On Tuesday, February 5th, members of Temple University’s PRSSA visited Maven Communications for an agency tour. Nestle within the busy streets of Center City Philadelphia, Maven Communication, a women-owned Public Relations firm showed our members a glance at what small, yet powerful, firm-life is like.
We met with one of Maven’s Account Executives Briana Rooney, a former Temple PRSSA member, in the beautifully decorated office of Maven as she showed us around the different office rooms and explained their functions. After the main tour of the office, we proceeded into their conference room to sit down with more members of the Maven team. We had the opportunity to meet with, Jessica Sharp, Maven’s Co-Founder and Principal, as well as Kristin Henitz, an Account Coordinator to get more insight on the field and it’s ever-changing structure.
We first started with a background on each of the office members present and understand the core beliefs and services that this women-driven PR firm offers to clients. Maven is a strategic communications agency that offers public relations, content marketing, social media, and crisis communications to various clients. Maven specializes in real estate, professional services, health care, and nonprofit organizations. Some of Maven’s clients include The Philadelphia Ballet, Design Philadelphia, Bank of America including several more.
It was a treat to sit down with these group of hard-working women and ask how they handle the day to day work that needs to get accomplished as well as the strategy that needs to be applied with each client considering they work with a wide range of clients from large fortune 500 companies to small startups. Jessica Sharp mentioned that they treat all their clients exactly the same, it just depends on how much work needs to be done with each client. She also told us that a lot of their job is staying organized to make sure they get all the work that needs to be done for each client. Briana was also able to chime in and explain that she allots a certain amount of time for each client on a daily basis.
All of the employees at Maven seemed passionate about advising us on what to do in order to prepare yourself for internships and interviews during and after college. The advice given ranged from bringing a breakfast bar and water to interview, to being well versed in AP style writing, to knowing your top three favorite twitter accounts. Briana told us that through internships and experience at other jobs she was able to find the type of Public Relations work she liked to do and expressed how happy she was that she found Maven in this process. Their knowledge and experience left all of us feeling a little more prepared and eager to get out into the workforce.
Visiting Maven’s small aesthetically pleasing and hardworking office was a pleasure for all Temple PRSSA members who attended. I think it’s safe to say that our conversations with the Maven team left Temple PRSSA members feeling more prepared and excited about tackling our future careers. From this experience, PRSSA members learned the importance of being proactive, having good time management skills, and being a communicative team member.
This blog post was written by Olivia Falcone, General Body Member.