27/10/2013

This keynote address was titled ‘Meet the Living Legends of Public Relations,’ so obviously I though that this session would be very interesting and beneficial, however, this was not completely true. The Keynote speakers were of great interest to me; Mary Beth West the Principal of Mary Beth West Communications, Keith Burton a partner of the Brunswick Group, and Kevin Saghy (the moderator of the session) who is the Manager of communications for the Chicago Clubs. This was a diverse mix of PR professionals and I thought that this would not be one to miss.

Unfortunately I was a little disappointed with this session. They seemed to reiterate everything that we had been told in the previous days of the conference. Which were:
• Get as much experience as you possibly can, internships are the only way to ensure success. The more internships the better
• Be confident with social media
• Continuously develop you language and writing skills
Although this is very valuable information and very true; I was expecting to acquire more knowledge from this session.

The keynote speakers spoke about their past and how they too went to the PRSSA conference when they were our age and made valuable contacts with people from the industry, but they weren’t giving me new or interesting information.

They did discuss their relationship with the late Betsy Plank; who was known as the “First Lady” of Public Relations. Betsy sounds like she was a very inspirational woman who knew how to follow her dreams and achieve her goals, which was interesting to hear about. Finding out about Betsy was probably the most interesting information that I took from this session. It has given me a PR icon to admire, which is always helpful at this age when students are aiming their goals high.