CAL POLY PR DAY: Final Paper

Kristy González

Krista Scarbrough

Victoria Zabel
 Executive Summary

During the spring 2010 quarter our grouped worked with Richard Gearhart,
Doug Swanson, and Dan Eller to plan and execute Cal Poly’s First Annual
“PR Day”.

Planning PR Day involved a number of different tasks, such as creating a

timeline, brainstorming potential speakers, contacting and securing speakers,
gathering “thank-you” gifts for the speakers, arranging a luncheon,
designing and purchasing shirts and flyers, and securing the necessary rooms
for the presentations.

The day-of the event, May 20, involved much last-minute preparation, such
as setting up the booth, directing attendees and speakers to the session
locations, coordinating a luncheon, etc. Many came out to support PR and to
learn more about what the field can offer.
Consultation & Situation Analysis:

Cal Poly’s first-ever PR Day was held on May 20, 2010, with

speakers from Public Relations and Agricultural Communications fields, and

provided invaluable information and networking opportunities for all

students. We worked in collaboration with the Director of the Brock Center

for Agricultural Communications Richard Gearhart, the Agricultural

Communicators of Tomorrow club (ACT), Public Relations Student Society

of America (PRSSA), and Central Coast PRspectives (CCPR). Our team

conducted an initial consultation with Gearhart on April 6, 2010, to discuss

plans for Cal Poly’s first-ever PR Day. We discussed the schedule of the

event, key themes to cover at the event, and possible speakers.

Figure 1 below shows the organization of the event in a block

schedule format to ensure a greater attendance and to allow students to

attend multiple speaker sessions. The event was scheduled from 9 a.m. to 2

p.m., with a mid-event luncheon from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Ag. Circle.

There were four sessions covering different topics including Social Media,

Day-in-the-Life of a Professional, Personal Brand, and Grad School.

Speakers were assigned to a session for two hours in one room. Each session

lasted one hour and was repeated the following hour. We felt the schedule

below efficiently outlined the format of the sessions, helping the to event run
smoothly.

Session Outline

Fig. 1 Room 1 Room 2

9-10 a.m. Session A Session B

10-11 a.m. Session A Session B

11a.m.-noon

Luncheon & Student/Speaker Social

12-1 p.m. Session C Session D

1-2 p.m. Session C Session D

Original Goals and Objectives:

—Increase awareness of the career opportunities, as well as provide

invaluable information about Public Relations and Agricultural

Communications.

—Emphasize the importance of communication in every professional field.

—Have an absolute minimum of four professional speakers in Public

Relations and Agricultural Communications at the event.

Theory:

Our team followed the organization of the “Adaptive Structuration

Theory,” in which we create the group as we act within it. This theory is

formulated as “the production and reproduction of the social systems

through members’ use of rules and resources in interaction” (Desanctis, et

al., 1994). This theory derives from the idea that as an organization or group

develops and evolves so does its regulations.

This organizational climate allowed us to be flexible and adapt to

changes as needed, which is important because “much of our body of

knowledge will be found to have flaws. That’s not bad news; that’s good

news. When we find something that really doesn’t work the way we ‘knew’

it did, we’ll be on our way to finding out how it really does work” (Newman,

1990).

Target Publics:

For PR Day our primary target publics were students in Public

Relations and Agricultural Communications because the event was tailored

to their interests. We wanted the event to cover what students in Public

Relations and Agricultural Communications feel is important.

We also realized, however, that every student can benefit from attending PR

Day by gaining invaluable information from communication professionals

that they will be able to directly apply to their future careers. Therefore, our

secondary target public was all other students at Cal Poly. Communication

skills are critical in every aspect of life, especially in job market. According

to the “Job Outlook 2010” survey conducted by the National Association of

Colleges and Employers (NACE), employers “ranked communication skills

at the top of the skills they seek in potential employees” (NACE, 2010).

Strategy, Tactics, and Tools:

Strategy

Our strategy was to provide students with the opportunity to further

develop their professional development skills by learning from and

networking with experienced communications professionals.

Tactics

A primary tactic was reaching out to students, faculty, and clubs with

a common vested interest in the communications field.

Tools
 Tools included social media, posters, email, news releases, and word-

of-mouth.

Methods of Evaluation:

We will gauge the success of PR Day both quantitatively and

qualitatively. We will first look at the number of people in attendance at

each session, as well as the number of professional speakers at the event.

