Review of what I learned at PRSA ICON

Summary:

The PRSA International Conference has been memorable, to say the least. It is hard to put words to the lessons that I have learned throughout this conference. The only word that can describe the value of the lessons I learned is priceless. While there were many things I took away from this conference, there were a few main themes that all of the lessons I learned can be sorted into.

1. Misinformation is running rampant, and PR professionals are on the front lines of the battle between truth and falsehoods.

I feel like this was such a huge topic during this conference. Every general session touched on this subject and it was the topic of many breakouts and symposiums. After watching all of these sessions I have learned that misinformation is real and it is wreaking havoc on our nation and in the world. Social media and the current political landscape do not help the cause and everywhere we turn there are falsehoods. As was demonstrated in each of the sessions, public relations professionals are on the front lines of the battle between misinformation and truth. Along with this main theme, I learned that public relations practitioners should always keep two things in their toolbelts: truth and transparency. Using these two tools allows a professional to disseminate any lies and get down to the real narrative of any story or situation.

As a future professional, I must understand just how prevalent misinformation is. Each day on social media there are articles being spread around that are false and add to the misinformation epidemic. This causes consumers to form opinions prematurely and often, breeds polarity in public opinion. The value of understanding misinformation now is that I get to be the one to stop it when I get to my professional career.

Now that I understand the severity of misinformation, I will implement some key tools and practices to disseminate misinformation when I get into my career. To start, I will always try to be the first to communicate on an issue about my organization, this will allow me to get the story out first, which helps to get rid of falsehoods. Next, I will promote fact-checking and always fact-check my content.

2. Generation Z is unlike any other generation, and they will change the way work is done.

This was such a fun topic to learn about during the conference! As someone who is a part of Generation Z, I know that we are innovative, technologically advanced, values-driven, and experience-craving, but it was nice to hear from professionals that these are admirable qualities and will change the way work is done in the future.

Understanding the work habits of those in my generation are crucial! Not only are these work traits that I will implement, but they will also be the traits of my future co-workers. Understanding that Generation Z values on-the-job experience over the traditional learning experience is key because that is something I can add to my resume and an employer will appreciate it. Additionally, Generation Z is very values-driven, meaning we like to work for organizations that align with our values. When I finally get to that point where I am the one doing the hiring, I will understand how to sell company values to hopeful hires.

Knowing that other Generation Z work attributes are mostly positive, I can add them to my resume and use them when applying for a job. For example, Generation Z’s and employers both value real-world experience. Knowing that I can plan and gain real-world experience to add to my resume. I will also use the knowledge I learned at this conference to understand how to work well with my future co-workers who will likely be from my generation.

3. Public relations is all about storytelling.

Lots of sessions during the conference focused on storytelling. I learned that if public relations can be described in one word, it would probably be storytelling. Each of the presenters gave fantastic advice on how to tell more compelling stories, but the main lesson I pulled from the conference was that telling stories is important because it connects humans.

Understanding that stories are used as a form of human connection, I will be able to use that to my advantage as a professional. During this conference, I learned how to be a good storyteller. I attended three different sessions that taught me how to be a better storyteller. Knowing how to tell a good story and understanding that storytelling connects humans will allow me to have a more successful career.

What will I do now that I know storytelling connect humans? I will tell stories. It sounds simple, but the basic form of storytelling has been used since the dawn of time with cave paintings. Now that I know some good tips on how to tell a story effectively, I will go and tell stories and I will tell them effectively. As a result, the stories that I tell will have the potential to connect humans all over the place.

4. Technology has transformed our world and consequently, will change public relations forever.

The topic of technology was a huge part of this conference! I attended sessions about artificial intelligence, gamification, SEO, augmented reality, and much more. I learned that these tools will be the ones that I will use during my career as a professional practitioner. Specifically, this conference taught me how to navigate these tools and helped me to understand that technology is only going to get more sophisticated, public relations has to keep up!

Learning about some of the technology trends coming up was super helpful to me because one day I am going to have to navigate the trends. The value in learning the trends ahead of time is that I will already know what trends I need to be aware of, and I can prepare and alter my public relations skills and tactics now so that when the time comes, I am ready to have a successful public relations career despite the trends.

So what am I going to do now? I don’t know much about many of these trends, so my first step is to learn more about them. I’ll research the trends and see how they are predicted to change over the next few decades. After that, I will look at how I can later my skills and tactics to go along with the trends. One great example of this is to create a campaign one day that utilizes augmented reality or artificial intelligence. I plan on learning more about this technology and using it to my advantage.

5. The field of public relations has hope in our current PRSSA students.

I learned that the current group of public relations practitioners has hope for future practitioners and expects them to uphold the legacy they will leave behind and improve upon it. This was made evident to me because so many professionals reached out to me during the sessions to make sure I had made a connection with them. Professionals offered me advice on graduate school and my career that was so valuable! I got the overwhelming feeling that the current professionals are doing their best to train students like me to become responsible and credible professionals.

The world is changing every single day and the field of public relations is so different. Having made so many wonderful connections to those professional public relations practitioners, I have the resources I need to become a professional myself. Knowing that I am expected to uphold the legacy of current practitioners makes me want to become a better practitioner every day, and that’s priceless if you ask me.

I don’t want to let our current group of practitioners down, so I am taking the initiative now to prepare myself for a career that I, and others, can be proud of. Not only will I use the network that I gained at the conference, but I will also take my education opportunities seriously. I plan on attending graduate school, as many professionals at this conference recommended, and I’m working now to become a professional that adds to the legacy of our current practitioners.

Thanks for joining me on this journey to the PRSA ICON!

As always, remember to check out UVU PRSSA and @uvuprssa!

Photo by Headway via Unsplash