I just got back to Louisville from attending the annual National Communication Association Convention in New Orleans. It was four days of non-stop amazing networking opportunities with fellow colleagues and professionals interested in the same area of research within the PR and Communications Divisions. It is exciting to see so many amazing research presentations by fellow scholars who are interested in the same work. It was also great to talk with graduate students and see what they are interested in and what research projects they are working on. I am very excited about the future of our field – in both social media / PR and crisis communications – with hearing some of the work that is being done in this area by graduate students. Super exciting! 🙂 I felt I walked away from the sessions with a new perspective of where the field is going as well as how I am going to be approaching this in my own work in the future. This process was enlightening and rewarding for me as a professor, scholar, and PR professional.
My badge for NCA - it is very blue but fabulous 😀
I had an opportunity to be part of two panels who were both organized by two amazing professionals and friends. My friend Kathy Keltner-Previs (PhD., Eastern Kentucky University) organized the “Teaching Social Media in PR Courses” panel and my friend and crisis colleague Kathleen Vidoloff (Ph.D.) organized the Crisis Communication panel I was on as well. Both were amazing sessions and I received some very complementary statements from numerous professionals and attendees about each panel – thank you Kathy and Kathleen for allowing me to be part of these amazing sessions. 🙂
One of the things that of course was needed to be done while in NOLA was to have some serious foodie adventures. My friends and I went on a mission to go to some of the iconic places known in NOLA for its amazing cuisine. Of course, I had to go back to Emeril’s Delmonico’s for dinner – it was truly amazing and I had the chance to have gingerbread bread pudding (I have already told my Dad that he should try to make this for the holidays!) We also went to Cafe de Monde – which is a must do for having coffee and beignets. It was truly heavenly and so much so – I made sure to bring Mom and Dad a box of mix back so they can enjoy some for the holidays as well! 🙂
Coffee and Beignets at Cafe de Monde - YUM!
So, what were some of the lessons learned from attending this year’s NCA Conference? I would say that the thing I took away from this conference was the fact we – professors and students – are all on the same team here. We need to continue working with each other to educate ourselves and mentor future scholars in the area with their research and teaching. Having different perspectives when studying a particular phenomenon is okay – there should be multiple ideas coming out in research and not be dominated by one or two perspectives. How else will we grow as a profession? I also felt that it was a time to share our best practices and resources with others – which is what I tried to do particularly in the teaching social media in PR session. I wanted to end my presentation with some resources and additional information that would help others in their class by offering 1) to post my presentation for others to use and download and 2) announce a new extension of my site where I would post additional links and resources for others to use for their class titled “Becoming Social.”
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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