Quotes Corner: Reflections from the 2026 PR & Comms Summit
What does the PR & Comms Summit look like through the eyes of the next generation of communicators? Four students from Quotes, UCF’s Ad/PR Club, joined us at the 2026 Summit and are sharing their takeaways, favorite moments and insights from the experience.
Read on for four unique student perspectives on what they learned, the connections they made and how the Summit helped bring the PR profession to life.
Lilly Maleski is an upcoming December 2026 graduate with a degree in Advertising and Public Relations. She is also the president of Quotes, the Ad/PR Club at UCF.
The 2026 PR and Comms Summit hosted by FPRA was an incredible and educational experience, especially from a student perspective.
One of my biggest takeaways was that no matter where you are in your career, there is always an opportunity to grow, learn, and become a better public relations professional. As someone preparing to enter the industry, it can feel intimidating to absorb the wealth of advice and knowledge taught in college courses. However, being surrounded by professionals at every stage of their careers – including those who have retired and continue to learn – was a reassuring reminder that professional growth never truly stops.
A couple sessions stood out to me, even among a Summit filled with insightful speakers. Peter Shankman, the founder of HARO, opened the Summit with a witty and impactful keynote on how to remain relevant in an ever-changing digital media landscape. Melissa Benhaim, founder of Benhaim PR, also left a lasting impression as she walked the audience through the formula behind an award-winning pitch that landed coverage in outlets such as The New York Times. Both speakers shared valuable lessons drawn from their own professional experiences that I know will continue to guide me throughout my career.
Spending three days surrounded by hundreds of public relations practitioners and hearing about their personal and professional journeys has changed the way I view my own professional future. Whether someone has spent their entire career with one company, explored different opportunities along the way, or built their own practice or firm, Summit showed me that success can be defined in many different ways. That perspective has made me more confident as I prepare to enter an uncertain and ever-changing workforce.
Moving forward, the connections I made and the knowledge I gained at Summit will stay with me as I take my next professional steps. Knowing that I will have the opportunity to work alongside talented, passionate, and hardworking public relations professionals is an honor and privilege. I am excited to carry these lessons with me as I begin the next chapter of my career.
Anna Petitjean Nieves is a senior at the University of Central Florida studying Advertising/Public Relations with a minor in Psychology. She is passionate about social media, public relations and strategic communications and is currently building her experience through agency work, student leadership and professional development opportunities.
Attending the 2026 FPRA PR & Comms Summit as a student scholarship recipient from the FPRA Orlando Area Chapter gave me something I honestly did not expect to walk away with: perspective.
My biggest takeaway from Summit was how valuable it is to put yourself in rooms with people who are already doing the kind of work you hope to do one day. Over just a few days, I met communications professionals from different companies, cities and career paths, and those conversations gave me a much clearer idea of what my own future could look like.
One of my favorite sessions was “If It Doesn’t Hit Social, Did It Even Happen?” featuring Matt Korn, Connor Hachey and Everett Brothers. As someone who already loves social media and is interested in where it overlaps with PR, this session felt especially relevant to me. Hearing how they approach real-time content, digital strategy and staying relevant online made me even more excited about the direction the communications industry is heading.
The networking was just as valuable as the sessions. Before Summit, I think I viewed networking as something that had to feel very formal or perfectly planned. Instead, some of the best conversations I had happened simply because I introduced myself, asked a question or stayed after a session to talk with a speaker.
I left Summit feeling more confident in what I want to pursue, but also more aware of how much there still is to learn. Moving forward, I want to be more intentional about putting myself in new spaces, connecting with people whose careers inspire me and continuing to build my skills in both social media and public relations.
I’m incredibly grateful to the FPRA Orlando Area Chapter for giving me the opportunity to attend Summit through its student scholarship. This experience gave me the chance to learn, connect and grow in ways I know I’ll carry with me as I continue building my career.
Camryn Licata is a senior at the University of Central Florida majoring in Advertising and Public Relations. She is the Vice President of Operations for Quotes, the Ad/PR Club at UCF.
FPRA PR and Comms Summit offers opportunities for learning, networking and career development. As a student, Summit provided further insight and understanding into the public relations industry.
