Sunday: March 27, 2022

10 a.m.

Registration Opens

12 p.m.-4 p.m.

APR Prep Workshop 

Thinking about earning your Accreditation in Public Relations? In the process of getting your APR? Join NYSPRA Immediate Past-President Adrienne Leon, APR, and your NYSPRA colleagues to have your questions answered about the process and jump into learning. We’ll offer a mock panel presentation, test-taking strategies and more! 

MonDAY: March 28, 2022

7:30 a.m. 

Registration & Exhibits Open

8 a.m.-8:30 a.m.

Breakfast Buffet

8:30 a.m.-9:30 a.m.

Keynote Address

Kevin Deshazo

We are excited to announce best-selling author of Leadership Interrupted: Daily Inspiration to Become the Leader You Were Meant to Be, and Keep Chopping Wood: An Ordinary Approach to Achieving Extraordinary Success, Kevin DeShazo, as our 2022 Conference Keynote Speaker.

Kevin has worked with organizations, leaders and teams around the country, helping them to create healthier cultures and become better leaders. He is a sought after speaker, and is a regular presenter at conferences and conventions, including NACDA, CoSIDA, the NCAA Convention and the Collegiate Athletics Leadership Symposium.

​Kevin is the founder of Fieldhouse Media. He is also the host of The Leadership Minute podcast and co-host of The Sports Leadership Podcast, and has been quoted on ESPN.com, The New York Times, USA Today, Forbes, Bleacher Report, Sports Business Journal and more.

“I've been fortunate to travel all over the country with the primary goal of helping people get better,” DeShazo said. “Better at leading, better at communicating, better at connecting, better at telling their story. I am excited to be speaking at the NYSPRA Conference and working with some incredibly-talented public relations professionals.” 

10 a.m.-11 A.m. General Session

PR Ethics

Jodie Orzechowski, APR, Capital Region BOCES

Whether you're advising your superintendent or facing a tough personal decision in your school PR role, sometimes the "go with your gut" choice leaves you feeling torn over the right path forward. In this session, we'll look at our obligation to ethical conduct, face some ethical dilemmas and move away from the mere belief that being ethical is important, toward an all-encompassing view in which ethics shapes and even determines the moral dimensions of our personal and professional lives. (Note: This session can count toward the ethics requirement for APR Renewal.)

11:15 a.m-12:15 p.m. General Session

Understanding Your Audience and the Narrative That Moves It

Scott Salotto & Bridget Clark, Rockland BOCES

School communications practitioners know that, for some audiences, the narrative is more important than facts. With Facebook trolls, Twitter mobs and fake news feeds overtaking legitimate sources of information, school PR experts must work smarter to craft targeted messaging that moves a community. Learn proven tactics to help focus your time and energy on getting the attention of your audience. Understanding it and how best to talk to it can be the difference between success or failure.

12:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m.

Lunch Buffet/Networking

2:15 p.m.-3:15 p.m. General Session

Winning the War Before the Battle Begins: Using preemptive strikes to prevent contentious meetings/forums from becoming battlefields

Amanda puleo, apr, churchville-chli central school district 

Having a battle plan is essential to any successful mission. Come learn best practices for combating and preventing critics from taking over Board of Education meetings and community forums. Attendees will be armed with strategies to diffuse and disarm misinformed community members without becoming casualties. Expect to leave this session with your own RPIE-based communication plan for your next conflict.

3:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m. General Session

Setting Healthy Workplace Boundaries

Karen nerney, Capital region boces

Healthy workplace boundaries can mean the difference between an enjoyable job experience and total burnout. Particularly in times of high stress (like, say, a pandemic), boundaries are essential to maintaining your physical, emotional and mental well-being and can actually help you be a more effective, efficient employee. Learn tips and tactics to help you better implement boundaries at work and beyond.

5:00-6:00 p.m.

Happy Hour

6:00 p.m.

NYSPRA Dinner: Recognition and Celebration

TuesDAY: March 29, 2022

7:30 a.m.

Registration & Exhibits Open

7:30-8:00 a.m.

Breakfast Buffet

8:00 A.M.-9:00 a.m. gENERAL Session

Get Behind the Wheel: Using Social Media Analytics to Drive Your Communications

kELLY GAGGIN, pH.d., apr, Assistant Teaching Professor, Public Relations, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY

CHRISTY LEROY, Director of Analytics and Research at Digital Hyve

Social media analytics provide excellent strategic insights for your overall communications strategy - when you know how to use them! Attendees will learn best practices in leveraging data gleaned from social media analytics in order to create effective content and strategy for school audiences. Topics covered: analytics tools available, understanding the data, PESO model for PR, data as a driver of effective content and strategy, identifying influencers. Session designed to be inclusive for all levels of experience, budget allocations and PR staff sizes.

9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. General Session

Building a Vision for Thoughtful Communications: The Superintendent-Director of Communications Relationship

Jason mccord & dr. thomas reardon, schalmont central school district

Join us for a conversation about developing a shared vision for communications that focuses on being thoughtful, positive and student-focused. Dr. Reardon and Mr. McCord will share their experiences and strategies over the past two years at Schalmont CSD and five previous years at Wynantskill UFSD. Please bring questions as we discuss building a strong superintendent and communications professional relationship and how relentless positivity, open dialog, and a "table top" approach to communicating information to your respective communities can help ease the challenges facing schools today.

10:45 a.m.-11:45 a.m. 

Breakout Sessions with keynote speaker, Kevin DeShazo

12:00-1:30 p.m.

Lunch and closing remarks

Registration