Flickr Image: Tony the Misfit

BurrellesLuce sponsored the Washington Women in Public Relation’s PR Woman of the Year award on November 4. Sarah Temple, senior vice president of social marketing practice, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, was named the 2009 “Washington PR Woman of the Year.” Also honored were Jody Arlington, managing partner, PR collaborative, and director at Georgetown Entertainment and Media Alliance; and Kirsten Suto Seckler, director of global brand marketing and awareness, Special Olympics. Dana Bash, CNN’s senior congressional correspondent, responsible for covering the activities of both the U.S. House and Senate, keynoted the event.

All four women provided great insight and encouragement to the women (and men) in attendance. I’d like to share a few of their sentiments:

• Look for mentors and then be a mentor yourself. (Bash)
• Don’t be discouraged about the re-hashing of the same topics in the news. Find a new angle which supports your organizations goals and get your story out there. (Bash)
• You are only as good as your colleagues and teams. (Arlington)
• Public Relations professionals are detectives, explorers, athletes, circus performers, and super heroes. (Seckler)
• PR can change lives. Seckler recapped a story of a Special Olympics golfer who is now known for being a golfer, not someone with a brain injury.
• All three Temple, Arlington, and Seckler all share a common passion: they’re curious. For example, Temple works with scientists, and they share our curiosity. She uses it as common ground.

Temple summed it up by quoting Eleanor Roosevelt, “A woman is like a tea bag, you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.”

Have you heard some inspiring words lately? How have you helped to inspire others? Are you mentoring others?

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 9:54 am and is filed under Career Advice, Industry Events, Public Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.