Newhouse Speaks Assignment

For my Newhouse Speaks Assignment, I attended the Financial and Investor Communications Conversation with Industry Leaders. The discussion was moderated by Newhouse professors Donna Stein and Anthony D’Angelo. Personally, I’ve never had real interest in the financial sector. I’ve seen the movie The Big Short and I keep tabs with business news, but I never considered a career path in the financial communications sector. My main interest has always been in the sport communications field, specifically collegiate athletics. Heading into this roundtable, I didn’t expect there to be any overlap between the two fields. Having a base knowledge of the financial sector and a more expansive knowledge of the sport sector, I didn’t really know what to expect. But I found there to be a lot of overlap between this discussion and my career aspirations, along with connections between the roundtable and our class materials as well.

Firstly, because of the coronavirus pandemic, all of the industry professionals had their communications with clients and stakeholders change in some way. Zoom was now the most common tool to communicate with not just clients, but with fellow employees as well. Strategic communication plans are constructed and crafted in digital spaces in the professional field, which is a sentiment our class has encountered this semester. The client work that the financial professionals encountered are somewhat similar to the client work our class embarked on as well. While a potential investor may not like some claims in the proposed deal or investment opportunity, it’s on the part of the practitioner to act as a liaison to accommodate for the needs of the client and address those investment concerns. In our client work with both InnoVero and the Everson, we have to operate in a similar manner. Our teams have to accommodate the needs and suggestions of both organizations so our teams could provide them with the best possible social media strategy suggestions

As for my prospective field, a major overlap between financial and sport public relations is client confidentiality. In the roundtable, the professionals discussed how instilling a trustful relationship between you and the client is of upmost importance. The same can be said for collegiate athletics. In the new era of transfer portal hysteria, it’s key for practitioners to have that same kind of client confidentiality with a student who is considering leaving the school. The primary stakeholder for a college athletics PR professional is the athlete, just like how the primary stakeholder for the financial communicator is the investor and the organization they represent.

For my career aspects, the professionals provided a great number of tips and insights that will help me in the near future. A point that I took away from the professionals was the need to build networking opportunities with not just professors, but also with fellow students. Each panelist had stories about how mentors, former professors and former classmates helped them with their work or helped them get to the position they’re in right now. In my time at Syracuse, I hope I build a similar network that can help me in the future, and I hope I can provide them with help as well. Another professional takeaway I had was the need to adapt to a changing landscape. In this class, I learned how varied and shifting the digital space is, and how important it is to stay ahead of the curve to be a successful professional. Each panelist emphasized a similar sentiment, and that change is inevitable in our field, and an effective practitioner can’t fight this change, they have to embrace it.