The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) CommsConnect conference in Orlando, Florida was awesome and a great opportunity for Advita Patel and I to present our book content for the first time. Here are some highlights:
- Advita and I presented in person for the first time ever and confirmed that we are a great team. It's really amazing building a working relationship and writing a book online, and I think our presenting styles really complement one another.
- We tested our Building a Culture of Inclusivity workshop for the first time for an audience of 50. It was well received and we realized this should be a 3-hour workshop since the conversation with attendees was so rich! Thanks to everyone who attended. The workshop will be available for organizations once the book is launched.
- We beta-tested a new assessment tool that will be launched with the book. The good news is it functioned. The better news is that we identified a few areas for improvement which is what beta-testing is for. Stay tuned for the assessment on our website this summer.
- We were asked, due to a speaker emergency - to step in to deliver the closing keynote presentation on Inclusive Language on Tuesday to an audience of almost 200. Since we have a chapter on this in our book, we used it to create our presentation that morning and delivered it at 4:00 p.m. The feedback was amazing and now we have a new offering for keynote presentations that is tried and tested.
- We connected with old friends and made new acquaintances. With me being very involved in IABC and Advita being active in CIPR International Group, it was nice to connect with new people. The PRSA employee comms community is growing and Ally Bunin and team delivered an outstanding conference experience.
I'll share more on my aha moments on some of the sessions later. I love conferences and attending and speaking live is really on another level. The most important part about professional development is that it makes you think and introduces you to both new concepts and new ways to apply old ones. The presentations were amazing but my favourite part is the conversations that happen in between and the relationships built that only grow over time!
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