Our Final Goodbye Erica Lombardo March 31, 2022

Our Final Goodbye

Emerge logo with just the "EM" on a multicolour mosaic background

After a successful in-person and virtual conference, Emerge 2022: The Media Reset is complete!
The public relations and media business students of Guelph-Humber took to the stage alongside some amazing guest speakers on March 29, at the Barrett Centre, a location shared with our great University of Guelph-Humber. The following day, March 30, our conference was hosted online! This featured various guest speakers, including a ‘campfire session’ where guests of Emerge were able to interact with varying media specialists, and in-depth questions were answered to highlight their specialization. I have to say, that was my favourite part! 

This blog is going to be a special one. After our conference, each member of the writing and editing team wants to share a little of their experience, both assisting in hosting and attending the in-person and virtual conference. 

Here are the PR team leads after a successful day. There I am!

Thank you all for such an amazing experience.

  • Erica, AFK

Hello for the last time, faithful readers! I feel like I’m still processing the fact that Emerge is over now – an entire academic year’s worth of work finished in the blink of an eye! Abby here, thankful to be typing instead of speaking after two full days of hosting for Emerge: The Media Reset. 

We are so thankful for all of the amazing industry professionals that took part in Emerge. Without all of our classmates, we wouldn’t have been able to deliver the vast range of media experiences that attendees of Emerge: The Media Reset received. I learned so much through the many interactive sessions the conference had. We provided experiences in photography, videography, virtual reality, storytelling, panel discussions, TikTok and more! I particularly enjoyed the Campfire Stories session organized by my classmates Ava, Braeden, Nitasha and Olivia. This session felt so personal, honest, and comfortable, and I loved hearing about the different industry experts!

My co-host Aliyah and I in front of the gorgeous Emerge backdrop. We had a blast hosting!

Shout-out to my wonderful writing and editing team members, Erica, Matthew, and Manuel. You have all been a pleasure to work with, and I’m glad we got closer this year. I think we can all be very proud of the content we produced. To my fellow PR students – especially our hard-working, fantastic executive directors, Tanny and Giuliana – congratulations on organizing an amazing conference, we did it! And to the entire fourth-year Media and Communication Studies Emerge team, it’s been a great ride. 

  • Abby,  signing off for the final time.

Hi everybody! It’s Matt writing to you one last time after Emerge: the Media Reset. It is wild to think that this is it, it’s over, after an entire school year of hard work that was shared by my classmates and I. First, I want to thank my colleagues from the writing and editing team, Erica, Manuel and Abby. The four of us worked so hard, night and day this semester to present some incredible written content, and I am so happy that it all paid off. Furthermore, I want to thank the other teams in the PR stream for working tirelessly all year in tandem with us. Much of what we did could not have been done without you. I would also like to thank all of our guest speakers for coming out this year. I loved hearing from each and every one of them as they provided us with incredible insight into the media industry. Finally, I want to thank you, our wonderful readers, who stuck with the writing team all semester and made blogging as fun as it was. 

My favourite part of the conference was seeing how all of the hard work, across every specialization in our program, came together to make one glorious conference. I had so much fun spending those long days and nights with my classmates as we set up for the conference, and as we got to watch it all unfold. 

I even enjoyed some of my time in the cold helping our guest speakers with parking!

Before I sign off and let my colleagues speak, I just want to congratulate everyone in my PR family, for putting such a fantastic conference together. I would also like to give a shout-out to our executive directors, Giuliana Donia and Tanny Chiu! 

It’s been a pleasure working with everyone in the Media and Communications Studies program. I wish all of you the best of luck in the future.

With that being said, it’s time for me to pack my bags for the next adventure. Should I see you on the way, remember to stay safe and stay curious.

  • Matt, logging off for good.

Well, that was quite an experience, both for the fourth-year students who brought it to life and for the attendees, like you, who got to sit back and enjoy the final product. All of the media and communication studies students who worked to create, organize and produce each component of the conference have now learned first-hand just how complex it is to put on an event of this caliber. As for the attendees, well they got the fun, exciting, and insightful conference that we told them they could expect.

I enjoyed listening to all of the guest speakers who were kind enough to share their stories and perspectives with us. Their willingness to share their unique experiences is special, and their stories give listeners inspiration, motivation, and guidance to work towards achieving their personal and career goals. I for one felt that our keynote speaker, Jian Magen, delivered a talk that was really relevant and encouraging.

The story of what motivated him and his twin brother, Page, to launch an event and entertainment production company taught us the importance of being open to pursuing unexpected opportunities. It’s that openness and willingness to go down different roads that also helped them recover from the devastating financial impact that the pandemic had on the business.

The triumphant story of the Magen brothers seems simple when it is neatly summarized in a keynote speech but it clearly took a lot of strength, resilience and determination to achieve. While answering an attendee’s question, Jian mentioned that his approach to avoid being overwhelmed by the gravity of a large goal or situation is to simply break it down into steps.

By taking it step by step, and realizing that nothing good in life comes quickly, Jian avoids falling into the trap of catastrophizing everything. It is clear that this powerful perspective allowed him to manage the difficult situation that the pandemic, an actual catastrophe, put him and his brother in. It’s safe to say that we at UofGH were lucky to have someone as funny, charismatic and humble as Jian start off both day one and two of the conference.

The conference was jammed with amazing sessions so I’m sure that there were many standout moments for all of you. Ultimately we hope that you felt energized, had a laugh, learned something and left Emerge: The Media Reset with an even greater passion for the media industry.

  • Manuel, powering off.

With love, your Emerge 2022 Writing and Editing Team