ECD Chair’s Oct. 2026 Message

OCTOBER IS ICON MONTH

After Historic Hustle in Detroit, It’s on to ICON

Fall is conference season in the East Central District, with September ECD Conference Month followed by October ICON Month. The outrageous success of our “Built on Hustle” ECD Conference Sept. 17-18 in Detroit means we transition to ICON Oct. 17-20 in Orlando with not just a hand-off, but a resounding high five!

Across PRSA, members are saying they want live, in-person networking events like “Built on Hustle.” For many, ICON is financially and geographically out of reach. That’s why an emerging message from ECDC is the need for a complementary relationship between chapter or district conferences and ICON.

PRSA CEO Matt Marcial and National Chair Heide Harrell attended both days of the “Built on Hustle” events and led off the conference with a “nothing off the table” Fireside Chat. “PRSA should be seen as one voice,” Matt said in his opening remarks on PRSA relevance. “Not everyone can attend ICON, but people can get benefit where they are.”

“It’s an age-old question,” Heide agreed. “How will you go back to chapter after today and say, this is what the ECD did for me, what it taught me, the people I met. I have to talk about it and not be isolated. I have to explain the value, and the value in national.”

As proud chair of ECD, I will take every chance I get to sing the praises of the Built on Hustle East Central District Conference, and specifically ECD Conference Chair Kim Skeltis, the ECDC Conference Committee, and PRSA Detroit. Minus any one of you, a district conference might have debuted in Detroit… but it would not have soared into the stratosphere as it did during two splendid days in September.

We owe special thanks to Kim, Sponsorship Committee Chair Maribeth Farkas, all our sponsors and PRSA Detroit leaders: President Antonice Strickland, Past President TaQuinda Cylar and President-Elect Jeff Adkins.

To build on the conference theme, you absolutely Built it on Hustle! To borrow from The Corner Ball Park conference venue, you absolutely hit it out of the park! And to recall a popular baseball movie metaphor… “If you build it, they will come.”  Well, you built it… and they came! Nearly 200 strong, when you include registered attendance at all three events.

Our time in Detroit was jam-packed. Kim loves the fall – the custom license plate on her burnt orange Subaru reads “AUTMNAL.” She channeled that love into the autumn conference she put on her back and carried from Ohio to Detroit, the town where she spent 13 years of her PR career. Dashing around in her Subaru the day before the conference was part venue hopping, part guided tour of a place that has many fond memories for Kim and now some very special new ones.

The conference began Thursday with our ECD Board Retreat on the Wayne State campus. It is our one chance during the year to meet in person, and the time flew by! We then hurried next door for the PRSSA Networking event, “Built on Hustle, Powered by Connections.” I can’t say enough about this event. I’m thankful to committee members TaQuinda, Shelly Najors and Chiaoning Su for building it, and to sponsor Wayne State University for hosting. If I’m honest, it was my favorite! Speaking to so many smart, earnest and eager future PR pros was such a privilege.  It was inspirational to see in their faces the future of our profession and of our world. It gives me such hope!

Next stop was the Welcome Mixer. PRSA Detroit was an impeccable host; the rain went away in time for our rooftop party at the Cambria Hotel, and it was the perfect calm before the big event on Friday. We honored PRominent Chapters PRSA Thoroughbred, Central Ohio, and of course Detroit! And we announced Past ECD Chair Jennifer Kramer as the 2026 winner of our Platinum Award.

Built on Hustle came together on Friday. Matt and Heide’s Fireside Chat was moderated by Immediate Past National Chair Ray Day, who we proudly honored a year ago with the ECD Platinum Award. Ray provided critical support toward building the conference in his hometown, and though we didn’t quite hit his ambition for 300 attendees, we are getting close!

They were followed by an all-star lineup of speakers and panels, each delivering hit after hit after hit. When the ninth inning came, final speaker Adria Moses showed us how to take a deep breath and relax. Everyone had earned it.

Comments about the conference have been uplifting, and we encourage all ECDC attendees to complete and return the post-conference survey by Oct. 12. In the meantime, we received a wonderful email from Youngstown attendee ShoMore Wright, who said, “I walked away feeling like I had learned so much, made meaningful connections and became even more excited about being part of the PRSA community.”

Wow.  Learning, connections, and community. That’s everything we hoped to deliver, and your HUSTLE made it happen!

It was great seeing you in Detroit… and I look forward to seeing many of you in Orlando at our ECD ICON meet-up on Oct. 19!