Regional Activity - Gone in the Blink of an Eye

     This weekend was busy. I was home for a total of maybe 12 hours. And most of those were to sleep and shower. The reason for this was that my PRSSA chapter hosted a Regional Activity. For those of you who don't speak PRSSA lingo, it's a two day conference for students interested in PR. And we packed the weekend full of stuff. Barely any breaks in action from Friday morning til Saturday mid afternoon. Which means for the board members aka planning committee there were NO breaks and some things over-lapped. This weekend has been taking over my life since the beginning of January. We, the board, lived, breathed and ate it. And just like that, in the blink of an eye, it's done. The participants are already all back home (or on their way) and all we have left is amazing memories, some wrap up evaluations and rest to catch up on (I did that this morning by sleeping for 11 hours...it's not advisable. now I don't want to go to work). This weekend reminded me why I love PRSSA SO much. I have great memories, I learned a TON and made a whole group of new friends and connections. 

     As Travis Murdock from A&R Edelman pointed out, we need to keep in touch with each other after this. Sure we're now friends but most important from the professional aspect, we are the future of the industry and we are now each others connections. These are the types of relationships that will carry you through your professional life. Already, we're doing that. I had a conversation with the Social Director of  Sacramento State's PRSSA about how we should do a joint fundraiser activity with them. Working together will get you places. And even though I was on the planning committee and helped in setting up the panels, I learned a ton. The theme was The Survivor's Guide to PR....and boy did we get advice on that. The thing that stood out most, to me at least, was that you need to make sure that your brand ONLINE is strong. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, along with sites and applications that I hadn't heard about, are our strongest tools now. It's no longer just handshakes, business cards being exchanged and resumes being mailed. It's a constant conversation with your peers and upper level professionals. 

     The memories from this weekend will forever stay with me. We bonded; the board as one, the participants as one and as a collective group. It's great to host other school's chapters. We learn SO much from each other.