Posts Tagged ‘PRSA’

If you want to be a PR rock star I recommend reading all the great information I learned at this past PRville conference and also make sure you are at PRville 2010 next year

I was super nervous to go to this conference, between this being my first 3 day PR conference and between my plane ride to Jacksonville being my first flight, well needless to say I had to mentally prepare myself for this trip way in advance.  I can say that although I still have a reason to fear being thousands of feet in the air, I should have had no fears about going to this awesome event, everyone was great and I got to learn and absorb all the great information.

The event was so well put together thanks to Anne Duboius (@adubois08) and Bonnie Upright (@bonnieupright ).  I had a great time and learned so much, which I am now going to take the time to pass forward, to give back as Mike Cherenson said in his Thursday night speech.  So first I am going to put the top 10 tweets of the event, these are just some tweets that stood out to me, you can see all of the great tweets to get a peak into Prville using the #Prville Hashtag on twitter. Then I will do a small recap of each session I attended

I got to the Omni Hotel at about 2:00 PM on Thursday, and although I did have a small issue with the shuttle reservation I made, they promptly fixed the issues and not only was the Omni Hotel beautiful, their customer service was outstanding.  Just 3 things they did that stood out – My shoes where kind of thrown by the bed when I left on Friday morning and when I came back they were all neatly lined underneath the desk, I also came back to some makeup wipes in the bathroom, now that might of been because my makeup ended up on their towels, but I really tried to not get much on there.  Then right before I left they did something else that made them stand out.  My feet were killing me, I forgot my shoes, but I still wanted to walk the Riverwalk, so I attempted it in my sandals, yeah, not the best idea.  So I called down to the front desk to get help with my luggage, but was running late since this great woman, Diane I met at Prville was giving me a ride to the airport therefore leaving me 5 minutes to make it downstairs, so the lady at the front desk called me back to tell me the bell boy could not make it up in 5 minutes, so I told her I walk.  She said nope, don’t do that I will personally come up myself, within 2 minutes max she was there, that is stand out customer service, I will make a point to look for a the Omni Hotel wherever I go. Oh, and no – I did not get anything free or discounted for writing this review, I just thoroughly enjoyed the stay there, and you should try their sliders, so yummy!

So as soon as I registered, I get this awesome Goody Bag with a shot glass, compact mirror, note pads a disc that had all of sessions, speaker’’s bios, etc on it and much more.  PRville went Green this year, I loved it, because all those papers I would have lost by now, I still have the disc which includes some of the ppt’s that were used.

Then on Thursday night I got to head over to the Jacksonville Stadium which was very cool, we got to see their workout room, their locker room, we stood out on the field.  I did feel like I was betraying the Ravens a little bit, but I still had a good time.  Here is a photo that was taken from Ljohnson9’s photo stream on Flickr, I am hoping she does not mind, but the ones I took on my phone pail in comparison.

Some highlights from Michale’s (@mcherenson)

• Authenticity is more important now than it has ever been.
• He talked about an ad that was placed in the 1900’s for a PR firm and how on the ad it did not even have the last name, he spoke to how PR has evolved.
• Study that said that PR is more recession resistant than ever before.
• We enter PRSA to learn and grown, but we must go forward and serve, we must give back, we must plant a tree for the next PR generation.

Then on Friday morning I started the morning with a yummy breakfast that everyone at Prville could enjoy and got ready for the opening sessions “Managing the Media when there is no place to hide” In this session the Hudson Miracle was talked about, yeah, did I mention I just got on a plane the day before, seriously thought about taking a train home Listening to a survivor of the Hudson Plane Crash was a neat experience, it truly was a miracle.  Panel Speakers were Don Jones, Laura Brown, and Peter Knudson.

