PRSA ECD 2026 Conference: “Built on Hustle” Recap

How PRSA Hustles – A Conversation with PRSA
Matthew Marcial, APR, PRSA CEO, and Heide Harrell, APR, 2026 PRSA Chair
The conference opened with a fireside chat with PRSA leadership moderated by Immediate Past National Chair Ray Day, APR.
​“PRSA should be seen as one voice,” Matt said, responding to a question about PRSA maintaining relevance. “Not everyone can attend ICON, but people can benefit where they are.” Heide agreed. “How will you go back to your chapter after today and say, this is what the ECD did for me, what it taught me, the people I met. I have to explain the value, and the value in the national organization.”
​“Covid hit us hard,” she said of the decline in membership. “We have to speak to why members should be involved. Once you join, it is what you make of it. We’ve stabilized cash flow, but membership must be addressed. We are never going to be a 25K to 30K member organization again. But our size is irrelevant; 15,000 passionate members is a win.”
​“We’ve done as much as we can with budget,” Matt said. “We rightsized staff. It was tough giving things up. We are doing what serves most of our members, mostly on the chapter level. We are trying to be more nimble. Our content before was 90 percent promotional. Now it’s more about how to face challenges in your jobs.”
​Heide was asked about communicating PRSA’s value proposition. “People are looking for personalized content. We cannot operate like the past 79 years. Change is hard, but for the next generation to become members, we have to change our thinking, the ways we interact, and explain the ‘why.’ We’ve not done a good job showing value.”
​“We also have to look at blowing up our bylaws – they were created back in the horse and buggy era! Our board and staff are limited.”
​When asked about making PRSA relevant, Matt said, “We are looking more broadly at the PRSA brand. People have more roles than PR. We need to clarify those roles.”
​Members questioned the high cost of ICON and the cost of celebrity keynote speakers. They endorsed the value of district conferences like “Built on Hustle,” but also defended ICON.
​“Have you seen the cost of other conferences by our competitors?” said Heide. “I promise you, ours is far below.” Part of the cost of ICON 2026 is fulfilling a contract signed in 2016 but postponed by the pandemic. This year’s conference is smaller, but PRSA must pay the attrition cost for unbooked rooms. “We’re looking to lower costs,” said Heide. “We have to spend a little for keynote speakers. We want you to walk away with something. Banana Baseball is a good example.” (Tyler Gillum, head coach of the Savannah Bananas, is a keynote speaker at ICON 2026).
​Matt, Heide, and Ray also took questions from the audience, including about PRSA’s Code of Ethics.
​“That is the lens I look through for everything I do,” Heide said. “We are the standard. People look to us. We need to be examples of the Code of Ethics. That’s another way that we can advocate for it. We don’t necessarily have to shout it from the rooftops, but people can look at us, see our work, and see what we do, and say, ‘OK, ethical.’ That is an ethical person, and that is an ethical profession.”
Crisis Communication: Faster with AI, Better with Humans
Bill Nowling, Professor of Practice & Director, College of Communication Arts & Sciences, Michigan State University; Rian English Barnhill, Vice President of Government and Community Affairs, Olympia Development  

Generative AI is rapidly reshaping public relations, especially how practitioners monitor emerging issues, analyze stakeholders, plan scenarios, draft messages and respond across channels. These tools can provide capacity, especially valuable for small teams and independent practitioners. PR pros have long argued that their value lies between their ears, even as much of their work has been measured by what comes from their fingertips. AI may change that bargain.

Issues and crisis communication remain fundamentally human endeavors. Technology creates value when it helps people understand one another, make better decisions, and communicate with greater care. AI can simulate the language of empathy, cultural awareness, and representation. It cannot listen, share a community’s lived experience, build relationships, or accept accountability for consequences of an organizational response.
Bill examined where AI is taking the profession and how it can strengthen issues and crisis work. Rian drew on her experience to show why relationships, local knowledge, representation, empathy and action remain decisive. Together, they challenged practitioners to use AI’s many hands to create more time for the judgment, listening, and human connection that only people can provide.
Key Takeaways:
  • Understanding where AI is taking the profession. They examined how AI is changing issue monitoring, scenario planning, stakeholder analysis, drafting, localization, internal coordination and crisis response, including the new capacity it can provide to small firms and independent practitioners.
  • Turn efficiency into human capacity. Attendees learned how time saved through AI can be reinvested in listening, relationship-building, cultural understanding, stakeholder representation, strategic counsel and more thoughtful decision-making.
  • Keep trust and accountability human. The audience received tips on recognizing where lived experience, empathy, local knowledge, organizational responsibility and credible action remain essential to effective issues and crisis communication.
Communication Evolution: From PR to Integrated Marcomms
Peter VanDyke, CEO and Founding Partner, VVK PR + Creative 

As the communication landscape shifts, PR professionals must evolve to think like integrated marketers. Peter broke down how to make this transition happen, providing steps to help PR practitioners build integrated, multi-channel strategies for their organizations or clients.

