Hello from Las Vegas! Well, at least for a few more hours. I had a chance to take a pretty quick trip out to Las Vegas for the annual NCA Conference. I have presented and attended this conference for a few years now, and it’s one we see a lot of PR scholars and communication researchers at.
However, the presentation I did this year was not in the PR Division. I had a chance to present a project with one of the best sports and crisis communication researchers and professors out there, Jimmy Sanderson of Clemson University.
We met a few years ago on Twitter (of course!) and started working on a few projects. We had a chance to work on a book chapter and this NCA presentation. The focus we had for this particular project was a qualitative research study looking at the tweets from the Baltimore Raven’s PR Conference about the Ray Rice incident.
We got some great questions from those who attended our session, which was great to see here! Thanks again Jimmy for allowing me to be part of this study! Had a great time.
There are some initial reflections on the few sessions I was able to attend (as well as the conference itself) I would like to share with you:
Make sure to set plans in motion ahead of time
Everyone is all over the place at NCA and it’s a BIG conference! So many divisions, socials, and presentations to see and go to, so little time. I felt social media was a great way to try and connect with friends and colleagues at the conference
New research areas to explore in PR
I always like attending the sessions of PR where you get to see what students are researching and working on. I had a chance to see some of these presentations and you can see different areas being explored in PR. That’s what’s cool to see at conferences and I am looking forward to reading the articles when they get published.
Seeing friends and colleagues
While most of the PR professors go to the same conferences in the field (AEJMC, NCA, ICA, etc) there are some that just go to NCA and others, so it was great to see everyone again from last year’s conference. There were many great professors to meet and chat with, but I enjoyed my time chatting with my good friends Nell (Cal Poly Pomona), Kate (Cleveland State University), Ai Zhang (Stockton University), Laura Pechta (CDC), and many more wonderful people who are working in PR, crisis communications, and social media!
New [potential] professional service opportunities
One of the things about going to conferences is to potentially explore new opportunities to provide service for the division. I have been of course very active and present at AEJMC with the PRD’s social media team for three years and I am now their Communication Manager.
As far as NCA, I was able to serve on their PRIDE committee (which looks at awarding the best article, book, and paper from PR at the division) a few years ago.
Now, thanks to a great friend and fellow PR professor colleague Erich Sommerfeldt (Current Vice Head of the NCA PRD and from the University of Maryland), I am currently one of the two nominees to be Vice Chair Elect for the NCA Public Relations Division. Thanks Erich for nominating me and considering me for this new leadership role [elections will be going on in the next few weeks].
Overall, I had a great time at NCA and I wish everyone a safe trip back home and the happiest of holidays. Happy Thanksgiving and see you all next year!
Best Wishes,
