The School of Journalism and Mass Communication hosted some great speakers during this year’s Mass Comm Week. I attended as many sessions as I could and really enjoyed each of the sessions I attended.
Monday I attended Chris Perez’s session on Entrepreneurial Thinking. Chris Perez shared how he went from originally earning a degree in Physics & Math to owning Left/Right Media, two completely different types of careers. Tuesday, I went to Nicole George’s session. George graduated in 2011 from Texas State and now works for Saint Arnold Brewing Co doing Sales & Marketing in South Texas.
Wednesday I went to Ana Toro’s session on multicultural public relations – a session I was particularly interested in because I’m going into the public relations field after I earn my degree, and multicultural PR is becoming all the more relevant as our state, region, country is getting more diverse all the time.
I attended Texas Parks & Wildlife’s session #BetterOutside: Using technology to connect with the outdoors. This session was definitely one of my favorites. I’ve heard a good amount of people say that the internet encourages us to stay indoors and lessening the amount of interaction humans are having with the planet, but Texas Parks & Wildlife strives to do just the opposite. Using compelling photo, videos and stories, Texas Parks & Wildlife use social media as a strategy to get people outdoors and to their parks. Also, during this session, Dale Blasingame flew a drone into the wall. It was awesome. Here’s a clip in case you missed it: drone.
Wednesday afternoon, PRSSA invited an alumna to our meeting to talk to us about her experience as a new professional. This wasn’t on the Mass Comm Week schedule, but was, to me, still an important part of my week. Paige Vaughn graduated in May an is now an assistant account executive at Weber Shandwick’s Southwest office in Austin.
Thursday I attended PR Trends: Getting Noticed in the Digital Age, which was a great session, but in hindsight I really should have gone to see Evan Smith. Then I attended Crisis coverage: The Memorial Day Flood, which was SUCH a great session. The session featured a panel of people all associated with communication during the San Marcos floods earlier this year. The panelists were: Kristi Wyatt, director of communications and intergovernmental relations for the City of San Marcos, Jon-Stephen Stansel, who runs the @TXST account, Matt Hammil with KTSW, Kelsey Bradshaw with The University Star and Moses Leos III from Hays Free Press and News Dispatch. This session was really informative and honestly had me a little starstruck because Kristi Wyatt is who I aspire to be when I grow up. It really was interesting to hear first-hand accounts about dealing with the floods and communicating with the public about the flood. I am so glad this session was on the program for Mass Comm Week.
After it was all said and done, I attended the Meet ‘N Greet held in the Reed Parr Room at JCK. The Meet ‘N Greet part of Mass Comm Week is always interesting to me and definitely the week’s best opportunity for students to network with professionals.
Overall, I really enjoyed all that this year’s Mass Comm Week had to offer and I will definitely be following up with some professionals who attended. I hope you guys enjoyed your week also!!