Don’t Cancel Your Professional Development

Cancelled. Postponed. Virtual. Ugh.

Finally.

In-person. PR agency peers together for real live interaction … in NASHVILLE. If you know me, you know I love live music, especially country music.  I adore being in the media tent and media pits at our client music festivals as much as swaggy seats in boxes.

Combining the lost luxury of in-person professional development with live music was just perfect and set the stage (I’M SORRY) for a little reflection.

The ability to travel and remove myself from the day-to-day was an important investment in time—and it was well worth it. Arriving the night before and researching places to go was fun and prepared my mind for new things. I got lucky – into a sold-out songwriters showcase and had a great dinner. On my own but not at all lonely. I was in Nashville ultimately to learn from other agency owners and come back better for the Common Ground PR team and our clients. This was the perfect springboard for creativity.

The PRSA Counselors Academy conference brought about 80 agency people together where we explored legal issues with online influencers; discussed the importance of human motivation and psychology in getting people to do things; reaffirmed the importance of what we do and that doing it well matters; recognized that how we cultivate junior people and interns helps direct our collective futures; and many other topics related to how agencies thrive (the business of agencies) for our clients (the “why” of agencies).

I learned a lot and CGPR will be better for our connection with Counselors Academy—in particular, the value of one-on-one interactions with the other attendees who shared success and heartbreak, signed books and gave promises of support.

If you have opportunities for professional development, take them! Go to the conference. Read the book. Do the thing.