Several hundred college and university communications professionals convened this week for the annual Oklahoma College Public Relations Association's conference, held this year in Sulphur. Institutions from all over the state were represented as members of communications departments shared their experiences.
Top 5 Takeaways from a Top Notch Communicators’ Conference:
- Diversity is Key: It’s good for teams and organizations and it helps the bottom line.
- Leaders are Readers: Several conference recommendations include Tom Rath’s “Strenghts Finder 2.0,” Tom Rath and Don Clifton’s “How Full is Your Buckets” and John C. Maxwell’s “The 5 Levels of Leadership.”
- Talent + Tasks = Impact: Challenge yourself and take your work to the next level.
- Plan Your Meetings = The average adult attention span today is 5 minutes. Make the most of your meetings by planning agendas well.
- What You Need to Tell Effective Stories: The audience is the hero, the communicators are the guides.
The conference allows public relations teams to share ideas and experiences as well as listen to informative and inspirational speakers. Some of the break-out session topics this year included “Expressive Liberty on Campus: Principles and Recommendations,” “Mindfulness at Work,” and “Diversity & Inclusion: Unconscious Bias & Blind Spots.”
The OCPRA awards banquet was held Monday night and recognition is given to the best in art, design, writing and marketing. The awards are judged by a panel of experts from outside of Oklahoma and the schools are not separated into division categories, meaning schools of all sizes take part in the same competition. OKCU received 6 awards, including 3 first place nods.
- Grand Award in the Social Media category for the Disney Week Series
- Grand Award for Blogs/Editorial/Column category for the teacher walkout experience on NOVA
- Grand Award for Best Use of Social Media/Admissions for Snapchat filters
- Excellence Award for Best Use of Social Media in Events/Student Life
- Achievement Award in Cover Design for the “Much Ado About Robert” Focus magazine
- Achievement Award in the Square Peg category for the Christmas Break social media graphics.
