By Lauren Allen
My involvement with PRPLI started a few years back when my former Director, Laurie Bloom, started to bring me to their events and programs. I remember being enamored seeing all of the friendships she developed from being a former President and member. I am not always the first one to start up a conversation in a crowded room, but once fellow PRPLI members started introducing themselves to me I began to loosen up and very quickly felt at ease with my fellow public relations colleagues.
Once I started to communicate on a more frequent basis with some of the board members, I found myself becoming more involved in the group. I joined the Awards Committee and assisted in organizing my first Annual Awards Dinner. Unfortunately, last year the dinner had to be canceled due to COVID-19, but it was still a great way for me to become more involved and get to know the current and former board members involved in that committee.
After last year’s Awards Dinner was canceled and the board began the search for the 2021 slate, I was excited to be one of their phone calls to join the board. It was an interesting time to join the board, as we couldn’t plan any in person events and had to be creative in order to keep our membership interested and involved.
Being on the board this year gave me the opportunity to see how my colleagues in the public relations world were handling work during these unprecedented times. We have had a series of events, such as Meet and Pitch the Media Night, Communicating in a New World with Peter Shankman and Communications Categories – a PRPLI game night, where our membership has had the opportunity to share their best practices in the last year which gave us all the opportunity to communicate virtually.
During our Meet and Pitch the Media Night, we spoke with journalists in our area about how they are keeping up with all of the incoming news stories surrounding COVID-19 and how they are still able to find uplifting things to report about in a world where nothing seems to be positive. Our Communications Categories game night gave us a chance to sit back, relax and enjoy each other’s company in a fun virtual environment.
I always look forward to our events, especially Meet and Pitch the Media Night and our Annual Awards Dinner. I plan to remain involved in the organization and continue to learn from my PRPLI family. I am especially excited for a time when our events can resume in person and I can see my PR colleagues again.
