taking all of these connections and skills with me as I move toward a career in the PR field, and I hope to see everyone next year for conference in San Francisco!
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