Beginning of National Conference

Thursday night, after our weekly PRSSA meeting, myself, my professor and two others all got into a car with our suitcases and backpacks and started making the drive to the Akron-Canton Airport. We had a 6 a.m. flight on Friday morning, so we stayed at an alumni's house and left her house at 4:15 a.m. and made drove the last 45 minutes to the airport. We arrived to the airport a little after 5 a.m. and went through all the procedures of getting your bags check and going through TSA. Finally a little after 5:30 a.m. we made it to our gate and started boarding our plane within the next 10 to 15 minutes. The flight was about an hour and a half, so around 7:30 a.m. we landed at the Atlanta airport. This airport was large enough, so in order to get to the baggage claim area you could either walk or jump on the plane train that ran within the airport. The interesting part was taking an Uber to our hotel. I say this because there were a total of seven of us and we all crammed into a Suburban.

Once we finally arrived at our hotel, we all decided it was nap time, as most of us had slept for a maximum of three hours. After sleeping for a few hours we decided to do a little exploring and go out find somewhere to eat. We ended up choosing the Hard Rock Cafe, and the funny thing was that they served Pepsi products instead of Coca-Cola, which is located in Atlanta. We then went and checked into the conference and headed back to our room to get ready for Opening Night Celebration, which was happening later that evening. After the kick off session we did a little more exploring through Atlanta, and by 10 p.m. we were all so tired, we decided it was time to go to sleep, as we had at the welcome session in the morning at 9 a.m.

After getting a good night sleep, we all got up around 7:30 a.m. and began getting ready for the day. We started this morning off with the Welcome, Keynote Address, Awards and Chapter Roll Call Session. We listened to Scott Williamson, Vice President of Public Affairs and Communication at Coca-Cola. After Scott, we then went through awards, and the ONU PRSSA Chapter won Star Chapter for the sixth year in a row. We then went through, and listed all 344 PRSSA chapters, and representatives did a little chant to show they were here. We then had a two hour break, where we decided to go to the food court mall and grab a quick lunch at Firehouse Subs. After lunch I then attended three, one hour long sessions. These sessions were, How Your Portfolio Gets You Hired, The "Realization" of Health Care: Using Social to Reach Those Gone Digital and The Blueprint: Corporate Communications. All of these sessions were very insightful and each had something completely different to offer. I enjoyed attending The "Realization" of Health Care because I was able to see the amazing presentation of both my professor, Dr. Alisa Agozzino and internship supervisor, Beth Keehn

I am having such a great time in Atlanta so far and have learned tons in just one day. I am looking forward to the rest of conference and spending time with this great group of friends, I am here with. I also can't wait to explore the city of Atlanta more, as we will have some free time with in these next few days. I am definitely not going to be ready to head back to Ada anytime soon, so hopefully Tuesday doesn't come too fast.