“I’m IN: INvolved, INtune, INspired” brought 12 professionals to the fifth annual Temple Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) Invitational, held recently to connect students who are seeking careers in the field.
The professionals spoke at a variety of breakout sessions throughout the day, a first for this event. The day-long event at the Liacouras Center was designed to showcase the professional experience.
Some of the event speakers included: the communications assistant for the Philadelphia Phillies, Lauren Testa, and the senior coordinator of partnership marketing for the Philadelphia Union, Gina Franz, who both discussed using one’s passion in sports to help build a career. Another speaker, Danielle Cohn, the executive director of entrepreneurial engagement at Comcast, emphasized the importance of building your own path and never giving up after hardships.
Temple PRSSA President Marissa Piffer and conference coordinator Chelsea Seidel have been planning this event since summer 2017.
“We thought it would be a similar structure to last year, where we would have three speakers in a room in Tuttleman, but after talking about it we were both on board with changing it to sessions,” Piffer said.
The day was split into three sessions, each session offering three breakout discussions hosted by communications professionals in specific areas, including: sports, nonprofits, advertising and more.
The event ended with a networking opportunity for students to connect with the event speakers, as well as an additional 20 communications professionals invited by the Temple PRSSA.
“While thinking about speakers to invite, we know where people have their interests and we tried to cater to those interests,” Seidel said.
Temple PRSSA was thankful for everyone’s willingness to donate their time to help students expand their networks.
“We were very fortunate this year [in getting sponsors],” Seidel said. “We reached out to everyone and anyone on campus and asked if they were willing to sponsor this event for students.”
Temple PRSSA received sponsorships from Coca-Cola; the Advertising and Public Relations Department; the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality; and the Temple University Alumni Association.
Temple PRSSA aimed to sell 80 tickets, as well as encourage those outside of the public relations major to attend. They sold their 80th ticket on the morning of the conference and saw advertising students in attendance, as well as students from Villanova and Drexel.
“We achieved everything we wanted to,” Piffer said. “We actually had a day where students came not just to come, but they walked out saying, ‘That was great.’”