As part of my duties as Vice President of Professional Development, I helped organize a joint event with the New York Chapter of the PRSA. After months of planning, all of our hard work came to an end.

The PRSA-NY/NYU PRSSA Career Forum was held last night at the Rosenthal Pavilion in the Kimmel Center. With over 100 attendees and 16 exhibitors, Rosenthal was filled with eager minds looking to network with PR professionals. Companies, including Edelman, Peppercom and Marina Maher Communications, sent representatives to the event to speak with the attendees about possible opportunities at their respective organizations.

As both an organizer and attendee, it felt great to see everyone connecting with one another. The event also reminded me of two very important things: the importance of networking and the power of social media.

By now, everyone knows how important networking is. In today’s world, it’s all about who you know. You meet a person at an event like the PRSA-NY/NYU PRSSA Career Forum and connect with them via Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. From there, it’s up to you to stay involved with the people you meet because you never know when they can inform you of internship/job opportunities. I’ve met people once and they have remembered me from that event and later through social media.

Last night, there were 2 exhibitors who remembered me from events I went to last year and because we follow each other on Twitter they are exposed to me on a daily basis. I was actually amazed when one exhibitor pointed out the mutual Twitter following before I even got a chance to. It’s little things like following a person on Twitter that can make you memorable in a person’s mind. So my advice to people looking for jobs or internships, step your social media game up. It will not only make you more marketable, but it allows for connections you wouldn’t have had before.

A big thank you goes to the attendees, exhibitors, my fellow E-board members who came to the event and Tiffany Winbush and Tara Smith from the PRSA who let me help out with the planning. Hope everyone had a great time!

-Elisa Freese