Young PR

PR Students and Faculty: Join PR Open Mic

My good friend Robert French has done the PR world yet another service, this time starting up PR Open Mic a social network for PR students and faculty to get together alongside practitioners and move our profession forward.

If you’re a student you’re an imbecile if you don’t join up. It’s easy, it’s free and it’ll help you get ahead. There’s an impressive faculty line up already headlined by the one and only James Grunig and supported by some of my favorite educators like Karen Russell & Kaye Sweetser from UGA, the smartest man in the world Richard Bailey and even my old mentor from CSU Bathurst Donald Alexander.

Others have said it better than me, so let me share some endorsements:

Robert French is very passionate about this community, and you can’t help but get caught up by his enthusiasm:

One place for all PR students and faculty to meetup and mashup ideas about emerging digital media. That’s been my dream.

Sure, we’ve been creating our blogs and podcasts. We’ve been following each others writings and media. All fun. All good. But, there really hasn’t been one place for everyone to do a meet and greet … until now.

PROpenMic.org is the place.

I’m seeking your support, please. Share PROpenMic.org with your students, fellow faculty, PR/Marcom colleagues and more. Sign up yourself and there is a very easy “invite” process for you to use. Thank you.

Phil Gomes is right amongst it and even though he sits towards the top of the industry he is still the most active practitioner at the site (check out his ‘Ask Phil‘ series of short videos):

Bravo to Robert French, who launched PROpenMic — a Ning-based network for students and educators.

I’m very much looking forward to participating here, focusing most of my contributions in the “Ask Phil” group that I’ve started and, of course, chiming in wherever and whenever I can.

Shel Holtz, who’s one of the leading thinkers in online PR and a very strong influence on yours truly had this to say:

Students ask good questions, as evidenced by the discussion forum, which is host to queries like, “What do PR writers REALLY have to know about AP Style?” and “Maximizing PR when there really is no budget.” The events section is getting loaded up with conference and podcamp info, and nobody seems shy about uploading photos and videos.

I know that I’ve been blessed to have been able to learn from the likes of Robert, Phil and Shel through actively getting involved in the PR blogosphere. However, I know the blogging route is not for everybody. PR Open Mic offers an easy access point for any PR Student, along with the opportunity for active learning alongside peers, educators and potential mentors around the world.

Get into it! And once you’re there, add me as a friend

PS: I’m not posting much these days so I’ll throw in a couple of extra tidbits while I’ve got your attention.

If you’re under 26 years of age and work in a PR agency, please take a minute to complete this survey (a study from Oregon educators and PR Open Mic members Kelli Matthews and Tiffany Derville). The survey touches on some really important issues for the industry as a whole, but especially our generation of millenials.

Also, I’m proud to be a member of the new Brazen Careerist Network, set up by Penelope Trunk and a number of young entrepreneurs, it’s a great collection of content produced by and for young people across a range of industries. Take a look!