This week, my beloved Ohio Northern University PRSSA chapter successfully completed one of our largest challenges this year: hosting the 2011 Central Ohio PaRtners Conference. Sponsored by the Central Ohio Chapter of PRSA, PaRtners is an annual conference put on to help students connect with PR professionals and carve out a path in the career field. While ONU was certainly honored to host the conference, I will be really honest with you and tell you that honored is not a word that came to my mind often in the last few months. Cursed, overwhelmed, bombarded: those are words I felt when speakers cancelled, donations fell through, or registration websites went down.
Putting on an event is rewarding the day of and in the aftermath. But a fair warning to all aspiring event planner out there: it is short lived! Furthermore, it is not glamorous. You will be hauling all the garbage out when maintenance doesn’t show up. You are not the center of attention. You will be running around behind the scenes fixing all smaller problems.
However aspiring event planners: if you happen to get lucky enough like me, there is one element of event planning that tops all the stressful scenarios and makes the whole thing worthwhile: a strong team. The dedication, energy, and creative enthusiasm my PRSSA team put into this event was phenomenal, making this whole experience worthwhile. Getting through out late nights and early mornings took us from friends to a family, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. That being said, here’s a shout out to my PRSSA polar bears; I would do this again because of you guys!
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