Linkedin: Facebook for Professionals

I attended the Linkedin Speed Training for College Students Tuesday, Oct 13., presented by Wayne Breitbarth, who is Owner and President at M&M Interiors.

Breitbarth explained of the benefits of having an active Linkedin profile and how it can help how your image looks to future employers.

He explained the 'spider web' effect that networking has as you make connections throughout your professional career and currently as students.

The main points of Breitbarth's presentation are:

• Construct a complete Linkedin profile (if you do not have one)
• Make valuable and trusted connections to your network
• Always stay connected and continue to build your personal brand

Pumpkin Sale

UWO's PRSSA will be hosting a pumpkin sale on October 20th and 21st in the Reeve Concourse from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. both days.

Come check out pumpkins of all sizes! Whether it's for decoration or for carving, we've got it! Prices range from $1-$3 and it's on campus, you don't have to go anywhere far to find that perfect pumpkin!

See you there! :)

UWO PRSSA WORKSHOP

UWO's PRSSA will be hosting a workshop for anyone interested in updating their resume, portfolio, interviewing skills, or that want to know how to format a cover letter. This workshop will take place on October 22nd, 2009 at 5:30 p.m. in Clow 152, the journalism reading room.

Abby Gutowski from Weidert Group in Appleton, will be reviewing resumes and portfolios, giving suggestions where needed. Showing us what is appropriate for interviews/ questions that may be asked during an interview, as well as format appropriate for cover letters. So bring in anything that you might have from your portfolio and as a resume, maybe even past cover letters that you may have used!

If you are interested in attending this workshop, please contact Heather Wade at wadeh78@uwosh.edu to sign up!

National Conference

Congratulations to those of you who registered for National Conference in San Diego!

Registration has now been closed, since they have reached their 1,000 registrants marker.

If you registered before the deadline, you are in for a GREAT experience! It is an experience of a lifetime! You will meet people from all over the country, potential employers, and gain priceless information that you will be able to use throughout your career as a public relations practitioner!

From our chapter, we have six members attending, which is a GREAT number for us! Last year, we had seven members attend, but conference was only in Detroit. For conference being in San Diego this year, six is an amazing number!

Thank you to those who will be attending, you will be representing our school, our chapter and Wisconsin! On that note, because you will be representing your school, please dress appropriately! Wearing business casual is term that students think they know, but sometimes confuse with other things. Jeans are only appropriate for the Friday of conference, "Bring us something PRSSA." Wearing an all pink business suit is NOT business casual, it's just gaudy. :)

If you have any questions on any terms listed, or about conference in general, please feel free to email me at wadeh78@uwosh.edu.

PRSSA Field Trip (Weidert Group)

Also crammed into our schedule today, was a tour with Appleton full-service agency, Weidert Group. Here, members learned what is expected of a PR practitioner within an agency setting. Abby Gutowski, Weidert's PR Specialist was kind enough to introduce us to her co-workers, Frank (introduced social media), Meg (introduced the creative side of agencies), and Greg (introduction of Weidert Group).

We learned about Hootsuite, a web-site that allows companies to manage more than one account on Twitter; this way, you don't need to keep logging in and out. Another site is, Weebly. Weebly allows you to provide potential employers with an online portfolio, as well with personal information, bios, and resumes.

Abby suggests that everyone have an online portfolio on some web-site. This way, when you are being interviewed and they do not keep your portfolio and interview five other hopefuls, they can look back and some pieces that you have done. Then they don't have to rely on memory, after looking through six portfolios and somehow separate them out.

Weidert Group's President, Greg Linnemanstons also spoke on the importance of being persistent. Have a Linkedin profile, keep active, and continually network.

It never hurts to send resumes in before companies have job postings, just to let them know you are interested. But always make sure to follow up if they give you a deadline for when to contact them! It is also never too early to start job- hunting for when graduation rolls around, don't be the graduate without a job! :)

PRSSA Field Trip (PAC)

Today, UWO PRSSA made a trip to tour the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center in Appleton. Tara and Maggie, who are in charge of the PAC's marketing and public relations, we nice enough to give us a grand tour of the PAC. They let us go behind the scenes, dressing rooms, on stage, and tour where the celebrities enter when they don't feel like being noticed.

Their co-worker Gerald let us in on the ins and outs of designing a stage, catering, and lighting/sound. While Tara and Maggie let us know the events that they plan in certain spaces and time-lines of fundraisers they have managed in the past. Planning 400 events, the PAC is always up and running. They rent out certain spaces within the PAC, even planning some weddings!

The PAC has a room for all occasions, holding press conferences, meet and greets, cast parties, etc. Since the PAC is a non-profit, they stressed the importance of thanking your sponsors; they are the reason you are holding all of the events that you have. Sponsors need to know that they are appreciated.

PRSSA National Conference Reminder

Last day to register for PRSSA National Conference in San Diego is October 5th! So make sure to follow the link and get it over with! Registration will be capped at 1,000 registrants, or October 5th, whichever comes first. So please don't wait until the last minute if you know that you want to go! :)

There are tons of amazing opportunities awaiting you in San Diego! Professional Development Sessions, Socials with members from around the country, networking with professionals, as well as a red carpet themed awards banquet! Don't miss out!

I know there are some of you that cannot afford to attend conference, please don't beat yourself up over it. Second semester will bring more PRSSA sponsored events, but regional. Regional Activities mainly focus on one aspect of PR and usually only last one day, but we could get a group together and stay in a hotel for a night and things will be much cheaper. :)