Loyola’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America is earning national recognition for its past and current success. The people who brought Loyola the chocolate-hazelnut spread, Nutella, will host the PRSSA 2003 national conference at the Radisson Hotel downtown Oct. 24 to 28.
“New Orleans is one of the best cities for public relations, because there are always exciting events taking place,” said Uyen Phan, communications senior and program director of the conference committee.
The national conference is the largest annual event for public relations students to interact with each other and network with professional public relations practitioners from around the country. The event has 1,000 pre-registered attendees, and the turn out is expected to increase to 1,200 by Friday, Tamar Merguerditchian, communications senior and conference coordinator, said.
The national conference committee, consisting of Phan, Merguerditchian, communications junior Jacqueline Bodet, and communications junior Sarah Dhane, created conference sessions to tailor to the diverse interests of all the attendees. The sessions will focus on sports, entertainment, crisis communication and investor and media relations, Phan said.
“Our goals for the convention are to help students enhance their professional development and learn more aspects about public relations,” Phan said.
The committee has been planning the event since it won the bid to host this year’s conference this past November, Merguerditchian said.
“Our proposal was well-organized,” Merguerditchian said. “It was as if we were already having it. That really gave us a lot of credit.”
The Loyola Bateman team has landed in the top three standings of the National Bateman Competition for the past four years.
Last year, the team won first place in the national case study competition sponsored by PRSSA headquarters.
The Bateman team, consisting of communications seniors Liz Bearce, Laura Burris, Kathryn Sharp and Katherine Staiano, used several media outlets and promotional events around Loyola and New Orleans.
PRSSA’s size also has helped it generate success.
“Our chapter’s small size [30-40 members] actually works to our advantage, because we’re capable of generating volunteers and personal support from Loyola,” Phan said.
Loyola has been supportive of the chapter’s involvement in the conference, she said.
The university gave a large monetary donation to the chapter, and the bookstore donated pens for the conferences. SGA also provided $1,075.
PRSSA faculty advisor Cathy Rogers said that the conference committee did an excellent job coordinating the event.
“They’ve been as organized, responsible, and professional as anyone can possibly be,” she said.
Phan said the conference committee and the student volunteers are commendable for committing time and money to the event. Each volunteer paid $215 for the conference registration.
The committee and volunteers raised money to defer about half of the expenses by selling raffle tickets, conducting a phone-a-thon, and by planning to sell T-shirts at the PRSSA conference, Phan said.
About 60 student volunteers from Loyola and other universities will help Loyola’s PRSSA chapter host the conference, she said.
