Twitter to the Rescue!

About a week before spring break, several students from the St. Edward's chapter attended the Public Relations Student Society of America's National Assembly. Luckily this year the event was held at downtown Austin's Hyatt Regency, so we had a very small commute compared to others!

A little sidenote-- This event was occuring during SXSW so I was a little concerned about parking (but then again, when in Austin are you not?) I had looked on the website at hotel parking prices and they were running at about ohh.. $18.00 per day. Panicking that I would spend close to about $60.00 dollars just on parking that weekend, I decided to call the Hyatt Regency. I was a little frustrated to be put on hold a few times, but that was really the least of my worries. I asked the concierge if there were any special parking permits that were available to students attending the PRSSA event this weekend.. and the answer was unfortunately a big fat "No."

I was pretty determined not to pay $60.00 so I turned to an alternate method of communication (drum roll please...) SOCIAL MEDIA! I logged on my Twitter account and found the account for the Austin Regency Downtown. I was already live tweeting with the National Assembly hashtag, #prssana, so I decided to tweet the Hyatt about their parking. I asked them, once again, about special parking prices for our event and was instantly retweeted by a few other students who also were concerned. A little less than 20 minutes later, I spotted the Hyatt's reply to my question and it was good news, FINALLY! They made parking only $5.00 for the weekend for us! YES.



I was pretty please that social media saved the day.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hilltoppers Attend PRSSA National Assembly in Hometown

AUSTIN, Texas (March 10, 2010) This week seven St. Edward’s University Chapter members will be attending the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) National Assembly. This year, the National Assembly will be hosted at the Hyatt Regency hotel down located in downtown Austin.

PRSSA will host students and elected chapter delegates around the nation from 248 universities nationwide to come receive leadership training as well as vote on the National Committee representatives. The conference will include a Day of Competition sponsored by CW network and numerous keynote speakers. The Assembly will begin on Thursday March 11th through Sunday, March 14th.

“We are very excited to have the National Assembly hosted in our hometown because it provides our chapter with a greater opportunity to send more students who want to participate and get involved,” says Ally Hugg, Chapter President. Local PRSSA Chapters at The University of Texas, Texas State, and St. Edward’s University will be hosting a “Networking Bingo” that will give students a chance to meet other students and other local Austin- area communication professionals, work on interviewing skills, and discuss recruitment opportunities on Friday March 13th at 5:30 pm.

The St. Edward’s University Chapter will be live tweeting at the Assembly and "Bingo Networking" from @SEUPRSSA and from personal twitter accounts. Students will also be posting information on the Chapter blog and Facebook account.

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Contact:

Courtney Medford

St. Edward’s PRSSA Secretary

cmedfor@stedwards.edu