Last month, public relations professionals from all over the world traveled to Texas for ICON 2022, an annual event hosted by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). We were more than happy to join them all there because we just had to celebrate and support the return of PR events!
What are PRSA and ICON?
PRSA is one of the biggest non-profit organizations for PR professionals. Founded in 1947, it’s celebrating its 75th anniversary this year!
The organization serves as lifelong support for PR professionals, with individual career needs met through a robust network of 110 chapters and 14 professional interest sections.
Many members become a part of the organization while still in college through its popular student organization, the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). Chapters can currently be found on 375 college and university campuses.ICON is their international industry conference, and every year it puts the spotlight on a different theme. After 3 long years, the event was finally in-person again (and was one of the PR conferences we included in our 2022 must-attend PR conferences list).
ICON 2022: This Year’s Theme & Topics
The conference took place in Dallas from Nov. 13-15. The theme of this year’s event was “The Power of Influence.”
Over 1000 attendees from all over the world gathered for the event, which included an impressive line-up of keynote speakers like football icon Emmitt Smith, Oscar-award-winning actor and director, Marlee Matlin, and Katty Kay of BBC News.
135 speakers led more than 12 topic tracks that covered everything PR pros love to discuss with their colleagues, like reputation and crisis management, digital communication, leadership and management, tools and techniques, and Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG).
Our impression was that the ESG and DE&I tracks were the most popular, but there were a lot of great takeaways from the full agenda.
The Networking Opportunities
Since we were finally returning in person, all attendees wanted to connect! The PRSA built networking parties and networking opportunities into the ICON evening schedule. The ICON organizers even introduced an app for attendees that allowed us to connect through online conversations too.
Hop on over to the ICON 2022 gallery to see the event photos.
Prowly participated in this event for the first time. Since we have a partnership with PRSA, we hosted an exhibition booth. It was an amazing opportunity to meet with speakers and attendees and chat about PR software. We gathered so many industry insights.
We also wanted to add some fun to our booth, so we organized a social media vending machine for attendees.
Conclusion: ICON is a Must-Attend PR Event
We walked away convinced that ICON is a must-attend event for any PR professional that wants to get inspired, learn new things, and network with other PR pros.
Here’s what others had to say about the success of ICON 2022:
💬 John Bomier, Vice President, Meetings and Events at Public Relations Society of America (PRSA):
"PRSA’s 2022 ICON – PRSA’s first in-person ICON since pre-COVID/2019 – was a success on every level.
Attending the show were communications leaders from the world’s top organizations. In addition to networking with each other face-to-face, attendees also met one-on-one with the industry’s leading solution providers, who were exhibiting at the show, and learned about the latest industry trends from PRSA ICON’s dynamic lineup of speakers.
We’re looking to build on this success and offer even more great networking and learning opportunities at 2023 ICON, to be held in Nashville, TN Oct 15-17, 2023."
💬 Samuel Chen, Head of Marketing, FullIntel:
"It took 3 years to bring everyone together to #PRSAICON2022 and it was truly iconic. We got to reunite the Fullintel team across the globe, and made some amazing friends I will always call my BFFs... we saw some high-scores, we heard some screaming and laughs at the Media Monitoring Toss-Up Challenge, and we finally had some damn good BBQ at the end.
It's amazing to see the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) community in person (after so many years) and I really can't wait to share these memories and some new stories with everyone from #ICON2022!"
💬 Jeremy Satyawan Putra, Public Relations Major:
"Trust, authenticity, and confidence go a long way in the world of PR! Grand ol’ time at #PRSSAICON2022 ! Thank you @PRSSANational @PRSA for holding such a great conference! Can’t wait till next year! :))"
Prowly was able to secure some very cool partnerships and projects thanks to the connections we made at the event. We’re definitely going to return in the 2023 ICON event.