Some Key Highlights:

• You do not want to say different things about the same accident, that could get you in trouble.  Via Laura Brown, Federal Aviation Administrator. (Try to speak in simple facts until you know what the full story is.)
• They thought the plane crashed, they did not know it was a forced landing in the Hudson.
• NTSA’s Peter Knudson first heard about the crash from Lisa Stark on ABC News. (My thoughts are that this is why every company should have twitter and a blog , to have a quick way to update consumers, clients, the general public on what is going on.)
• Someone else was twittering under the NTSA’s name, it was accurate but still not okay, they are looking into getting a legit twitter account.
• How do you control the crisis? You cannot control it, you can only respond.

AND my favorite quote from the session

Then I chose the workshop: “The camera is rolling, 20 skills to develop your teleconferencing/media skills.” by Steve Clements. I did pick up some from this, but I was hoping it would go over tips for giving clients presentations, and it was more so focused on speaking in front of the camera in all of its fashions. What I loved was that I got a takeaway from this session, I wish I got this for all sessions. Some great tips, and afterwards I realized I can put these tips to use in vlogging.

• Avoid staring at the camera the whole time, blink, look natural.
• Pretend the camera is a friend, this will make you a more natural speaker.
• If you use notes, print them in large font.
• Maintain and animated and pleasant facial expression, don’t let your face ‘go dead’

After this workshop we had a awesome lunch while we listened to Peter Shankman (@skydiver)  talk about social media

• The problem is, is that no one really knows what social media is?  Social Media is nothing but the ability to screw up to a much larger audience in a much shorter amount of time.
• Can’t make anything go viral, what you can do, is make something good, if you make it good, it will go viral.
• Ones that are the most creative win.
• Social Media is nothing more than trust, chance that someone will see it and pass it on to their friends.
• If you blog for your client, then be transparent about it.
• Reporters get 5000 e-mails a day so you better be brief and relevant, you have 2.7 seconds to make an impression.
• We talk to less than 3% of our network contacts so that means we are missing opportunities to connect with 97% of our network.
• You lost control of the conversation years ago, the best you can do now is to get involved in the conversation.
• If you have someone that is reluctant to embrace social media, run their contact by other social media mediums such as Facebook, show them how much of their network is already embracing social media.

Then I went to “PR and Passion Rule the Gator Nation” ran by: Joe Hice

• Have the same passion for your work that you want your customers to have for your product.
• People you develop that passion with will support you through the good and bad.
• Create an Emotional memory.
• Pepper everything you do with creativity, differentiate yourself or DIE.
• You cannot sell a product like everyone else, then your competition grows exponentionally.
• 100 million readers a week for Google & Yahoo vs. 7.4 million a week for ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox.

And my favorite workshop of the entire event was: “Strategic Corporate Communications and Execution”, this is my favorite because this is an area I need help with, I have lots of thoughts and ideas, and I can execute them, I just have a hard time with organizing them into a strategic plan that others can look at and see exactly what I am trying to convey.  This is why I love David Meerman Scott’s book The New Rules of Marketing and PR, it is so well written, and in a very organized manor. If you do not have his book I recommend getting it, it is a small and very worthwhile investment of $15.72

My takeaways from Sharon Wamble – King on Strategic Communications

• You have to drive value, not just make plans.
• When sitting down with your clients, ask questions so you two are learning together, don’t act like you know everything.
• Need to think about the sound strategy so you get results and not outcomes.
• Strategic thinking, that is just the thoughts, strategic planning comes afterwards with the organization of your thoughts.  If I have to execute on this, what are the levers I have to push?
• Have a business process that aligns, connects, and engages stakeholders to the business.
• Tools should be the last thing you talk about.

Then we were all Guitar Haro Rockstarts on Friday Night!

Then Saturday morning I sat in a very informative session on APR accreditation and taking your exam, which I am now looking into becoming a PRSA member, checked out my local chapter today, then I am going to start the process towards taking the APR exam.

Our last session was by Dayna Steele on ‘Finding Your Inner Rockstar”

• Got to let people know what it is that you need
• You have to say Thank You
• Give back to your community, show appreciation.

Overall this was a great conference with great people and I plan on seeing everyone again in 2010.