Hugh M. Culbertson Chapter Ohio University PRSSA Special Chicago Edition

S uccess

From the Editor:

Chicago s unique agencies, experiences

This special edition of

PRSuccess

is a collection of

rst-person lessons learned during the PRSSA net-working trip to Chicago in early March. From traveltroubles to internship inspirations, the writers reecton their experiences in the Windy City. I hope thesearticles spark some memories of your own, as wellas provide useful tips the writers learned from bigcity professionals.

Enjoy!

-AprilPrior

Despite the ve hours of sleep from an eight hour drive thenight before, I was ready to walkthe sidewalks of the Windy Cityin stilettos, step into three globalpublic relations agencies and shakethe hands of professionals. Eachagency was different than the next,with a unique style. Most importantly,each gave advice benecial to anyPR student.Our rst location was Ruder Finn. As a boutique agency, Ruder Finn in Chicago concentrates onConsumer Technology. One of the twenty PR professionals fromthis company, Joseph Tateoka,explained that he was drawn tothe “family atmosphere,” his ownofce and exible hours. By the endof the presentation, I had writtendown more than two pages of notesand the information I found mostvaluable was concerning interns.Preparation, publicity, packaging,and positioning are the four P’sTateoka mentioned all interns shoulddo in order to land a position. For preparation, interns should knowthe difference between agencyand corporation; publicity meansknowing about branding yourself;packaging is communicating wellthrough writing; and positioning ismaking yourself stand out a leader.Weber Shandwick was thenext agency on the list. I learnedthat within the company, there arefour areas: consumer, corporate,healthcare and interactive.Four main professionals talked,answered questions and did most of the presentation about the agency.Ironically, I had already met one of the speakers, Lindsay Richards,through a former informationalmeeting in December. Later, four more speakers came in—three of them were Ohio University alumni.One of the pros, Maureen Waters,mentioned thathaving preciseresumes, showingcommunicationskills and knowinghow to work withsocial media arekey componentsthey look for ininterns.Thirty-threeoors high in theJohn Hancock building, we visitedFleishman-Hilliard for our last stopof the day. Chicago is home toone of the 80 ofces worldwideof Fleishman-Hillard. For greatteamwork within the company,Brian Blaise mentioned two waysto brainstorm ideas for a project:diverging as an individual and thenconverging as a group. This way,everyone gets his or her ideasout (using post-it notes is the bestway). For interns, the presentersmentioned that they should knowthe company’s competition, highlighttransferable skills, demonstratehands-on experience, proofread andbe prepared to present themselvesin person. Also, great advice is tomake yourself visable to others andrecognizing when you are neededto help out as much as you can.By the end of the day, Icould not decide which agencyI would rather work for—eachshowed attractive traits. And eachagency gave advice students couldtake away as seniors or freshmen,especially as an intern. Since I livenorth of Chicago, the location couldnot have been more perfect. Notonly did I strengthen my networkingskills, but I also learned thatinternships are more important thanI thought, even after graduating—each professional we talked towas an intern at some point in thecompany they work for now.

Nicole Bersani

Page 2 PRSuccess Special Chicago Edition

It was around 9a.m. Friday morning sittingin the conference room of Ruder Finn surroundedby my peers that Idiscovered what I wantedto do with my professionallife. Until very recently I,like many sophomoresmy age, had almost noidea of what I planned todo with my degree after college. However, after attending the networkingtrip to Chicago throughthe OU chapter of PRSSA, I am happy tosay that has changed verymuch. The networkingtrip to Chicago was byfar the best and mostenlightening experienceI have had during mycollege career. It hasbeneted me in severalways professionally andpersonally. Before thenetworking trip there wereseveral things I worriedabout concerning my lifeand future.Firstly, I had only joined PRSSA at thebeginning of winter quarter and did not know manypeople in the club. For the trip, I was assignedinto a room of ve other girls, not knowing a singleone of them. I was verynervous, as anyone wouldbe that they wouldn’t likeme or we would not getalong. I was lucky enoughto be completely wrong.All of the girls

were very

AManda Reece

Trip proves to educational, benefcial and encouraging

friendly and inviting andwe got along great. I evenrecently had dinner withone of them just to catch upand talk. I could not havebeen happier to have metsuch fun and interestinggirls. In addition tomeeting new friends frommy room, I was fortunateenough to get along wellwith several of the girlsfrom my agency touringgroup. It was overall oneof the best things I couldhave done to get to knowpeople in PRSSA.

The second

thing that made me verynervous was that I did notknow what I really wantedto do with public relations.This trip was the greatestthing to happen to me inthat aspect as well. Notonly were we able to tour some of the best knownagencies in Chicago, butwe also met with manymembers of the staff whowere once in our position.It was a great opportunityto show us some of thepossibilities of what a publicrelations major could dowith their degree. It wasextremely important to mefor me to learn what thedifferent possibilities wereavailable. It was also veryinformative to studentsin my position who arelooking into internships inthe near future. Besidesthe agency tours, it wasalso very benecial gettingto attend the more relaxednetworking dinner, whereI was able to learn a lotmore about what life islike at a public relationsagency.Lastly, I wasextremely apprehensivethat upon touring theagencies and meetingwith the professionals Iwould nd myself unt for a public relations career.During our last agencytour at Fleishman -Hillardwe were put to the test. Wewere asked to take part ina brain storming sessionthat the employees at F-H Chicago would usuallyconstruct for one of their projects. I was extremelynervous because I wasunsure of what theywere looking for being sonew to public relations.However, I wrote downtwo answers as instructedand found upon sharingthem to the group thatthey were similar andcreative. It was a greatfeeling to know that I hadsuccessfully taken partin a public relations brainstorming session and itgave me a tremendoussense of condence and