This will not only help us determine what strategies were effective, but it

will also help us determine whether or not this event is something that

resonates with students at Cal Poly.

Qualitatively, we will examine the interest of students at the event (ex.

surveying students, observing how many students actively participated in the

sessions, determining which sessions were more popular than others, etc.).

With the same approach, we can review the interest and willingness of the

faculty, as well as the enthusiasm and reliability of the speakers, to

determine the likelihood of making PR Day an annual tradition.

Timeline We Followed:

Prior to PR Day

—Advertisement for Ag Circle by April 5

—Attend ACT club meeting to recruit help and get ideas by April 14

—Print 11 x 17 flyers and post in Journalism Department for Open House

by April 15

—Attend PRSSA club meeting to recruit help and get ideas by April 20

—Contact list of potential speakers by April 21

— Secure speakers by April 30

—Submit request for “Sponsored Guest” permits by May 13

—Contact PRSSA Executive Board for funds by May 4

—Secure rooms for the event by April 22

—Secure lunch arrangements by May 3

—Create flyer with specific dates, times, locations, themes, and speakers by

May 3

—Email professors with communication classes on Thursday between

9a.m.-2p.m by May 6

—Email all journalism students and faculty with event info by May 6

—Email all departments with forwards with event info for faculty and

students by May 6

—Pitch story idea to Mustang Daily by May 10

After PR Day

—2-page article in Ag. Circle by Krista Scarbrough

—Press Release to Mustang Daily by May 21 (how to compose a press

release can be found on pages 129-139 of the Diggs-Brown text).

—Compile all evaluations to measure the success of the event by May 24

—Send Thank You cards to all speakers and other helpers by May 27

Budget

Prior to beginning a PR campaign you must “spell out how you will

allocate staff time, budgets, computers, databases, in-house and contract

services, and volunteer or intern help” (Bonk, 23).

Marketing Budget

All marketing expenses for PR Day were funded by PRSSA and/or

the Journalism Department.

Event Budget

The sessions for PR Day did not have an entry fee and were be open

to the public. Speakers were not paid or reimbursed for travel expenses, but

will be reimbursed for parking permit or granted “Sponsored Guest” parking

permits. The pizza luncheon held at Ag. Circle will also be free for

volunteers and those attending or speaking at the sessions. “I Love PR” T-

shirts were sold at the event. The prices were $7.00 for PRSSA or ACT

members and $10.00 for non-members. Volunteers received a

complimentary T-shirt for their assistance.

Measuring Success

In the most basic sense, the number of attendants measured our

success at PR Day on May 20. As this number was lower than we had

hoped, we expanded our criteria to include other areas where success could

be measured as well. For instance, our success with booking guest speakers

was great, although we had a few glitches along the way (which were not by

fault of ours) such as people backing out at the last minute. Additionally, our

success with securing rooms and speaker donation items was successful as

well (we had enough rooms for each session, and enough goodies for each

speaker).

Another obvious way to measure the success of PR Day will be to

evaluate whether we garner any new PRSSA members as a result of the

information they received at the event. This will only be quantifiable at the

next membership drive in the fall, so we will be sure to keep our ears open

for news concerning that.

At PR Day, we also received several requests from student

organizations on campus to be clients for the 2010-2011 academic year. We

saved their contact information for CCPR to be in touch with them next
year, since the fall quarter client list is now full.

After finishing the event we were able to dissect the whole process,

honing in on what worked and what would need to be improved upon for the

next PR Day. This gave us an opportunity to compile a list of ideas that will

hopefully be of assistance to future CCPR classes.

 References

Bonk, K. et al (2008). Strategic communications for nonprofits. San

Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Diggs-Brown, B. (2007). The PR styleguide: Formats for public relations

practice (2 ed.).

Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Desanctis, G. and Poole, M.S. (1994). Capturing the Complexity in

Advanced Technology Use: Adaptive Structuration Theory.

Organization Science. 5, 121-147.

“Job Outlook 2010 Survey.” National Association of Colleges and

Employers. Web.

<<http://www.naceweb.org/Research/Job_Outlook/Job_Outlook.as

px?referal=research&menuID=272>>

Newman, Lloyd N. “Predictive ability and professionalism.” Public

Relations Journal 46.1 (1990): 8+. Expanded Academic ASAP.

Web. 13 Apr. 2010.

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