The two seminar days were educational sessions filled with knowledge that can be carried into future endeavors. General Session 2, Who’s in Charge Here? Navigating the Age of Agentic AI with Alex Mahadevan gave a deep dive into the world of agentic AI and what it means for the profession of public relations. For students and young professionals, this session emphasized the importance of ethical decision-making when using AI, which counteracts more frequent sightings of AI slop on the internet. Mahadevan believes that the value of human connection is only increasing as AI increases and that AI should be seen as a tool. This is a refreshing point of view, as many people are quick to turn to AI without fully understanding how to use it. He described a trust ladder for using agentic AI and said that it is important to put every task through this. This is a process to have human verification at every step of the process when using AI to make sure that the proper message and information are being properly shared.
General Session 3, If It Doesn’t Hit Social, Did it Even Happen? was a panel discussing social media and brand relevancy. It was moderated by Allison Carter and featured Matt Korn, executive director of social media at MGM Resorts International, Connor Hachey, Vice President of Global Digital Strategy at Virgin Music Group, and Everett Brothers, creative and social media leader formerly with Madison Square Gardens. This panel highlighted how public relations and social media can have powerful synergy. Brothers mentioned how communication between teams helps this synergy so both social media and public relations can dictate their own strategies. With great storytelling, social media can help to share messages of a brand to its audiences. The biggest takeaway from this panel is the importance of authenticity. Hachey described authenticity as something without an agenda, which is key when aiming to gain trust on social media from audiences. Following this, Brothers mentioned how the most success comes from being vulnerable with the brand and that you won’t learn anything by playing it safe and not trying new things. Korn emphasized that quality will win out and to focus on telling a great story to the audience, rather than the bottom line. They also all noted that while metrics are key, instead of focusing only on paid content, organic content tends to perform better and can then be moved to paid content after.
Overall, the 2026 PR and Comms Summit was a great learning experience, and I look forward to taking the knowledge I gained with me in my future endeavors.
Andrew Bower is an award-winning graduate of the University of Central Florida’s Advertising/Public Relations program, and he is focused on building relationships, strategies, and solving problems in hospitality, higher education and cultural heritage.
Research, Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation, or RPIE, was one of the first frameworks I learned in my first PR course, Intro to PR. As I pursued PRSA’s Certificate in Principles of Public Relations this year, this framework came back into my life in full force. When I had the idea for a portfolio workshop to prepare students for internship opportunities at our FPRA student chapter’s biannual internship fair, it made sense to use this simple framework to build a strong workshop and campaign. Over two weeks, I built everything: strategy briefs, slide decks, promotional graphics and emails, and follow-up surveys. After an extremely successful execution, we pulled all of our materials, surveys, and results together for a strong submission to the FPRA Golden Image Awards. For a while, it felt like my whole life revolved around RPIE for a few weeks.
At this year’s PR and Comms Summit, I heard from incredible speakers covering topics like AI, pitch writing, internal communications strategies, and game-based strategies for engagement. These sessions covered topics I had learned from textbooks in the classroom, with far more nuance in regard to their application in professional settings.
The biggest standout from Summit was Blair Bloomston, who pulled the whole session into a highly engaging word game based on Zoltar, from the film Big (1998). After only 20 minutes, our attention was locked down for the remainder of the session. This session focused on gamification of campaign strategies, which would fall under the P in RPIE. For a student like me, the research is pretty standard stuff, so the next step is where more difficulty pops up. With three categories of engagement activities, planning was simplified to a way that feels far less intimidating.
One of my biggest takeaways from this year’s Summit is just how important and sometimes easy networking can be, especially for students. It can feel daunting at first, but there are so many opportunities at a conference like this that you wouldn’t normally have at a mixer or happy hour. As a student, you take a seat and listen to an expert, seated next to industry professionals – you’re literally in a classroom. Take advantage of your home environment, start a turn-and-talk discussion before or after, and a connection can be forged just like that.
I realized during this conference the weight and power of the RPIE framework in the industry. To take this methodology and attain an award-winning project as a student was no small feat, but it also wasn’t unachievable. As I approach new projects professionally and personally, RPIE has become my exact methodology, especially when I encounter problems. Research first, plan with intentionality, implement strategies, and evaluate success throughout the process. The fact that this way of thinking applies to almost anything is part of why I love PR, and I’m excited to continue applying my learnings from this year’s PR and Comms Summit.
