I chose Emerson as my university because I wished to surround myself with people who challenged me creatively. PRSSA International Conference placed me in a room of storytellers who did just that.
Friday’s keynote speaker, Will Collie, General Manager Southern California for Edelman, defined the role of PR the way I heard it described in Professor Gerzof Richard’s Guerilla PR class: promoting the good and protecting from the bad for your client. As a creative, he added one more role: whenever brands become stagnant, it’s our responsibility to help them evolve. This push for evolution remained a common theme throughout International Conference.
Dr. Kaye Sweetser, Navy public affairs, listed the 4 C’s of public relations: clarity, creativity, critique and collaboration. All of these illuminated something fundamental I learned in Intro to Public Relations. When Dr. Sweetser said “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough,” I remembered Dr. Scott’s reminders that PR writing must be accessible, direct and of course, creative. Her discussions of critique and collaboration evoked years of peer and professor edits that strengthened my writing and storytelling.
Sunday’s keynote address left a lasting impression on me as an Emersonian. In nearly all of my classes as a journalism major, I learned the story of two bold men who sought the truth in an era of distrust and abuse of power. Most professors on the 6th floor of Walker have the famous photo of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein surrounded by stacks of evidence of Watergate hanging in their office. To hear Woodward speak first hand about the centrality of truth bridged these values in my journalism classes to the lessons of ethics I learned in Dr. Scott’s class, Tactical Writing for PR. As a political hobbyist, hearing his insight on the current political situation in light of his work nearly left me entranced. Towards the end of his question and answer session with the incredible Laura Ling, Woodward said profoundly the four most potent words a journalist or PR professional can say to a source are “I need your help.”
Later that day, Erica Prime, who works in social media for Taco Bell, affirmed and elaborated on the description of Gen Zers Dr. Scott taught us in Intro to PR. Among these insights for the digital native were their desire for leadership rather than representation, and their desire to positively impact the world. She went on to describe ways to meet Gen Zers where they are, bringing something that resonates with these values directly.
On the first day, when a student asked Collie, “How do you stoke creativity?” he said he has best results when he surrounded himself with creative minds. I realized that beyond the invaluable lessons I’ve learned in my public relations classes, the creativity at the root of my Emerson experience that drew me to the school in the first place unquestionably prepared me for the industry.