A Weekend in Nashville

I am a member of Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) which gives me truly amazing opportunities. This week I got to travel to Nashville for our firm trip. PRSSA has a student run firm, True North, where students take on real clients and help with a public relations or marketing campaign. In Nashville, our adviser set us up with six companies to meet and talk to them  about what their company does.

On Monday, we visited with a public relations agency, McNeely Pigott & Fox. I thought this visit was really interesting because they had a panel where we could ask questions about the company or just careers in public relations. The panel was full of associates who are recently graduated or fresh out of college. Seeing people my age being successful was reassuring to me because I worry about my lack of qualifications. I also fear I will get to a job and have absolutely no idea what to do. Both of those fears were addressed and came out on the positive side. The best advice from this meeting was “figure out where you want to live first. Then figure out your job.” This is something I actually thought about in reverse, so to hear this  from not one person, but from the majority, was a fresh perspective. 

I was also able to see a few of the artistic sides of Nashville! I read a post about 10 murals you must see while in Nashville and was lucky enough to find some free time and check them out! Nashville is surely a city I would come back and revisit when I have more time to enjoy the atmosphere. 

On the second day, we visited three more companies in Nashville! My favorite of the day was CMT, Country Music Television. We were able to go into CMT headquarters and explore their building. I am a huge fan of CMT and their show Nashville. They had pictures, posters and even standing cutouts of the stars of Nashville. I was completely fangirling. Amanda Murphy was our tour guide and she explained what she does and answered any questions of ours. Being a Nashville fan, I asked about any type of backlash the show or the brand may receive and how she handles those problems from a public relations perspective. She went into how Connie Britton, known as Rayna James, chose to leave the show. She told us how CMT needed to be on top of the media and letting the public know this was Connie's decision. 

This was my first firm trip and it will not be my last. I love the opportunity PRSSA gives me to explore different industries and get my feet wet in the real world. When trying to understand the public relations world, speaking with these companies helped me figure out where I may want to go with my career. Maybe. I still have plenty to figure out.