PR Real World

PR Real World was hostessed by the Georgia Chapter of PRSA for students evolved in PRSSA. This was an opportunity to meet professionals in the PR field, found out what they do for a living, network, get internships, and future job opportunities. The morning started out with breakfast and getting to meet people involved in different chapters of PRSSA from Georgia and other states. There were four breakout sessions each with 3 to 4 seminars you could choose to attend.

The first session I went to was Social Media's Place in PR. I found this the most beneficial seminar that I attended. The reason for this is that PR is becoming so much more then just press releases and events; it's becoming more about how you work different social media's such as facebook, twitter, etc. There were three people who lead the session: Ashley Payne from the Georgia Aquarium, Stephen Brown from MS&L Worldwide, and Nick Ayres from The Home Depot. They helped us to understand the importance of social media in today's PR world and how to make older professionals who did not necessarily grow up with facebook and twitter to understand why it may be important. The most important thing to remember about social media in PR is that you still need to remember ALL ways of PR. We go to the audience, we do not make them come to us; for example the older generation may not know how to use facebook or twitter and then there are some people who always want that newspaper in there hand, so we use all of our PR skills. I really enjoyed the seminar on social media and could have spent the day talking to the professionals, learning how they use the social media, and getting good advice.

I also went to seminars on Health care, Nonprofit, and Government, Celebrity PR, Resume critique session, and Sports PR. After the resume session we were able to meet people from PR agencies, corporations, etc. We were able to apply for internships or even jobs. PR Real World was an amazing experience and I can not wait to attend again next year for PR Real World 2011.