I’ve spoken at a few PRSSA National Conferences in the past dozen years, but yesterday’s meeting in San Diego totally surprised me.
Colleague Kevin Saghy and I had just started speaking when my Blackberry began vibrating with “tweets” — from many of the 400+ audience members. If I had the time to read the comments as they were crossing #prssanc, I might have clarified or expanded on certain topics that apparently struck chords with audience members. For instance, I do believe in work life balance, but young professionals should not convey the impression that they are upset about working late occasionally. But what struck me is the fact the PRSSA members are “covering” presentations in real time, and sharing 140-letter bits of information and thoughts that would never otherwise receive attention in traditional PR media.
Kevin and I led a discussion based on our interviews with senior PR practitioners and relatively new PR professionals about their views on how young talent can stand out in their companies and agencies. (We’ll make a similar presentation at PRSA’s Young Professionals Section meeting on Tuesday afternoon).
Meeting attendees zeroed in on key discussion points during the meeting, including IBM CMO Jon Iwata observing that young professionals advance quickly in his organization when “they don’t confuse activity for results.” Or Al Golin, founder of Golin Harris, stressing his “Three Cs: BE CURRENT, CURIOUS AND CREATIVE.”
Great post, Mr. Culp — I couldn’t agree more. As we know, twitter is a great tool for providing feedback, and this example goes to show how powerful this can really be. Thank you for clarifying the topic of work life balance, and more so, thank you for sharing the Senior and Junior level insights on how to get ahead as a young professional. See you around Chicago.
Liz Leismer
DePaul University
I’ve heard several students say that this was the best session of conference and I’m so glad I didn’t miss it. Thanks for all of the useful advice, from both your own opinions and those of the senior level professionals that we might not have access to!
Hopefully we’ll get the chance to meet before we leave San Diego!
For me, it was an easy way to keep up with the sessions I wasn’t attending or couldn’t attend and vice versa.
140-character responses to the sessions made me consider what I was missing!