6:30 a.m. My alarm kindly awoke me. I admit, I seriously considered skipping the whole day, but then remembered the events on the itinerary and decided against it. For my future and stuff.
7:12 a.m. I arrived at the Forbes bus circle three minutes ahead of schedule to meet the rest of PRSSA and head out to Richmond. While I waited, I successfully pretended I wasn’t cold so I’d look like a professional adult person. 8:45 a.m. PRSSA made a coffee stop. God is real. The sun is shining. The birds are chirping. Caffeine is incredible. I wondered who invented coffee. I Googled, “who invented coffee?” Legend says it was an Ethiopian goatherd named Kaldi. Bless you, Kaldi. 9:30 a.m. We arrived at Padilla and I was blown away. I might be used to a smaller scale office setting because of life in Harrisonburg, but I have to say the office space was stunning. We joined students from VCU and John Tyler College to listen to a panel of selected speakers that represent different segments Richmond Public Relations. After introducing themselves, they gave us a few great pointers. 1. Seek out your own opportunities… continuously Two of the women on the panel were featured in 30 Under 30 P.R. professionals’ lists in the last year. People won’t likely hand you applications for awards or sign-ups for conferences. You have to take that into your own hands. It makes complete sense, really; in order to continue growing, don’t be complacent. 2. Take initiative Several of the professionals on the panel spoke about pushing their companies to make big decisions. They encouraged us as young P.R. professionals to be the person that says yes. The best way to learn is by experience, and the more you say yes, the more experience you get. Boom. 3. Learn from others’ experience Ask questions! A lot! People want to share their knowledge with you, and all you have to do is ask for it. Ask your coworker to review your writing, ask your boss his or her opinion about a social media practice. They’ve been in the field and they know the ropes – let them show you. 11:45 a.m. The 11 of us climbed back into our clown car. We got lost trying to find the venue for the PRSA lunch event. We found several parking lots, and some sort of botanical gardens, but alas, no lunch. 12:02 p.m. JMU PRSSA arrived (fashionably) late to the PRSA Richmond Lunch. I saw with a bunch of strangers to try my hand at this networking thing I’ve been hearing so much about. I have to note that there was pumpkin pie sitting right in my line of sight for the entire duration of the networking and I successfully restrained myself from demolishing it like an animal. It’s the little victories. 12:15 Mike McDougall, a prominent member of the P.R. community, spoke to us about the importance of visual content now and in the future. Here’s what I took away. 1. The most effective content has a strong visual component Visuals are what pull people in and get them to stay. Without visual content, social media sites would likely fail. Think about it: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, even Tweets without pictures rarely grab my attention. 2. Future-proof your content Shoot your content with the highest possible quality cameras, even if the popular technology to view it on can’t display the full quality, because technology moves incredibly fast. For example, if laptops of today aren’t commonly using the highest possible HD display, you can’t see quite how good the quality of picture is, but in just a few years technology will advance and higher quality screens will become more available to see that content on. 3. The future is bonkers Visual augmentation is already a thing. You can download an app that shows you the details of airplanes around you in real time. By pointing your phone at the sky, you can see where it came from, where it’s going, even what snacks they have available on the plane. Tech companies are already developing contact lenses with a similar, but more advanced, kind of wearable visual augmentation. Information. In. Your. Eyeballs. 1:00 Each of the audience members had a small existential crisis. Re-contemplated the meaning of life. Thought about the size of the universe a lot. 1:15 On the road again. 1:30 After lunch, we went straight to Hodges, a smaller (but mighty) P.R. firm in Richmond. Here’s a little bite of what we talked about: 1. Be engaged Ask questions, be engaged, do more than the minimum. Take initiative when problems arise. Don’t just inform someone, come up with a potential solution. Get to know what each person in your company does. 2. Diversify your skillset Don’t find one thing and stick to it forever. Find the thing that everyone hates to do and get really good at it! Be as resourceful as you can be, don’t put yourself in a box so early on. 3. Pitching Ah, the dreaded pitch. It seems like everyone knows how to do it but me. Here’s what I took away from our conversation.
3:30 PRSSA loaded back into our van and headed back to the ‘burg. We might have had a full day of professional development, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t fall asleep almost immediately once we got on the highway. The students were nestled all snug in our van, while visions of padfolios danced in our heads. 6:00 We all made it back to JMU, a little more nervous, a little more exhausted and a little more prepared to take on the future. - Taryn Kosinski, PRSSA member
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November 2017
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