PR day

Today was the public relations and advertising focus day which entailed two lectures from two different agencies. We began our day by walking a good distance early in the morning to meet Gerry Davis, chief executive of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland, PRII. PR II started in 1953 and has a core membership of 750. The cost of membership is 320 euros or 210 dollars. He started talking about the political background of Ireland which of course is bicameral and transitioning to its role in Ireland. He said it is a small industry that has a lot of one man groups. He also said that the industry is 70 percent female. Bob O’Gara, Point Park’s PR professor that came along on the trip agreed. He has noticed in his classes that the majority of students are women. Most agencies downsize because of the economy. He said that usually the public relation is the first thing to get cut. In the end, everyone agreed that in order to work in the field of communications you need to be able to write, take photos and shoot video.

Immediately after that we had another lecture by Jo Wood, an account planner from Ogilvy & Mather. I was responsible for taking photos at this event. I got a lot of photos from the back, left-hand side and front of the room. She showed numerous advertising campaigns. She spent a significant amount of time on the HSE National Office for suicide prevention mental health and young people campaign. The rate of suicide among young men in Ireland is higher than the European average. It promoted teens to support each other.

We ate lunch at a burger place near Grafton Street. Afterwards we stopped by a Dunnes Store in St. Stephen’s court. The Dunnes Store is very similar to Target in the U.S. From buying souvenirs and food for meals, it amazes me how quickly I am becoming familiar with the monetary system here in Ireland. The people here are very friendly. Whenever I have asked a local for directions not once have I been given the cold shoulder or a dirty look. It truly does make my stay here a much more enjoyable one. When we finally came back to our apartment at 2:30 in the afternoon, a roommate said that it felt like 6 p.m. I wanted to take a nap but I had lots of photos to edit.