Come meet the best and brightest students at the 27th annual Intern Pursuit, hosted by FPRA’s Quotes Student Chapter at UCF.
 
The semi-annual event will be held from 6-8pm on Monday, March 22 at the Orlando Sentinel, 633 N. Orange Ave., Orlando, Fla. 32801
 
To RSVP for this semester’s Intern Pursuit, send your contact name, title, organization, phone number, e-mail, and a brief description of the internship opportunity to ucfinternpursuit@gmail.com by Monday, March 15. Please keep in mind that placement priority inside the Orlando Sentinel will be given to those who RSVP early.
 
Employers should plan to arrive for set-up between 5:00-5:30 p.m. Also, please consider the venue space and number of employers, and limit booth displays to simple table toppers. Handouts are strongly recommended.
 
For more information, please address all questions to ucfinternpursuit@gmail.com or to Quotes President, Michelle Khouri, at mkhourim@yahoo.com or (786) 282-2161.

How would you know if you’re turning people off? The way people perceive you can mean the difference between success and failure in business and your personal life. The risk of being misunderstood puts your reputation, business, job and relationships on the line. You CAN develop the ability to appear confident, comfortable and in control in front of an audience and behind a microphone. Develop the ability to stay “on message.” Learn the inside secrets to managing the energy in the room so you’re not boring people to death. Presentation skills coaching helps you read the room, and know if you’re connecting.

Annetta Wilson, a certified mastery coach and certified trainer, is a business strategist specializing in presentation skills coaching, communication skills coaching and media training for public figures, entrepreneurs and executives.

Thursday, February 25
University Club, 150 E. Central Blvd., Orlando
$15 members, $20 non-members, $10 students

Registration/Buffet Breakfast: 8 a.m.
Presentation: 8:30 a.m.

Register at www.fpra-orlando.org

This month the Orlando chapters of FPRA and PRSA present a joint luncheon to celebrate Ethics Awareness Month. The luncheon will feature a presentation by Mary Beth West, APR and the presentation of the Frank R. Stansberry Ethics Award.

Advocating for the Public Relations Profession
With the advent of social media, the escalation of highly sophisticated (and oftentimes controversial) issues campaigns and the partisan nature of so much of our daily national dialogue, the public relations profession faces rising challenges, given a constant barrage of ethics and professionalism issues. Mary Beth West, APR, has worked in the trenches of advocating for the profession, having served as PRSA’s national chair of advocacy (2007) and as a senior counsel to the PRSA national board for advocacy issues (2008). She will share strategies that both chapter and local-level public relations organizations and individual professionals can implement to “take back” our profession from those prominent voices who cast public relations inaccurately and counterproductively, relative to the profession’s true potential as a force for good in a democratic society. Mary Beth will also discuss PRSA’s role in the advocacy case study from late 2007 involving the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). 

Mary Beth is principal of Mary Beth West Consulting, a public relations and reputation management firm based in the Greater Knoxville, Tennessee, area. Her team’s background includes previous public relations and marketing communications posts working in-house with such companies as General Motors, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Blue Cross/Blue Shield Association, Eastman Kodak, Champion Products, Corrections Corporation of America and the former Union Planters Bank.  Mary Beth is a member of PRSA’s Counselors Academy and has held a variety of national leadership roles in the Society for the past 10 years.

Thursday, September 17, 2009
Networking/Registration begins at 11:30 a.m., Luncheon starts at Noon
Citrus Club, Downtown Orlando
Cost: $25 PRSA/FPRA members, $40 non-members, $15 students

Click here to register online.

Sponsored by Orlando Health and Grand Bohemian Hotel.