Professional Development Session 1 PRSSA National Conference

Bob Lehrman, a former speech writer for Al Gore as well as Taylor Griffin, who worked for the Bush campaign, were the first set of speakers at professional development sessions who I had the pleasure of listening to.

Here are some semi-random thoughts and things which I learned in this session:

1) Obviously, the Press Secretary is going to be highly scrutinized for everything that is said. He and the president really do need to spend tons of time together so that all of the information that the two of them put out can be in perfect harmony. The things that are said have to have a certain grace to them. Phrasing something one way could make some people happy, however could endanger our soldiers overseas, or saying that our soldiers overseas aren't doing well could be detrimental in other ways.

2) Unless you have been living under a rock you should know that news cycles have changed greatly. The first source for information in the past was the AP wire, but now any media outlet is putting out news instantly. News output is continuous and stories are updated so frequently that what used to be in the paper one night would be irrelevant by the time it got to you the same morning. Also, now with technology as advanced as it is becoming, average citizens are often the first to report breaking news over their phone internet, picture uploads to the web, etc.

3) This is something that may not strike people as obvious but it makes a whole lot of sense. The president and those who speak for him should never write a speech above an 8th grade reading level. Why? The average American reads at a 7th grade level. Yes ladies and gents, sad but true. So, speech writers really are limited by what the average voters can understand vocabulary wise. You may think that using big words will prove to everyone that you are smart, but really it just loses your audience.

4) Who are the people who you focus on in a race? Since the majority of people do vote on party lines, the people you really need to worry about are the 2-3% who are undecided. This makes a lot of sense when you look at the last presidential election.

5) Advice for those of you who would like to work in politics in D.C.:
-Do a semester/summer in Washington. An internship, though often unpaid, is the best way to get your foot in the door. Visit your home state senator's or representative's office and ask if you can start a position locally.

PRSSA National Conference 2010; Washington, DC

First of all I am so grateful to Bobcat PRSSA and GCSU SGA for helping to fund this trip to Washington, DC giving me a chance to soak up so much knowledge, expand my contacts, and steer my future career. This experience was such a wonderful tool.


The trip to DC was quite a trip. Not only were we there for our 12 hour days of workshops, speeches, and group meetings; We spent our nights exploring rich American history of the U.S. capital. Oh, and an hour in line at Georgetown Cupcake. Trust me, the Salty Caramel flavor cupcakes are well worth it.


Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting about individual lectures and speeches which I listened to while at the convention. First, I would like to write about the speech given the first day of the conference given by Jim Margolis. GMMB's Margolis worked on President Obama's 2008 campaign.


Margolis took us through how the campaign came to be, as well as what it meant. The focus of this campaign: CHANGE. A great part of his speech was about how Obama's campaign was unlike any other past campaign in the way that it truly embraced the online audience (social media as well as websites), from children to teens to adults. The campaign was very technology fueled. This is how Obama created a movement. An iPhone app was even created in order to show supporters how many people were being reached on a daily basis who were exposed to the beliefs of the candidate. Not only did his iPhone app and website help to fuel the campaign, over 442,000 user generated videos were created! Perhaps the most powerful and memorable video was the "Yes We Can" video with Will I Am.


Obviously Jim Margolis's efforts and campaign designs have not been in vain...


He is currently working on the Barbra Boxer campaign in California.

PRSA Shadow Day 2010

On Thursday, September 30, I attended Shadow Day. Students from Georgia were assigned to various PR agencies, corporate PR groups, and Non-profits. I was placed at Porter Novelli, a PR agency in Buckhead. Upon arriving at PN, we were seated in a conference room where we met Tia Jackson, the HR Manager for Porter Novelli. Throughout the afternoon we listened to several presentations about topics ranging from today's marketing mix to corporate crisis management. Learning about how very diverse the projects which PN's employees work on was a great indicator of how a day in the office at the agency could go. Previous interns turned employees explained to us the types if duties they are given while they were interning. Responsibilities included maintaining the intern blog, and also, and more unexpectedly, working side-by-side with the agency's employees on accounts on the very first day. They explained that they felt as if they were part of the team right away and that their input was as important as any other employee's. I really enjoyed hearing from the interns about how much they enjoyed being interns for PN. As explained, working for an agency first is the best way to enter the PR world. Why? I understood that because of the various projects which you are given. You are expected to work on more than one account at a time.
I am not sure where the future will take me, but I will not rule out an agency for any reason. Thanks to Porter Novelli for the experience they provided us!