Peter shared key trends from Stagwell about changes in information consumption that have led to the need for new platforms and formats and an integrated marketing approach:
  • Plummeting attention spans – Dropped from 3 to 4 minutes to just 45 seconds.
  • Trust dispersed to new sources – Substack leading, along with podcasts.
  • Demand is growing for human stories.
  • Ongoing rise of video and audio formats – 82 percent of online audiences are watching videos.
Reach now requires personalized, connected content. At VVK, more clients were asking for national visibility, stronger thought leadership and executive positioning, and more sophisticated media strategy and content to move across earned, owned and digital channels. That led him to build a different kind of communications model, also incorporating strategy, creativity and diversity.
Peter explained that integration is an operating model—not a list of tactics. It’s a shift from disciplines working sequentially to collaborating from the beginning. Instead of a communications challenge getting routed to a single discipline first (PR, creative, video), the disciplines should work together from the start of a project. That’s where an integrated planning approach is critical to ensure communicators have the road map to do deep thinking, scenario planning and analysis while balancing evolving demands.
​“We’re not being asked to solve one-lane problems anymore,” said Peter. He also reinforced the need for one strategy, one team and one clear path, stating, “Silos don’t work.”
​Peter offered a process for approaching integrated communications:
  1. Understand the context. What is happening? (Business priorities, communications environment, stakeholder needs.)
  2. Find the insight. What does it mean? (Identify the central opportunity, risk or challenge.)
  3. Establish a point of view. What should we do—and why? (Define the priority and recommendation.)
  4. Build the communications strategy. Who must we reach, and what must change? (Set audiences, messages, objectives and success measures.)
  5. Activate as one team. What combination will deliver the strategy? (Bring together PR, executive positioning, video, digital/content, stakeholder engagement, etc.)
  6. Measure and refine. What are we learning? (Evaluate reach and outcomes; adapt as needed.)
He closed with three lessons when evolving to an integrated marketing approach:
  1. Strategy begins with the relationship. Who is the customer? What audiences and outcomes shape the assignment?
  2. Don’t default to old habits. Integrated thinking is rarely automatic. A tactical request should begin a strategic conversation rather than trigger an old solution.
  3. Deep listening matters more than ever. Understand the organizational context and stakeholder needs before advising.
Navigating a Polarized Public Arena: When to Speak Out and When to Keep Silent
Karen Swim, APR; Founder, Words For Hire

In today’s increasingly polarized environment, communicators face a difficult question: When should a brand speak up—and when is it smarter to stay silent?

​Karen Swim, APR, tackled that question in her presentation. Karen noted that 81 percent of PR professionals see polarization in the United States as high or extremely high, compared with 69 percent of the general public. For communicators, polarization isn’t simply something happening in the news—it can affect clients, employees, customers and even our own social media platforms.
And there aren’t just “two sides.” Karen pointed to Pew Research showing nine distinct political and ideological groups, underscoring just how complex today’s audience landscape has become.
​Using contrasting examples, Karen showed how Target and Costco’s responses to the rollback of federal DEI requirements carried significant reputational and financial consequences. She also explored brand partnerships, including Patagonia, McDonald’s and Bud Light, illustrating the risks and rewards of aligning a brand with contentious issues.
​At the heart of Swim’s approach is a three-question test:
  1. Does this position align with our actual mission, strategy and values?
  2. Can we meaningfully influence the issue?
  3. How will our key constituencies respond?
Three “yes” answers suggest a brand may be ready to lead publicly. Three “no” answers may point toward silence or quieter action. Everything in between  (the gray) is where communications strategy earns its keep.
​Importantly, Swim emphasized that “speaking” is a dial, not a switch. Organizations can communicate internally, act quietly, engage trusted partners, or take a full public position.
​Her bottom line: silence should be a strategic decision, not a default. Organizations should identify potential flashpoints before they occur, determine where they stand, and be prepared to explain not only what they do, but why.
​(Excerpt written with the assistance of ChatGPT based on an original document.)
From Disruption to Advantage: An AI Playbook for Comms Leaders
Amanda Carl-Pratt, Head of External Communications, Google DeepMind

Amanda opened by stating that AI could be one of the most important inventions in history. The next decade could be one of the most extraordinary periods in our time, when AI promises to change the way all of us live and work. The world has gone through two massive economic and technical shifts in recent history: the industrial revolution and the information revolution. Google DeepMind believes that AI will be 10 times more impactful than the industrial revolution and happen 10 times faster.

Amanda discussed how AI will disrupt the PR field, offering four ways to integrate AI into our work:
  1. Always invite AI to the table. Always have it open; it’s your new word processor.
  2. Be the human in the loop. AI will be better at a lot of parts of your job, but it won’t be better at the parts of your job that you actually enjoy doing.
  3. Treat AI like a human, but tell it what kind of human to be. Expect it to be an ongoing conversation and a long conversation.
  4. Assume this is the worst AI you will ever use.