“I highly doubt thatwithout participating inthis networking trip Iwould be as enthusiasticand determined to startmy career in publicrelations.”

excitement. It just mademe all the more positivethat this is something Iwant and absolutely coulddo.Upon returninghome to Athens, Igushed to my friendsand family abouthow wonderful thenetworking tripwas. I could notstop talking abouthow much fun Ihad with the girlsI met and howgreat the agencieswe toured were.Most importantly Itold them I nallyfelt like I knew wheremy goals and dreamswere heading. I believethat the most vital part inachieving your goals ishard work and I intend todo exactly that. This triphas motivated me to dothe best I can at everythingin hopes of landing myideal job. I highly doubtthat without participatingin this networking trip Iwould be as enthusiasticand determined to start mycareer in public relations.I truly consider thisexperience paramount inmy life and college. I hopethat everyone somedaygets a chance to beinvolved in a networkingtrip like Chicago. It waswithout question the mosteducational, benecial,and encouragingexperience I have had atOhio University.

Special Chicago Edition PRSuccess Page 3

As a freshman,the PRSSA Chicago tripseemed to be a bit out of my grasp. I had alwaysimagined myself joiningand participating in clubtrips when I was a junior or a senior. Yet only oneand a half quarters intomy rst year of college, Iwas jet-setting to Illinois!The trip itself was a fantastic mix of professionalism and fun.I felt incredibly grown up,but at the same time, quiteyoung. Out of the twenty-seven PRSSA membersthat went on the trip, onlyfour of us were freshmen.At rst this seemedoverwhelming, how in theworld were we going to beable to keep up with thequestions being asked

and the speeches the

professionals gave?Luckily, we seemedto t right in with the other members. My group visitedEdelman, Ketchum andOgilvy Public Relations.These companies wereextremely welcoming andseemed happy to have afull range of students from

Rachel Csaszar

The frst steps towards success

freshmen to seniors. Theother students acceptedus right away as well,and it was a great wayto meet other people inthe chapter. When you’relet loose in a big city,bonding certainly seemsto happen.While the tripwas a bunch of rsts for me, most importantlyit was my rst step todiscovering what I wantto do with my life. I knewI wanted to be in thepublic relations eld, I just didn’t know what thatexactly entailed. With theChicago trip I was ableto explore the agencyaspect of PR and nowfeel one step closer toachieving my goals.I am so glad Idecided to go on the trip,despite my age and lackof knowledge. I am nowa true believer in sayingyou are never too youngto get involved. There isno better way of learningin this eld than actuallydoing. Chicago was agreat experience and Ihope to have many morein the future here at OhioUniversity.

Grace Naugle

Meeting pros, friends and the Fez

During the PRSSAnetworking trip to Chicago,I was able to connect withprofessionals in the agencybusiness world and evenconnect with membersof our own chapter. Iconsidered the trip adenite success becauseI was able to develop skillsand challenge myself innew situations. It wasintimidating to be in sucha big city talking to thepeople that I want to be inthe future.My group ewinto O’Hare ChicagoAirport from Columbus onThursday afternoon. Thatevening, we ate somefancy sushi at a nearbyrestaurant called Ra.We rode theMetra from the suburbsinto downtown Fridaymorning. As soon as wegot off the commuter train,we entered into a rush of people moving very fast.It was all so sudden andI felt completely off-guard.We hailed a cab, whichstopped in seconds. Thenext thing I knew, we weremeeting our group at thehotel and heading to our rst agency, Ruder-Finn.Our rst speaker was Joseph Tateoka whomade me feel welcomeright away. He washospitable and extremelyrelaxed. He gave uspersonable advice and

told us his public relations journey.I was especiallyfond of the agency Weber-Shandwick because thehalls were lled with OhioUniversity alumni. Theycame in to meet us andshare stories. Weber-Shandwick stressed theimportance of “goingglobal” and working“internationally” in thebusiness today.We did abrainstorming activityat the last agency,Fleishman-Hillard. Theyprovided a case study inwhich they wanted us tobrainstorm our best ideas.At rst I was nervous toparticipate, but the accountexecutives encouraged usby assuring that “no ideais a dumb idea.”Our Hard RockCafé networking dinner provided a relaxedenvironment for us tomeet some of the PRprofessionals. I liked thisatmosphere becauseI was able to relate tosome of the guests on apersonal basis. One of theprofessionals from Ruder-Finn even rode back onthe train with my groupafter the dinner!

One of the

highlights of the trip wasmeeting actor Wilmer Valderrama on our ightback to Columbus (whohappened to be verycharming and handsome,I might add)!The tripstrengthened myenthusiasm for the publicrelations profession, andI now have a greater understanding for the typeof work that I will have toprepare myself for. ThePR profession has a lotto do with creativity andinnovation and originalideas.Being in the bigcity made me feel like Iwas growing up faster that I had planned! Icame back to Athenswith a memorable andmeaningful experience.