Success wouldn’t be possible without learning from your mistakes. But in order to learn from mistakes, we have to make mistakes—and that’s what this year’s PR Summit is all about.

Join us at PRSA Pittsburgh's annual PR Summit as we discuss how past failures, and learning from those failures, shape us as professionals—and how overcoming obstacles can help advance your career.

This year's Summit will take place at Pittsburgh's leading boutique hotel, the Ace Hotel. Food and drinks will be provided by the Ace Hotel's Whitfield.

PR Summit Sessions

• 5:30PM-6:00PM – Networking, Registration & Food
  

• 6:00PM-6:30PM – Finding Your Passion Through Failure

  • Jason Clark, Actor, Comedian, General Manager, Arcade Comedy Theater
    • After years of building a successful career in business, a few setbacks led Jason to find his passion in the entertainment industry – an industry filled with failures, judgement and excitement. Finding ways to harness your failures to fuel your passion is critical in any industry – especially in the world of comedy.

• 6:30PM-7:30PM – Live and Learn: Putting Failure to Work for Us
  

  • Dr. John Hull, Professor of Psychology, Bethany College
    • More important than avoiding failure – because we can’t, really – is learning from failure. We’ll discuss the psychological impact of failing, and how we can respond positively to failure.

• 7:30PM-7:45PM – Break

• 7:45PM-8:30PM – Panel Discussion: The PR Career Path Involves a Lot of Wrong Turns

  • Dan Sprumont, Lead Digital Experience Owner, Highmark Health
  • Lily Whorl, Fellow, Red Havas
  • Stacey Federoff, Communicator and Public Relations Graduate Student, Point Park University
    
  • Moderated by Steve Radick, SVP, BCW Global
    • PR professionals from very different backgrounds in and very different points in their careers will discuss the trials and tribulations they’ve faced as they climb, fall down, and go around the PR career ladder.

• 8:30PM-9:00PM – Good Intention, Bad Result: How Saving a Holiday Tradition Earned Me the Title ‘Scrooge’

  • Hollie Geitner, Vice President, Culture & Brand Ambassador, WordWrite
    • Learning the lesson, “not everyone cares,” is a tough one when your job as a communicator is to help others understand WHY they should care. But saving a beloved holiday tradition proved to be harder than Hollie thought. After being publicly called a “Scrooge,” she learned valuable lessons in message preparation and consistency as well as emotionally detaching yourself from a story so you can better anticipate and prepare for challenges.
      
      

• 9:00PM-9:05PM – Closing Remarks
  
  

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Thanks to our 2019 sponsor!

Researchscape International is an agile survey-research consultancy and SaaS firm delivering PR surveys, omnibus surveys, automated reporting tools and other research-related services to marketers and agencies. Its surveys are frequently used to drive thought leadership, support content creation and help grow organizations’ public profiles. Custom surveys support product launches, crisis communications, customer satisfaction and more.