Ken Young (far left), Becca Schaefer (center left), Dan Schaefer (center right) and Kirsten McKenna (far right) talk about their experiences in public relations. // Photo courtesy of Anna DeGoede.

The Hofstra University chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) hosted their district-wide “Roadmap to Success” conference on Friday, April 21, and Saturday, April 22. The conference was sponsored by ZE Creative Communications and PRSA-NY.  

Friday marked the beginning of the conference, when attendees travelled into New York City for a tour of the public relations company Hunter PR before networking with other public relations professionals at the Houndstooth Pub, also in the city.

A speech by keynote speaker Joseph Carozza was the highlight of the second day of the conference. Carozza is the executive vice president of media and artist relations at Republic Records, and he has worked with widely recognized artists in the music industry, including The Weeknd, Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande. 

Carozza, a Hofstra public relations alumnus, told the audience members about the pursuit of his career and ultimate rise to working on one of the leading record labels in the music industry. In his freshman year at Hofstra, Carozza, a huge fan of Carey, sent Marvet Britto, Carey’s publicist, an email. From there, he continued building his career. 

“Now in my current office, when I look out the window, I can see the window where I met [Britto] that day, which is pretty cool,” Carozza said. 

Carozza shared several pieces of advice for students looking to get involved in PR. 

“Embrace your passion. Do something you love, because you will never feel like you’re going to work. If you love movies, go into movie PR. If you love pens, go into pen PR,” Carozza said. “Always show respect to those around you. Even when you think you’ve made it, you’re never too good to help someone clean up, hold the door open or move a chair at an event.” 

In addition to the keynote speech, attendees had the chance to listen to five panels focused on building various skill sets in the public relations field.

The first panel, “Mapping Where PR Can Take You,” featured Becca Schaeffer, founder of Friends of the House, Dan Schaefer, account manager at ZE Creative Communications and Kirsten McKenna, a director of communications at Warner Bros. Discovery. There, panelists detailed key aspects of public relations and key points to keep in mind while working in the field. 

“What is really important is to talk with the client and with the stakeholders and understand what is the ‘why’ for the timing,” McKenna said. “We always want to be mindful of what they’re working on.”

The following panels, “Navigating and Adapting in a Digital Landscape” and “Effectively Communicating with the Media,” were presented simultaneously, with each topic featuring an entirely new set of public relations professionals. 

At “Navigating and Adapting in a Digital Landscape,” speakers included Bill Corbett, chief strategy officer of Corbett Public Relations, Michael Esposito, publicist for Columbia Records and Shavone Williams, vice president of the Real & Estate Land-Use Practice of Risa Heller Communications. 

“Effectively Communicating with the Media” featured Christopher Bastardi, strategy and crisis communications leader for Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis, Ashley Chauvin, director of corporate communications for PSEG Long Island and Ally Roos, account supervisor for Rachel Harrison Communications. 

All the panelists stressed the idea of improving journalism-public relations interactions and suggested that reaching out to journalists in similar career paths was a way to build a stronger connection. 

“The biggest key is knowing who you’re reaching out to and what they write about,” Roos said.

Other panels featured  the topics “Digital Tools” and “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in PR,” which helped demonstrate ways to improve one’s skills and the work environment within a company.

In “Digital Tools,” Cassandra Olivos, vice president of content marketing and social media at Scorpion, said “If a tool is going to save me time, I’m going to learn it, and I’m going to invest in it,” while also cautioning against relying on digital tools too heavily after a tool she used made up an incorrect statistic. “You have to set up a fail safe,” Olivos said. 

Another workplace element to stay wary of is misguided diversity and inclusion policies, according to the panelists. 

“You can have D&I at your organization, but if they don’t belong, you’re not going to retain them,” said SaDiedrah Harris, an account executive at BerlinRosen, during the “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in PR” panel. 

Overall, the insights shared in the conference’s panels helped shed a light on areas of PR that attendees might not have considered before. 

“I think moving forward, [I plan on] reaching out to reporters in a kinder way of just asking ‘Oh I’m interested in what you’re doing’ more so than the transactional conversation we learn about in our classes,” said Maggie Smith, a junior public relations and design major. “I think there’s a way to do it without seeming so transactional.”

Hannah Grynberg, a sophomore public relations major, also grew in her understanding of PR from the conference.

 “I learned what my major is in definition form and that not every job is going to be easy,” she said. “I need to know everything going on.”

This article was edited to correct Sunshine Sachs to Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis.