RCC to host PRIMA Conference September 14-16
Robeson Community College will be the host for the upcoming PRIMA Conference taking place September 14 to September 16. PRIMA, which stands for Public Relations, Information, and Marketing Association, serves marketing professionals from all 58 community colleges in North Carolina.
“We are excited that we were able to bring the PRIMA conference to Lumberton this year,” stated Cheryl Hemric, the President of PRIMA and public information officer for Robeson Community College. “We have a lot of great speakers lined up, as well as fun events to get conference goers out and about in Robeson County, so they can have a chance to experience our culture and all that our community has to offer.”
Ekaterina Walter will be the keynote speaker at the 2022 PRIMA Conference in Lumberton
Among the speakers for this year conference includes globally recognized business and marketing innovator, Ekaterina Walter who will serve as the keynote speaker. Walter is an international speaker and author of the Wall Street Journal Bestseller Think Like Zuck and co-author of The Power of Visual Storytelling and The Laws of Brand Storytelling.
“Ekaterina is a pioneer in social media and digital marketing, we are so happy that she will be attending our conference and speaking to all of our members,” stated Hemric. “She has a great deal of knowledge in marketing, so this will be a great chance for everyone to learn from her experiences in the industry.”
Each person attending the conference will receive an autographed copy of Ekaterina’s book, The Laws of Brand Storytelling.
“I love this book because I feel like that’s what we as marketing professionals in the community college system do – we tell the story of our students. It’s not about us, the story is truly about our students and the success that they achieve through the quality education they receive while attending a community college,” Hemric said. “The success of our students is our success as a college.”
Other speakers lined up for the conference include many familiar faces from Robeson Community College.
- RCC President Melissa Singler, along with Roanoke-Chowan Community College President Dr. Murray Williams, will both serve on a panel discussion about the future of community colleges
- Kenneth Bowen, the director of institutional planning and research, will make two presentations on social media titled What are you #tweeting? and Leveraging LinkedIn.
- The Director of IT, Derek Miller and Chief Information Officer, Vice President of IT, Dustin Long, will give a presentation centered around cybersecurity for marketing professionals, titled Zero Trust C.Y.A (Cover Your Assets)
- The RCC Counseling Department will also present during the conference, offering a workshop titled Self-care for Creative Professionals. The workshop will be delivered by Samantha Oxendine, Cynthia Quintero, and Susan Moore.
The conference will also feature presenters from Coastal Carolina University; Horry-Georgetown Technical College; NC State University; Fayetteville State University, and Guilford Technical Community College, as well as experts from the corporate world who work in SEO, digital marketing, and graphic design.
“We have speakers coming from Oregon, Nebraska, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, and North Carolina,” stated Hemric. “Marketing professionals from across the country will be descending upon Robeson Community College next week.”
In addition to fine tuning their craft in marketing, PRIMA members will also have a chance to learn about the Lumbee Tribe, the largest tribe East of the Mississippi River.
“The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina will be presenting a cultural exhibition to the group at the Cultural Center in Maxton,” Hemric said. “We are so excited about that unique opportunity; we know that it’s going to be a great event and that it will be one of the highlights of the conference.”
To date, attendees from 23 of the 58 community colleges have registered for the event, including
- Brunswick Community College in Bolivia
- Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute in Hudson
- Carteret Community College in Morehead City
- Central Carolina Community College in Sanford
- Cleveland Community College in Shelby
- College of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City
- Craven Community College in New Bern
- Davidson-Davie Community College in Thomasville
- Fayetteville Technical Community College in Fayetteville
- Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown
- Haywood Community College in Clyde
- Isothermal Community College in Spindale
- James Sprunt Community College in Kenansville
- Johnston Community College in Smithfield
- Piedmont Community College in Roxboro
- Pitt Community College in Greenville
- Richmond Community College in Hamlet
- Robeson Community College
- Rowan Cabarrus Community College in Salisbury
- Sampson Community College in Clinton
- Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst
- Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh
- Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro
“This will be our first conference since COVID hit. We hope more colleges will register in the coming week,” Hemric said. “This conference will help bring more engagement among marketing professionals from the ‘Great 58,’ as we seek ways to enhance our skills so that we can continue to tell the story of how education transforms lives and can give people hope for a better future.”
The 2022 PRIMA Conference is sponsored by the generous support of CLARUS Corporation, compulseEDU, VisionPoint Marketing, Springer Studios, and Aperture Content Marketing.
“Without the support of our sponsors, PRIMA would not exist,” stated Hemric. “We thank our sponsors for their generous support and for the value that they see in community colleges and the educational opportunities that we provide. We hope that our members will take time to visit with each sponsor at their booths to learn more about the products and services they provide.”
