The School of Communication and Media kicked off its 2016-2017 Colloquium Speaker Series with its first event in the Social Sciences building Thursday, Sept. 22.
The event’s keynote speaker was Scott Williamson, the vice president of Public Affairs and Communication at Coca-Cola North America. The theme for this year’s series is “Empowering World-Ready Communicators,” and Williamson offered advice and inspiring lessons to students seeking careers in communication.
“It is a great pleasure and an honor to be a part of this colloquium today,” he said. “I want to be able to leave these students with a little something they did not know before.”
Williamson shared his “six lessons learned,” some of the most important lessons that he has learned in his 24 years at Coca-Cola.
“After pondering over what I would share today, I realized that the one thing I have is 24 years of experience, which is really just a nice way of saying I’m old,” Williamson joked.
His six lessons included:
- Ignore the data
- Be simple, be clear, be awesome
- Shine your own shoes and iron your own shirt
- Question the impossible
- Hold out for both marshmallows
With each one he presented, Williamson shared personal stories from work as well as his life at home. He also shared his experience with millennials in the workplace.
“Your single greatest personal marketing asset is the one thing that you — to one degree or another — have incredible intuition about that people of my generation have zero intuition about,” Williamson said. “And that is social media.”
After his speech, Williamson answered students’ questions. Leaving the auditorium, many students said they found the presentation inspiring and took note of the advice offered.
“I thought it was amazing,” said freshman communication major Jessie Romines. “It was a truly inspiring speech from a man who works for a truly inspiring company.”
While many found it helpful, some of the students that have been attending KSU longer claim it was similar to the School of Communication and Media’s past events.
“I just feel like I’ve heard it all before,” said senior communication major Jon Highsmith. “This is their fourth colloquium, and it feels like the speakers they invite every year always give the same advice.”
Senior lecturer Thomas Gray mentioned, however, that while this is the school’s fourth colloquium, it is heading in a different direction this year. Instead of inviting more speakers to a singular colloquium, the school is holding two events over the course of the year with more prominent speakers. The next event in the colloquium speaker series is scheduled for sometime next semester.
At the end of the event, student organizations set up tables with handouts to teach attendees more about the opportunities available to them. Organizations present included the Society of Professional Journalists, Lambda Pi Eta and the Public Relations Student Society of America.
Representatives from the School of Communication and Media advising center and career planning center also attended to answer questions.
