I recently had the amazing opportunity of attending the PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America) National Conference in San Diego, CA. The conference was a great place for students to connect with other students and professionals in the industry, as well as to get a better feel for where PR is at and where it is going. There were many workshops that I attended, but I am going to focus on two of my personal favorites from the event.
The first workshop I attended was "A View From the Top: How to stand out as a young professional". This workshop was lead by Ron Culp and Kevin Saghy from Ketchum PR. This was a great presentation in my opinion because it gave both an upper and lower management view of young professionals coming into the field of PR. They posed four questions, and then gave the responses that they received from both upper and lower management across many different agencies and corporations.
The four questions they asked were:
1. How can young talent stand out in your organization?
2. What example comes to mind of a young professional who advanced quickly in your organization, and why have they done so well?
3. How can/have employees hurt themselves by trying to raise their profile?
4. If you could anonymously say one sentence to your junior staff, what would it be?
There were many responses and quotes given for each question, so I will briefly go over the most common and relevant responses.
1. How can young talent stand out in your organization?
Senior Management - They show initiative, and they are a team player.
Junior Staff - They go the extra mile, and they show a positive attitude.
2. What example comes to mind of a young professional who advanced quickly in your organization, and why have they done so well?
Senior Management - They know the business, they show quality work, engage us with intelligent ideas, and they go the extra mile.
Junior Staff - Quality work, they present smart ideas, they work hard and they are willing to explore new learning opportunities.
3. How can/have employees hurt themselves by trying to raise their profile?
Senior Management - They should not seek credit all of the time, or follow own agenda instead of the agenda of the team.
Junior Staff - Don't throw co-workers under the bus, and don't skip the tactical work. The ones who succeed are the ones who do not have a sense of entitlement.
4. If you could anonymously say one sentence to your junior staff, what would it be?
Senior Management - What are you doing to prepare yourself for the next level? There is not a bad idea in a brainstorming session.
Junior Staff - Become known for your willingness to take on the most challenging, difficult assignments no matter how big or boring. Be the 3 C's: current, curious, and creative!
I have about 10 pages or so worth of notes from this seminar, as I felt they addressed a lot of the prominent questions a young professional has when going from college into the "real world". I also had the opportunity to stay after the seminar with about five other students to hang out and talk with Kevin and Ron for about 40 minutes. This was where the real insights came out, and allowed for some great one on one discussion about how the industry is evolving and where they feel it is going from here.
The other event I am going to talk about was the speech given at the PRSA National Conference by Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/)Arianna was a great speaker, and had some great insights on the industry. The most important piece of information she shared I felt was how drama is a necessary component in the news and in public relations. This is the driving force behind passion, and getting people to care about what you have to say.
Arianna Huffington speaking at the PRSA National Conference in San Diego, CA
Overall, I would say this was an amazing conference where I had the opportunity to meet a bunch of students and professionals in the field and get some great insight on how Public Relations is changing. Since the day I started at Drake Cooper, I have witnessed a passion and desire to always be ahead of the game by everyone here in the shop. This conference strengthened my view on how important this fact is not only for young professionals going into the field, but for professionals already in the public relations field, and any field for that matter. This drive to always improve ourselves, our work, and Drake Cooper in general is what will keep us ahead of the game in years to come! Thanks guys :)
Sean Winnett
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