Ann Christiano is aiming to change the view of the public interest communications field to highlight it as a legitimate career choice during the second annual frank conference.
Christiano, a UF Frank Karel chairwoman in public interest communications, will lead the conference today at venues around downtown Gainesville, where the conference will spark conversations to teach people how to approach and solve social issues.
This is the conference’s second year, and it is set to begin at 1 p.m. today. It will run until Friday.
There will be various speakers from the communication fields, such as Sheryl WuDunn, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist; Whitney Dow, a documentary filmmaker; and Anastasia Khoo, the Human Rights Campaign marketing director.
Christiano said the huddle segment, which is a breakout session to discuss a social issue, will be more of an open-concept than last year because the original Q&A format will be scrapped.
“People bring who they have and who they know and what they are to this gathering,” Christiano said, “and that’s part of this magic that sort of transcends anything we can put on the agenda or anything we can organize.”
Lizzy Shebanek, a UF public relations senior who will be volunteering at frank, said she’s looking forward to networking and learning from the guest speakers.
“There’s going to be so many distinguished professionals that are coming, and I think it’s a great opportunity,” Shebanek, 21, said.
Some of the issues facing the public interest communications sector are a lack of funding and a shortage of people who identify as members of the field.
Christiano said she hopes frank will help the field grow and create mentoring relationships among participants.
She said she sees frank growing to the level of prestige and recognition that surround conferences such as TED and PopTech, making people feel the innate need to attend. She said no campus would be better than UF as the launching pad for such growth.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 2/25/2015 under the headline “Second annual public relations frank conference starts today”]
