PRSA 2008 International Conference Round Up

Over the weekend, Online Marketing Blog posts as well as my interactions on Twitter took on a decidedly “public relations” flavor with TopRank’s involvement at the 2008 PRSA International conference. The event is now done and everyone should be back in the swing of things back in the office.

This year TopRank had 2 speaking slots (a workshop and a panel) plus Account Manager Mike Yanke and Media Relations Associate Nicole Leach stayed busy attending sessions, keynotes and blogging.

The theme of this year’s event was “The Point of Connection” and I think the reference served the interests of attendees well. Social technologies were top of mind for attendees, speakers and the event itself with all the blogging, Twittering and real world networking going on. PR professionals from across the globe converged on Detroit to learn, recognize their peers, conduct business and most of all to connect.

The exhibit hall area offered a variety of products and services to choose from and was well laid out and well attended, which was something many exhibitors appreciated.

While I didn’t get to visit much of Detroit outside of Sweet Lorraine’s for the PR Tweetup and Tom’s Oyster Bar for the PR Technology Section dinner, I did have this rather stoic view from my hotel. Many other photos can be found on TopRank’s PRSA 2008 set on Flickr and the official PRSA photo pool.

Here’s a wrap up of the posts Mike and Nicole posted here and over at Media Relations Blog:

PRSA International Conference Detroit: A Halloween Perspective – Mike
PRSA International 2008: Evolution of Communication – Nicole
True Tales of Social Media Measurement & Analytics – Mike
Word-Of-Mouth Media Relations: What Really Works? – Nicole
Embracing Social Media and Deriving ROI – Nicole
Word of Mouth Online or Off – What’s The Difference? – Mike
PRSA 2008 Detroit Conference Photos – Lee
New Influencers of Social Media Marketing – Nicole
Media Myths & Realities – Mike
Giving Back To Those Who Impact PR – PRSA Keynote Mitch Albom – Nicole
Craig Newmark Keynote: Social Media and Democracy PRSA 2008 – Nicole
The Changed PR Landscape – What Works, What Doesn’t – Mike
Virtual Reality: New Platform for Media Relations – Nicole
What’s The ROI On Your Press Release? – Mike
Current Consumer Trends & Communicating with Green Media – Mike

Thank you to Mike and Nicole for doing a great job blogging the event – this was definitely a “working” conference. A big thanks also goes out to PRSA staff Judy Voss and Colleen Seaver from Professional Development, our PRSA clients Ann Caggiano and Richard Specter and PRSA President and COO Bill Murray.

Find other blog posts on sessions offered at PRSA 2008 on the official PRSA blog, ComPRehension.