What happens when thousands of PRSA attendees are released from a busy day of conferencing out into the gorgeous DC evening? They split up into scores of small interest groups, to tweet, chat, eat, drink and talk shop.
I joined about thirty PR professionals from DC and around the nation at the behest of the inimitable Kellye Crane, principal of Crane Communications, but better known to the twitterati as @KellyeCrane, the gracious hostess and savvy PR guru behind SoloPRPro. A resource to those already running solo practices, as well as to those who dream about running away from Big Agency and Big Company Life, Kellye has helped thousands of PR practitioners through her SoloPrPro website, LinkedIn Group, FaceBook page and weekly #SoloPR chats.
Since some of the attendees were not yet full fledged independents, I’ll leave the guest list OTP (that’s Off this Post, or blog talk for Off the Record).
But the talk at the meet-up was frank. Some of the attendees admitted to loving the freedom and the exhilarating variety of work available to independents, while still missing the security of a steady paycheck and a matching 401K plan. Others are making far more money than they ever took in while working for “The Man,” and despite the recession, a few practitioners were seeing steady growth in their businesses.
If you missed tonight’s meet-up, you’ll have an opportunity to meet many other independent practitioners at Monday evening’s Independent Practitioners Alliance (IPA) section dinner at Lauriol Plaza.
And if you’re thinking about striking out on your own, remember, every good PR program starts with research. You should do the same. Talk to an IPA member about what it’s “really like” to be an independent. Or catch the next #SoloPR chat, held every Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. EST.
Lynn Miller runs 4GreenPs, a strategic marketing firm serving sustainable brands. She is a member of the National Capitol Chapter’s Independent Practitioners Alliance. She blogs at The 4GreenPs blog and her personal blog, OrganicMania.com. You can find her tweeting as @OrganicMania, @GreenMoms and @4GreenPs and on LinkedIn.
For more coverage on the PRSA 2010 International Conference: Powering PRogress, visit PRSA Intelligence, follow #prsa_ic and the Conference blog.
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