PR Advanced 2023 Reflections

Photo credit to Sophia Sullivan (COM '25).

Charley Hart is a junior at Boston University studying public relations. She is a member of BU PRSSA’s Digital Media and Blog Team. She wrote the following blog post about her first time experience attending BU's annual PR Advanced Conference.

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On Saturday, February 25th, 2023, Boston University’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America hosted its 16 annual Northeast District conference: Looking Back to Move Forward. The conference planning began back in the summer of 2022 for BU PRSSA’s executive board and conference committee members. Overall, the conference had 147 registered attendees, 27 guest speakers from a variety of industries, and 10 tables at the closing career fair.

The conference was a day of networking, learning, and celebration for BU PRSSA members, BU students and faculty, other PRSSA chapters, and communications professionals. Speakers ranged from experts in media relations, to tech industry specialists, and video game creators. Every attendee was able to find something that piqued their interest at the conference. Charley Hart, a sophomore at Boston University and member of BU PRSSA’s Digital Media and Blog Team shares her reflection below.

“I transferred to Boston University this spring semester from American University in Washington, DC. This was my first PR Advanced conference and the experience was extremely rewarding. I had never been to a conference before and I had a lot of fun. I made several connections with people from a variety of different schools as well as with the guest speakers. Attending the conference as a transfer student who does not know very many BU students was difficult and intimidating, but I met many people with similar interests and learned about why they are interested in PR.”

Many other PRSSA chapters attended the conference including those from Emerson College, Bridgewater State University, Stockton University, The University of Rhode Island, and many others. Giana Carrozza, a junior at Boston University and PR Coordinator for BU PRSSA enjoyed having a leadership position in the Conference Committee.

“I led the Promotions Team for our Conference Committee and we worked for many months on creating digital and social media content to promote the conference and the speakers. I really enjoyed seeing my team’s work come to life and meeting the speakers in person after becoming so familiar with them. I also loved meeting other executive boards and members from nearby schools. It was such a great networking opportunity and I learned about so many new aspects of the public relations industry.”

Written by Charley Hart and Giana Carrozza.