This week marked the final PRSSA meeting of the semester. On Monday, we hosted a tourism panel with a fantastic group of Fahlgren Mortine employees. If you were too busy with the end of the semester to attend, fear not because here is what you missed:
Announcements:
**APRIL SALE** Laptop stickers are available for $1 and t-shirts are buy one get one free for $15 during the entire month of April! Get a souvenir now before leaving Athens for the summer.
National conference is coming to Boston! Registration is due Sept. 8, which is before our first meeting, so we have to start planning now. An info session will be held on Tuesday, April 25 at 6 p.m. in Schoonover 504. Come learn more about one of our most exciting trips of the year.
Last social of the year! Join us this Thursday (4/20) at Rollerbowl starting at 8 p.m. for some quality time with your favorite student organization. Can’t come exactly at 8? That’s ok, we will be there for a while.
PRSSA scholarships due May 26. Talk to Professor Farkas for a letter of recommendation.
ImPRessions accounts have two remaining events: the GoBus’ Easter Egg Hunt and Copperheads’ Wifflemania. Check out their social media for more information.
Congratulations to our member spotlight, Margaret Mary! Follow her on Twitter @mmhicks19
Resource for members: Check out our COPRSA March Recap on the blog! Do you have any more questions? Send them to our new VP of External Relations, Sadie Newman, to be featured in the April recap.
About the Fahlgren Mortine Tourism Panel:
Scripps PRSSA was lucky enough to be joined by Heather Bartman, senior account executive; Marty McDonald, executive vice president; and Ann Marcum, senior counselor. They gave us an inside look into their experience with Fahlgren Mortine’s numerous travel/tourism clients and what it takes to be successful in the industry.
About Fahlgren Mortine and their Tourism Experience:
- They are a full-service integrated agency that encourages employees and clients to “think wider”. Think about the challenges ahead and observe what’s going on around you.
- They like to think of themselves at “well-traveled” and they work with Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs), Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVBs), attractions, grand openings and economic development for locations all over the world.
Client Studies:
- Fahlgren works with clients like Visit Myrtle Beach, Tourism Ohio, Airstream and
Travel Nevada to plan media trips, maintain a national reputation and help with crisis communication. - Every destination has something special and unique about it. A major part of tourism PR is finding that unique feature and showcasing it.
- Fun Fact: Fahlgren helped the Wyoming Office of Tourism partner with Disney Pixar. Wyoming has many well-known prehistoric dinosaur sites, so movie producers based the scenery of The Good Dinosaur on Wyoming’s landscape.
Other Important Points:
- When promoting multiple destinations, be sure to differentiate each location.
- Tourism includes a large amount of crisis communication. One small Facebook post can blow up into something huge. Show your audience that everything is ok and it is still safe and fun to visit.
- Pay attention to copyright laws and understand the comfort level of your clients.
- Tourism is hard in totally different ways from other industries. You can do anything, so what are you going to do? Strategy is important.
- When your proposals are denied, take the feedback and study it. Where are you behind? This is a great learning experience.
- To get into this field you need to network a lot. Go on networking trips and become as involved on campus as possible.
- Athens is a huge tourism area that could probably use some help. Try contacting the local CVB or Hocking Hills to see if they want an extra hand!
That’s all, folks! Thank you for another great year. Check our website and social media over the summer to keep up with everything Scripps PRSSA. To the seniors: good luck with everything you do. To everyone else: see you in the fall.
The final meeting recap of this year was brought to you by Brigitte Meisse. Brigitte is a double major in strategic communication and communication studies. She is also our new VP of Public Relations. Brigitte is taking over our website this year, so wish her luck on Twitter @meisse2spicy