She also gave suggestions on how to get started with using AI:

  • Be curious and experiment
  • Be patient
  • Focus on pain points
  • Always have AI open
Sixty percent of U.S. adults use AI to find answers, and nearly 75 percent of adults under 30 turn to AI for information. That means we need to ensure our earned, paid and owned communications inform AI. With AI, what’s old is new again:
  • Owned (e.g., blogs, thought leadership pieces) content is used more than paid content
  • Journalism matters – and AI tends to pull stories more from Axios and Forbes (so pitch to those)
  • Reddit and LinkedIn are strong AI sources
  • Timeliness matters – AI pulls from content that is 12 months old or newer
Amanda offered these principles for PR in the age of AI:
  • Be direct, don’t speak in hyperbole
  • Don’t pretend to know what you don’t know
  • There are no absolutes right now
  • Demonstrate the benefit
  • Read the room, understand external narratives
  • Know where/when to deploy AI
Amanda offered these final reminders:
  • Upskill (Coursera, Meltwater, etc.)
  • Ground in factual data
  • Trust but verify
  • Sharpen your storytelling and media relations skills – they matter more than ever
  • Hone strategic thinking skills
  • Become a data interpreter
  • Never lose your PR superpower
On the Record: Journalists Debate the Future of Media (and What PR Pros Must Know)
Leslie Allen, Bridge Michigan; Phoebe Wall Howard, The Detroit News/Substack; Mike Lee, Crain’s Detroit Business; David Welsh, Bloomberg; Moderator: Alicia Nails, Director, Wayne State University Journalism Institute for Media Diversity

Traditional and emerging news media are evolving into an interdependent ecosystem where they both compete and cooperate, relying on each other to survive and expand their reach.

​During the panel discussion, journalists shared how the business model has changed, how more stories are behind paywalls and how AI has become a new challenge. At the same time, new media platforms such as Substack offer additional ways to communicate news.
​Journalists also shared they are trained not to click on emails they do not expect because they can contain viruses. Unless they know the sender, emails are deleted. Frequently, their inboxes fill up with AI-generated content. They echoed the importance of researching the media outlet and reporter/editor first before sending an email. Notably, more reporters include video content with their stories, which are often used on social media.
​Below are highlights from each journalist:
  • Leslie J. Allen, Bridge Michigan (nonprofit newsroom) – They are focusing more on their 10 niche newsletters on topics ranging from business to education.
  • Phoebe Wall Howard, The Detroit News/Substack – Digital is read across the country. Think small with story ideas because it resonates. Also, be yourself when developing a pitch.
  • Mike Lee, Crain’s Detroit Business – More words in a pitch does not make it better. They also accept photos and work with freelance photographers for bigger stories.
  • David Welch, Bloomberg – Pitches must be clear and concise. He gets a lot of emails with tech jargon, and he auto deletes 90 percent of his emails.
Managing the Hustle: Practical Strategies for Thriving in a Rapidly Changing Profession
Adria Moses, Writer; Trauma-Informed Facilitator; Founder, The School of Radical Healing

Adria Moses concluded the conference by helping us manage the hustle – especially through times of change. According to Adria, our most important professional asset isn’t the media list, crisis plan or strong AI prompt – it is a regulated nervous system. Our autonomic nervous system runs in the background all day, and we cannot turn it off, but we can learn to work with it.

​We typically operate in one of three states:
  • Regulated (green) – When we are strategic, fully present, think clearly and offer sound judgment.
  • Activated (yellow) – When everything is too much. We’re over-explaining. Snapping at colleagues. Having difficulty delegating. Anxiously refreshing screens and writing reactive emails.
  • Shutdown (red) – We are checked out and going through the motions. We’re missing deadlines, can’t write and stare at the screen.
Burnout is not a badge of honor. It is a nervous system sending an emergency signal. Adria said that the professionals who sustain long careers in our industry do not grind the hardest. They know how to come back to themselves — quickly, repeatedly, and without shame. In essence, they learned to regulate.
​Adria taught three tools to help regulate the nervous system:
  1. The Transition Reset (for the regulated system). Take one deep breath every time you move between tasks, calls or meetings, so you arrive present instead of carrying the last thing into the next one.
  2. Physiological Sigh (for the activated system). Double inhale through the nose, followed by a long, slow exhale. This is the fastest nervous system reset. Use it before a difficult call, after a hard email, or in the parking lot before you walk in.
  3. Feet and Five Senses (for the shutdown system). Put your feet on the floor. Take 10 seconds and name five things you can sense right now. This brings you back from flat and checked out.
Adria concluded with three questions:
  1. Which state do you spend the most time in, and what does it cost you professionally?
  2. What is one signal your body gives you before you hit a wall? (e.g., clenched jaw)
  3. Which of the three tools could live in your workday this week?
As Adria said, the hustle is not going anywhere, and neither are we. But how we carry it can change.