President-Elect ICON 2024 Recap
Posted on Oct. 21, 2024 / Subscribe 0
I have been a part of PRSSA and PRSA for 15 years and this year is my first time at ICON. My brain and heart are full, and I’m excited to recap my experience and learnings with you.
Assembly and Rally
I learned so much from the National board and all of the chapters across the country. I loved attending the Leadership Assembly with the 2024 Detroit Chapter President, TaQuinda Johnson and Secretary, Antonice Strickland, and the Leadership Training Rally with TaQuinda. I feel so invigorated by our fellow leaders – there are truly fantastic programs, student support systems and more that are improving our industry and everyone’s passion is palpable. We talked about successes, areas we want to improve and National resources we can tap into. I’m committed to collaborating with the other Michigan and East Central District Chapters to continue these learnings. Additionally, as a delegate, I submitted my vote for a new National board member in 2025 as well as some bylaw amendments.
There were also three great sessions on AI and disinformation and accreditation. My biggest takeaway is that we should be leading the way on media literacy training and policies. First, we have to start with education on identifying misinformation and give equal weight to deepfakes, such as completely false and unbacked stories AND slightly modified photos. Then we need to disseminate the tools to do so. BONUS: there is a great National PRSA resource and another suggested tool is tineye.com.
I was also reminded there are many distinguishable forms of PR accreditation. The most common of course is APR but there is also CPER and others! You can learn more and pursue yours on the PRSA website.
ICON - Culture
As the week transitioned to ICON programming, I attended an incredible session on organizational culture with Kim Clark. She was so outstanding that I bought her book on the spot. One of the most profound things she said was, “Coach-ability and humility that needs to be a part of change management for diaries in culture – use privilege and power to create change.” I couldn’t agree more. Her tips were rooted in staying authentic to your organization because as we know, key audiences can sniff out disingenuous stances and actions. She aptly advised that every organization doesn’t have to take a stance and/or act on every issue, but we should when it’s a topic that’s relevant to the organization’s mission and values.
ICON - Synthetic Media
I was also lucky to learn about synthetic media with Shel Holtz. While I am learning about and using Copilot at work, I haven’t taken a lot of time to experiment with other AI tools, so I was grateful to learn about so many in this session that span copy, images, video, audio, music and more. He shared his personal, professional and financial commitment to subscribing and utilizing many AI tools (e.g., Otter.ai, Claude, ChatGPT, Generic AI, Flux AI, Adobe Firefly, HeyGen, Gemini, Suno, Midjourney) and his commitment to using them for his organization’s internal communications. He also had a hot take on disclosing the use of AI tools.
ICON - Crisis Comms
Another stand-out session was with Lawrence Kopp on crisis communications. His thoughtful recommendations were recapped in several impactful case studies from representing The Trayvon Martin Foundation, Felicity Huffman and more. These involved key message development, legal and security coordination, transportation, media relations strategies and more. He advised his organization’s commitment to representing people and companies they either believe in or that are genuinely remorseful and want to authentically recover. He provided some great reminders:
- Maintain integrity, period.
- Lay out key messages and a 30-day game plan as soon as possible
- Identify a spokesperson and media outlets to work with vs. avoid, swiftly
- Establish trust with all audiences.
- Correct media if/when needed.
- Tell bosses/clients what they need to hear and not what they want to hear.
ICON - Media Relations
A culmination of several sessions provided great reminders and thoughts surrounding media relationships such as the following.
- Include storytelling components such as conflict, resolution, suspense, relevance and more, when possible.
- Offer exclusives, that include expiration dates for opting-in, when possible and timely.
- Send media drops when appropriate to initiate relationship-building. This could be swag for an event or product you want covered, or if they’re new to the market it could be locally-sourced products they’d enjoy with an overview of your organization or agency.
- Position your organization as a resource on subject matter expertise and/or provide quotes on relevant and timely topics.
- Package data where needed and ensure it tells the story with interviewees are available.
- Consider contributed content and op-eds as a way to demonstrate organizational expertise.
- Check that your news is indexed on Google for search engine optimization (SEO), so it appears in the search results going forward. If it’s not, use the Google Search Console to submit an indexing request.
Final Highlights
- I loved the keynotes, especially the ones featuring Gio Benitez and Crystal Washington respectively. Gio was authentic and vulnerable in sharing his tips in being yourself at work and focusing on authentic storytelling. Crystal reminded us to leverage data and AI to change the way our organizations communicate. She said, “We have to put on our own capes (because) no one is going to rescue us… We don’t have to know everything, we just have to be curious.”
- Shoutout to a great East Central District dinner, courtesy of Jennifer Kramer, and Helen Korneffel Comiska from the Central Michigan Chapter who was incredible to meet.Networking! I loved meeting people of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities and industries from all over the country who are invested in public relations and communications. I met incredible people from Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Missouri, Wisconsin, Indiana and more. I learned tons and laughed until I lost my voice. I feel grateful to work with thoughtful, compassionate, intelligent and hysterical comrades all across the country. AND, I had lovely conversations with students from all over, including Wayne State University PRSSA and other student chapters. These future rock stars were engaged and asking great questions, and I’m so hopeful.
- Plus, I got a little Disneyland time with my husband, Chris Bonelli, which involved meeting Mickey, getting a little shoulder-riding Grogu (baby Yoda), eating churros, going on some amazing rides and more.
Now you tell me: what professional development opportunities are you prioritizing this/next year?
Megan Bonelli is a senior communications strategist with DTE Energy and is the 2024 Detroit PRSA Incoming President/VP.
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