Recently I was invited to speak at the Council of PR Firms annual Internfest.  According to a survey that the Council conducted before the event, 43 percent of the interns in attendance recently graduated from college – a trend potentially attributed to the recession.  

The session was great and I could certainly relate with the recent graduates in the room. That’s because when I graduated from Penn State University in 1999, I also decided to take a post-diploma internship. Or, should I say, my impatience and fear of not finding a job encouraged my decision to take a post-graduation internship. Two weeks after throwing my cap, I tapped into my network from a previous position and locked in a Summer internship with Jackson Jackson and Wagner in New Hampshire.

Media relations is still one of the most critical and central aspects of PR. For an Account Coordinator (AC), working closely with media for the first time can be a daunting task. However, most ACs don’t realize that close at hand, they have a constant ally and a loyal resource that will help them overcome their initial reservations and get results. What is it? The good old fashioned telephone.

This week, a team of 10 CK employees participated in the 2010 JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge in Central Park. This is the second year CK has participated in the 3.5 mile race. Though the evening was extremely humid, Team CK still had a great experience.

CooperKatz is looking for another great senior account executive.  Could it be you?

Last week I was invited to participate with a client in a week-long gathering of their PR practitioners from around the world. The company, Amway (for American Way), began in Ada, Michigan in 1959 as a model of entrepreneurialism and free enterprise. It now conducts 90 percent of its business outside of the U.S. Over those 51 years, it built itself into a diverse, multicultural company that operates local businesses in approximately 80 markets around the world. This is very different from a U.S. company that opens a few offices around the world headed by executives sent from HQ.

So how did my experience differ from a meeting of U.S. colleagues and what did I learn in the process?  Read on to see…