Members, non-members, seasoned professionals and PR students were gathered, at the Toronto Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) annual open house event on October 4, 2011, at the Metropolitan Hotel, in downtown Toronto. More than 250 people had the opportunity to meet this year’s board of directors, learn about their portfolios and the great initiatives planned for the upcoming year.
Current president of CPRS Toronto Vincent Power introduced new board members including Diane Bégin, in charge of Internet and Member Communications, and Laurie Smith, responsible for the Achieving Communications Excellence (ACE) Awards. Bégin, who is a former member of CPRS Edmonton spoke of the new CPRS Toronto blog, open to the general public, and also about the ‘members only’ blog (not yet launched), that will have elements like archived webinars of past CPRS Toronto professional development sessions and useful case studies.
Laurie Smith expressed her excitement in becoming a board member and also talked about the ACE Awards, that each year “celebrates the best of Toronto public relations.” Entrants from corporate, agency, not-for-profit, government sectors and also individuals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in the pursuit of bettering the profession must submit their entries by January 2012. The award ceremony will be held at the end of April.
Laura Ballantyne, CPRS Toronto representative for Students and Mentoring committee, called attention to the diverse crowd present at the open house, members and non-members who also came from places like Durham and Oshawa.
The need for volunteers was pointed out by many of the event’s speakers. “All of our activities are run solely by volunteers, so it’s very important to get out there. It’s a great way to network, to build your own portfolio and to contribute with the society in this profession,” said Heather Agnew, volunteer committee representative.
Click play below to view images courtesy of The Canadian Press.