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Tressa Robbins, vice president of implementation at BurrellesLuce, has been involved in St. Louis Chapter of PRSA for 13 years, serving in many positions along the way. Her position at BurrellesLuce utilizes her media outreach, monitoring, social and measurement skills as she counsels clients on media relations and social media practices.

Robbins discussed the shift in public relations in the digital age.

“The end game is to solve strategic challenges, create new tactics for emerging channels and to deliver insights through both qualitative and quantitative measurement,” Robbins said.

She talked about the differences between public relations learned in school versus public relations in the real world, highlighting the importance writing. Today, social media affects all types of business. It is vital for businesses in the digital media age to have efficient communication in all advertising, marketing, public relations and corporate departments.

Robbins outlined the importance of integrated communications in public relations using the PESO model. It breaks media into four different categories: paid media, earned media, shared media and owned media. Robbins said it is imperative for those working in this field to understand this model, that those who do not will not have jobs in the next 10 years.

Public relations is a career that is always evolving, prompting practitioners to learn new skills every day.

I left the conference feeling inspired to take advantage of all the opportunities Indiana University has to offer and am excited to advance my future career in public relations.

Public relations weaves its way into all kinds of businesses and industries, including politics. The degrees I am pursuing involve PR and political science, so naturally I am very interested in this trend and always look to learn more about its developments.

So when I learned Anne Hathaway of Hathaway Strategies, a political consulting group, was going to speak at the conference, I immediately circled it on my program. Hathaway is a former director of the Republican National Committee and knows a lot about how political messaging can affect a campaign’s success or failure.

Hathaway discussed many strategies, but most interesting was her take on how not all Republicans in the leadership in the 2012 election were as opposed to social media as many may have thought. Hathaway said that she and many understood the importance social media during the 2008 Obama campaign, including the tactics of the Obama campaign. Now that social media has been a critical point of loss for the Republicans two elections in a row, there has been a major pivot to include it more with both congressional and presidential elections, she said.

Hathaway also discussed the current situation with how the Republican party is viewed. She said that the party is essentially in crisis mode, but is pretending otherwise so as to not lose votes. The party will be forced to rebrand after this election to reclaim voters. While this is a less than ideal situation, it also offers the party an opportunity to redefine what it means to be a Republican and to change and refine their ideals, she said.

Hathaway was just one of many fantastic speakers I heard at the conference. I learned so much in such a short amount of time. National conference has once again proven to be a great experience.

Landing a job or internship at a large PR or advertising firm is difficult. Students often are discouraged because they think the only way to get in with the big time names is to have personal connections with people inside the company.

However, Jeff Tobler, Lisa Mitchell and Brian Carrillo, all in the publicity department at Warner Bros., had something to say about that at the 2016 PRSSA National Conference.

“We all have examples about getting in without knowing anyone,” said Mitchell, publicist’s assistant at Warner Bros. Mitchell said she did not have any family or personal connections to the company prior to getting her job.

The three talked about their experiences finding their niche, getting “in” without connections, and becoming successful. Here are five tips straight from the experts for students who are starting at ground zero.

1. Find an angle to keep in touch with connections

“The key is finding an angle to keep in touch with them,” said Carrillo, an intern for Warner Bros. “Have that personal approach.” When writing that follow up email, take an approach that sticks out to the company or representative. “Staying in touch is just so-so-so important,” said Mitchell.

2. Take it into your own hands

Tobler said students should ask themselves, “What can I do now?” Being proactive is the key to being successful. Students should take their future into their own hands and make their dreams happen.

3. It may take years

“If you meet someone and make a connection, it might not work for a year, five years, maybe 10 years,” said Tobler. You should not be discouraged if you do not see immediate results. Also, you may not find what you want to do right away, and that’s OK. Mitchell said it took her 10 years to find exactly what she wanted to do. “Learn from every experience you have, every job you have,” she said. “You eventually find what you love.”

4. Be resourceful

“No is never an answer. You have to find a away,” said Carrillo. Having this mentality will take you a long way. All three panelists said to be creative in finding a way around the obstacles that may come your way. Potential employers look for people who are persistent and do not take no as a final answer.

5. The worst thing someone can say is no

“And if they say yes, it opens up a world of opportunity,” said Tobler. You can’t be afraid of rejection because in reality, you will get a lot of no’s. Tobler said you have to be prepared for the chance that you may not get an email or call back. However, you should not let this discourage you. People are busy, and eventually, if you keep sending emails, they will have the time to contact you.

Holly Wagner works in public relations and product placement for Fort Wayne-based handbag designer Vera Bradley. She offered conference attendees insight into the rebranding process that Vera Bradley underwent in early 2016. Public relations agency Redscout spearheaded the rebranding, which focused on Vera Bradley’s new target customer, the “daymaker.” The new brand’s tagline is “It’s Good to be A Girl.”

The daymaker, who Wagner dubbed “Amanda,” represents women ages 26-35 full of energy who radiate positivity.

 “She’s someone who goes to the gym before work, so that when someone invites her out for happy hour after work, she can go do that,” she said. Amanda is a joiner and a doer, and a fabulous host.

 At the beginning of the session, audience members shared why they think it’s good to be a girl. Answers ranged from humorous to empowering, and a couple of men even weighed in with their thoughts on the power of femininity.

