How Comms Guru & Founder Of The PR Net Lisa Smith Put Her Stylish Stamp On The Industry

We recently held our first Next Gen Awards program, which celebrates younger talent in the industry (eligible agencies can only have been trading 8 years at most). It was a joy to attend the gala event where I met a lot of the founders, hearing what the accolade meant to them and seeing what an incredibly dynamic and diverse group it was. It was heartening to know that the upcoming generation of PR agency owners can look, and work differently than the past generation and it felt so rewarding to highlight their work.

We also run a BIPOC Mentorship Program, where we match students or recent graduates of color with very seasoned mentors in our field. It’s always heartwarming to see the connections made there – some of the mentees end up working with their mentors, or just staying connected for the long term. I’m inspired by both the mentees and the mentors, who say they learn a lot from one another and it’s great to see very successful people in our industry reach back.

I also still get a kick from little things like hearing ‘I hired our new recruit from meeting them at one of your events’ to ‘I’ve made new friends through the meetings’ to ‘I learned so much from that webinar on…’. One of the biggest highlights was also our recent conference. It felt like a real high point of 7+ years of working on this business, seeing many of the best in the industry come together for our event.

[Lisa Smith, Larry Milstein]