This blog post was written by PR intern Kaitlin Murphy.
As a junior at Florida State University, I’m in the College of Business pursuing a major in Marketing and a minor in Communications. This fall I began an internship with Kidd Group Communication Design as a Public Relations Intern under Ivette Marques, APR Public Relations Director. Although my major is in the business field I believe that marketing, public relations, and advertising are very connected with one another. With this internship I hope to gain as much experience in the PR field that is not accessible in the classroom.
The internship has provided me a chance to research companies, write press releases, be involved in the promotion of community events, and gain an overall better understanding of the industry. The biggest accomplishment that I have been a part of was the Women Against MS Luncheon held last month. The luncheon was sponsored by the North Florida Chapter with the goal to raise funds for research to help find ways to prevent, better treat, and even cure this unpredictable disease. We helped promote the event by distributing posters to local doctor’s offices around Tallahassee to raise awareness of the event. We also reached out to local businesses for their donations of gift certificates and products to be raffled off in gift baskets. This resulted in the largest luncheon in the twelve year history of the event; raising more than $27,000 and having an attendance of over 300 people. It was really great to be involved in such a huge event and to have this much of an impact on those affected by MS.
Not only was this experience with WAMS great to be involved in because of the community aspect but also the value added to my understanding of what goes into planning a major event. Before this internship I had no idea how many people it took to pull everything off. From the centerpieces on the tables to the promotion of the event not one step in the planning process can be overlooked to run an event smoothly. The knowledge gained through this event and all the hard work put in makes me really proud to be apart of the Kidd team and the WAMS Luncheon.