October, 2018
Wasn’t the 2018 PRism Award dinner enjoyable? Much of the credit for this goes to incoming president Shawn Smith, who was determined that the PRism event would be anything but boring – and she succeeded. For those of you that missed it, not only did we get to mix and mingle with LA’s brightest communications professionals, the food was great, the live band incredible, and the show itself engaging. The fabulous co-hosts Michaela Pereira (HLN) and Sam Rubin (KTLA) made sure the evening was entertaining, and hearing about the fabulous work of fellow communications pros was inspirational.
Highlights of the evening included the well-deserved presentations of PR Pro of the Year to Brian O’Conner of Princess Cruises and PR Team of the Year for the pros at Netflix. The Dodgers, fresh off their Game 5 Championship Series win, were recognized for their community service initiatives with a Joseph Roos Community Service Award. Fiona Hutton & Associates won Best in Show for their remarkable Southern California Water Coalition’s WaterNext Campaign.
I personally enjoyed surprising Vicky Lelash with recognition for her contributions to the profession and the community, most notably being the co-founder and manager of Quality Time, a program that pairs PR pros with non-profits. Since she also volunteered to help with the PRism Award show, it was not easy to keep it a secret, but she — being more of a behind-the-scenes-type — would have tried to talk us out of it otherwise.
Kudos to all those who worked on PRism this year (you can check out the winners here) and thank you.
Diane Rhodes Bergman, APR
2018 PRSA-LA President
