PRSSA Networking Event

On October 22, I went to the Public Relations Students Society of America networking event at Buffalo State. There were two other Canisius students there with the rest, predictably, being Buffalo State PR students. Being a journalism major, it was still helpful to know what PR people do, since public relations jobs do require some of the same skills as journalism, such as writing in a way that convinces the reader to think a certain way. The only journalism outlet there was The Buffalo News, which was the only group I handed a resume to and specifically asked for business cards. I did talk for a bit to the two representatives they had there, Tim O’Shei and Patrick Lakamp, about myself and what I want to do as a journalist. I did listen to other representatives of PR groups talk about what they deal with in their jobs, like the Elmwood Village Organization and Gelia. The main problem I had with the event was it’s location. It was in a lecture and all the business people were in the chairs scattered about the hall, so you may have to very awkwardly step over people if the person you wanted to talk to was in the middle of the row. Again, this event was mainly geared towards PR students, so I really shouldn’t complain about the lack of journalism outlets there. I couldn’t even stay the whole night because my family had tickets to go see Paul McCartney that night, so I had to leave an hour in in order to drive down to the arena, get a decent parking spot, and make it to my seat in time. So I obviously didn’t get to as many people as I’d like. Hopefully I’ll have better luck at other networking events that come around soon.