Carolina PRSSA to co-host 2018 Southeastern Regional Conference with NC State

The National Public Relations Student Society of America selected Carolina PRSSA and North Carolina State University PRSSA chapters to host the 2018 Southeastern Regional Conference.

This is the third year in a row that the Carolina PRSSA chapter has co-hosted the Southeastern Regional Conference. The chapter worked with Elon University in Spring 2016 and North Carolina A&T State University in Spring 2017 to host the previous conferences in Chapel Hill.

This time, the N.C. State PRSSA chapter will take the lead in planning and hosting the spring 2018 regional conference. The 2018 theme, STEMulate PR, will focus on strategic communications and public relations in the STEM industries of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Fittingly, N.C. State is well known for its engineering and math degrees, while UNC-Chapel Hill is noted for its health and medical programs.

The Research Triangle Park is home to leading STEM-focused organizations, including IBM, Cisco, GlaxoSmithKline, Lenovo and the Environmental Protection Agency. Students will recruit public relations practitioners from these companies, as well as those at area hospitals, to speak and serve as networking partners for the conference.

Students also plan to involve agencies making their home in the Triangle, including APCO Worldwide, Ketchum South (formerly Capstrat), French-West-Vaughan and FleishmanHillard, which all work with numerous STEM-focused clients and mentor and hire students from both schools.

The Carolina PRSSA student leaders are President Rachel Rhodes '18 and Vice President Emily Brice '18.