Wagner detailed how Vera Bradley’s product offerings changed to fit the new brand. The company, known for paisley-printed quilted totes, now offers solid colors and even leather goods. Vera Bradley aims to grow and meet the needs of the modern young woman who carried a paisley quilted duffle in college.

But the rebranding didn’t come without its challenges. When the brand initially sent fans a message notifying them of upcoming brand changes, it received criticism for the vague message that some fans were strongly against.

This session was so interesting to me because it’s not often that you get a glimpse of the story behind a major brand like Vera Bradley. At the end of the session, Wagner had what she called an “Oprah moment” and gave every member of the audience some free Vera Bradley goodies, demonstrating just one of the reasons why It’s Good To Be A Girl.

“The Profit of Non-Profit” by Nicole Minadeo, director of communication and public relations at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago appealed to me because I am a junior hoping to land an internship with a nonprofit organization this summer. The presentation was both inspirational and informational to learn about what it really is like to work in the non-profit sector of PR.

Prior to working at the Shedd Aquarium, Nicole Minadeo worked in public relations and marketing for many different sectors such as public transportation, technology and health care. With first hand experience in both the profit and non-profit sectors Nicole was able to greatly explain the main differences and benefits of the non-profit sector.

For starters, everything that non-profit PR does should be centered around the organization’s mission. The best way to share a companies mission is through visual story telling. Nicole reiterated many times that visual story telling is key in non-profit public relations. Non-profit PR should focus on telling the deeper stories of the organization’s mission. For example, Nicole’s department at the Shedd Aquarium focuses on story telling the aquarium’s efforts of conservation worldwide, rescue and rehabilitation, learning and research, and animal care. Through these stories their goal is to trigger emotion, share results, and humanize cause.

Another large difference between the two is the way non-profits operate due to their limited amount of spending. It is incredibly important that non-profits are creative and resourceful with their funding and spending. Because of this, there are many different techniques and strategies that non-profit PR will use.

Nicole Minadeo said that one of the most important strategies that non-profit PR uses is partner collaboration. The Shedd focuses on using their mission to partner with other organizations whose mission align with theirs. For example, the Shedd Aquarium often partners with local companies such as Lori’s children hospital, the Cubs, and Revolution Brewing.

Another technique often used in the non-profit PR world is influential multimedia story telling. To generate word of mouth the Shedd Aquarium will invite influential people to unique experiences at the aquarium and will provide them with messaging’s and hashtags for the event. Their goal is to have these influencers share their own personal experience on their own media platforms. Adele, is a great example of an influencer who recently attended an event at the Shedd Aquarium. She later posted many positive social media post about her and her son’s experience generating word of mouth in the public about the Shedd.

A few more techniques that the Shedd uses are online engagements through Google Hangout, engaging audiences through public animal naming, and digital giving. I particular thought the public animal naming technique was a genius light and fun way to get the public involved with the organization.

Nicole Minadeo sais she personally loves the nonprofit sector because, “Not only do you feel rewarded by the work you do but you are also incredibly passionate about what you do which makes your job so exciting.”

Recently, I found myself in a room with around a thousand people my age. There was food, a DJ, the lights were dimmed and the music was almost uncomfortably loud. This wasn’t a typical millennial gathering, though: Everyone was dressed as sharply and professionally as his or her wardrobes would allow. We weren’t there for the music, or the food (well, not specifically for the food) or the DJ; we were there to prepare to be young professionals.

That first night of the Public Relations Student Society of America conference, I wasn’t sure if I was in the right place. The prom-like atmosphere wasn’t what I expected, and I went to bed that night a little worried about the investment I was making. Was it going to be worth it? Would I have fun? Would I learn, and, more importantly, would I be interested?

Looking at the event schedule helped. The first sessions were interesting: “Blogging Rules to Break and Follow,” “Crises in the Crossroads,” “Knowing What to Say: A Guide to Political Public Relations,” “Why It’s Good to be a Girl.” The choice wasn’t a hard one to make, as I already had some prior interest in crisis communications.

The first session I attended featured Myra Borshoff, who founded her own firm in 1984 that has become the go-to Indianapolis firm for crisis communications. She had handled a number of high-profile cases that I had heard of, like the stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair in 2011. The other speaker was Jen Dial, global communications manager at Eli Lilly, previously consultant for the Indiana hospital system St. Vincent Health. The two of them discussed their work in crisis communications, detailing what they recommended, the clients’ actions and outcomes.

I spent the entire hour with my eyes locked on the front of the room. The way they spoke about the situations and how they handled them made me want to know more. How do I get involved? Where do I start? Can you give me a job? I just wanted more. Even if it was just more stories, I wanted more. And judging by the line of people asking questions afterwards, I was not alone. I waited 20 minutes to shake their hands, ask a few questions, and give out my resume and business card. Myra Borshoff is retired, but even if there was a tiny chance something might come of it, I had to take it.

After that first session, the days flew by. I left every session I went to thinking to myself, “Now that is what I want to do.” Crisis communications is still at the top of my list, but after listening to session after session, I realized that no matter what I did in the field of public relations, I could find an engaging and satisfying career. Not one time did I leave thinking “Ehhh, I don’t think I could really do that for the rest of my life.”

I left Indianapolis more excited for my future than I have ever been, more ready to get started, and more willing to do the hard work required of me to succeed.