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Something that everyone seems to agree on is that networking is a key skill that PR professionals need. Luckily for me I had the chance to practice my skills in this area at the recent event Meet the Professionals.

20th February 2019
Marketing, communications and public relationsPublic relations

Meet the professionals is a student-run networking event here at Solent University where students, like me, get the chance to meet and talk to people who are already active across several different industries. This year professionals came from Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing and Communications. The large variation between the companies made me feel that I got a lot of input across the many different paths which my degree can take me down and this in turn made me feel more inspired to continue doing my best on this degree.

During and after the event I have talked to several people about their experience, and the good thing about it is that everyone gained something different from it, as you can see in the quotes below.

“Really useful event to students and professionals in regard to future work and it has been nice to meet other professionals from other areas.” Roxanne Wharton, Specialist Recruiter at Porter Recruitment

 “Meet the professionals is the best place to network and gain professional networks that will definitely be useful in the future.  There was also the opportunity to hear from the guest speakers who gave us an insight into different career options which was really informative.” Tia Scott, Third year PR student.

“Amazing job from the Solent students organising, a very well attended event. It was a great opportunity to meet local talent.” Carolina Filipe, Digital Marketing Executive at GO! Southampton 

“I think it was really good because they give me some tips how to improve my cv and most of them were nice.” Veronika Volfova, First year PR student.

This makes me think that no matter what level you are currently at in your degree or career this is a worthwhile event to attend. Personally, I focused on how to approach different companies regarding work placements and I got some amazing tips on how to tailor my approach to specific placements. For me, I see networking as one of those things that are what you make them, your approach to it is what will make it worthwhile to you. So, if you have the chance to attend next year, I would say do it! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Lastly, I would like to extend a huge thank you to all professionals who attended this event, each and every one, who talked to me was incredibly helpful and the lectures at the start were very informative.  I learned a lot not just about the industry but also about myself. I would also like to thank the student team who organised the event and made it run smoothly, with Felicity and Nicole in the lead.