Conference Interrupted

For the second year in a row, the Public Relations Society of America International Conference, scheduled this time in Orlando, Florida, reverted to virtual sessions because of COVID concerns. The pandemic has forced many conferences across the U.S. to go virtual or simply cancel.

The only instance of PRSA/PRSSA canceling its annual gathering was in 2005, when the event scheduled in Miami Beach, (held at the Hotel Fontainebleau, no less) was derailed when Hurricane Wilma battered Miami and South Florida for days before subsiding.

The Hotel Fontainebleau, of course, was featured in the movie Scarface starring Al Pacino in the title role. Despite the fact that the PRSA conference had been scrubbed, the PRSSA event was rescheduled a month later and I would have the opportunity to attend the student conference.

Unfortunately, because it preceded Christmas, air travel was brutal. It was by far the most lengthy, complicated flight I had ever witnessed. After leaving Eugene, my United flight lagged on the tarmac in Denver, causing me to miss my connecting flight to Miami. It would be a very long day.

Instead, I was placed on an American Airlines flight to Orlando, then Miami. I arrived at the Hotel Fontainebleau at 2 a.m. without my luggage, tired and bedraggled. Hastening to the lobby bar for a drink, the bartender says: "your shirt sucks." I was taken aback.

I apologized for my disheveled condition as the bartender served me a rum and Coke. He said, "no, it's the message on your shirt," a University of Oregon logo. "Huh?" I asked. "You see, I'm an Oregon State University Beaver." We both laughed. "No hard feelings," he noted. "My name is Carl."

We became friends after learning we both attended the same high school in Portland. That week, he would detail the sordid underbelly of Miami Beach, a hotbed of crime, drug trafficking and shady characters. Meanwhile, I spent most of the week at the conference without my baggage.

Conference highlights included meeting Betsy Plank, a woman pioneer in the field of public relations, and otherwise spending time with the executive team of the UO chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America, exploring Miami Beach and visiting "Mango's Tropical Cafe," a risqué bar.