ICON 2024: Building Our Network
Breaking into your career can be nerve-wracking. Many of us feel anxious about what to do after graduation — job, more school, travel, gap year — and I have found myself in the same boat. PRSSA’s ICON was extremely helpful in preparing for my future career. The Conference taught me so many new things, but I was most impressed with the connections made while networking and the focus on mentorship throughout the Conference.
Networking
The first benefit of ICON was ample opportunities to network with my peers and professionals. PR is a competitive field and a lot of the time we view our fellow students as
competition rather than our friends. We feel like we are competing for internships and jobs, but PRSSA is a community where we all want to build each other up. Each of us has different connections that may be helpful for one of our public relations friends.
The focus of public relations is all about building and maintaining relationships with our public, yet we tend to forget some of the most important relationships we have are with our peers. These are the people we should call in times of celebration and when we need a little extra help.
At ICON, I met public relations students from across the country and even was featured in a couple of TikTok videos. I had a great time getting to know people and building genuine connections with them. Now I have new friends all over the country, and we’ll stay connected, sending opportunities, ideas, congratulations and memories to each other.
PRSSA is a community that facilitates our ability to help connect one another to where we need to be. It creates opportunities for students to hear first-hand stories and experiences from PR professionals and encourages building relationships with them.
Mentorship
We can follow the advice of Colin Wylie and Jane Dvorak, APR, Fellow PRSA, a longstanding mentorship pair, in finding mentors and friends to support our successes or give advice when we need guidance. These professionals have been exactly where we are now; they understand how we are feeling, which is why the Breakfast for Champions is always a favorite at ICON.
During the breakfast, I met the PRSA 2024 Chair, Joseph Aubreu, APR.
Joseph told me he was asked to take his current role because he made connections with individuals who later offered him jobs. He explained through hard work and fostering connections he was able to land positions he was interested in. Joseph insisted every individual connection made has the potential to help long term.
Nicole Dye-Anderson was another speaker whom I connected with who shared her PR career journey. I had the opportunity to speak to her after her session, and she told me not to give up. She explained public relations is all about connections and you just have to find the one in order to get your career jump started. Nicole was inspiring and lit up the room — it was clear to see she was excited for each of our futures and truly wanted to help us form relationships with professionals already in the field. She explained doing so would be beneficial to figuring out what area of public relations we are interested in pursuing.
Takeaways
ICON 2024 was very insightful; in addition to all of the advice we received and the connections made at ICON, my school, BYU, was named Outstanding Chapter of the Year. Our PRSSA board has worked extremely hard to get everyone involved in PRSSA and it was exciting to see our hard work paid off and recognized nationally.
PRSSA helps
us connect with fellow public relations students and professionals across the country. The connections we make now are important and will be beneficial throughout our careers.
Mark Mohammadpour, APR, Fellow PRSA, who specializes in building employee relationships spoke at the opening keynote and shared an inspiring thought: “Public relations may not be life saving, but it does save lives.”
We are the people the general public looks to for a statement during life’s unknowns and sometimes even during great tragedy. As a public relations community, it is important we support and lift each other up in times of need – this is what PRSSA is all about.
Madeline Clements, a senior at Brigham Young University, is studying public relations with a minor in political science. She is the BYU PRSSA Vice President of Career Development and is passionate about building relationships centered on trust and honesty. Madeline is excited to see where PR takes her as she enters into the workforce after graduation in April 2025. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.
