Elisa Milbourn

Elisa Milbourn, Public Relations, Marketing and Communications Coordinator at the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau


By: Jenna Taylor



Photo taken from http://www.okccvb.org.

The Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau (OKC CVB), which is located in downtown Oklahoma City, is a division of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber. According to the website, the purpose of OKC CVB is to promote Oklahoma City to visitors and enhance the city’s name and image. The Bureau also is in charge of planning and servicing conventions and other group related occasions. Elisa Milbourn has been working for the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau for over two years.


Milbourn graduated with a major in public relations from Oklahoma State University. Before pursuing her job OKC CVB, Elisa worked as a student assistant in the Athletic Media Relations Department at Oklahoma State University during her senior year of college. She then moved back to Oklahoma City after she graduated from OSU in May of 2007. After moving back, she started to search for jobs in order to begin her career. She found that it was very difficult to find a job.

Unable to find anything that was a good fit, Milbourn took a secretarial position at Hefner Middle School while she continued to research and interview for jobs. She left Hefner Middle School in 2008 and accepted her current position at the Bureau. Milbourn stated that most of her job opportunities were brought to her because of connections she had through friends and family. For example, she got hired for her current job with the help of her friend that was the PR director for the Oklahoma City Chamber at the time. She also got hired for the Hefner Middle School secretarial position because her mother worked as a teacher there.


Milbourn plays an important part of every aspect of the company. As the marketing and communications coordinator for the OKC CVB, her main job requirements include fulfilling media requests and setting up visits for the media. She also helps the Bureau’s advertising agency, Ackerman McQueen, with placing advertisements in various publications. Mostly all marketing or print materials that come out of the Bureau usually go through her before they are sent out to the public. She is in charge of the “Welcome to Oklahoma City” banners and buttons for various events that are happening around the city. She has also taken over all of the CVB promotional items such as bags, t-shirts and coffee mugs that are handed out around the city. Milbourn is currently working on updating the annual “Visitors Guide to Oklahoma City”, which is a big task toward the end of each calendar year.

When asked about what advice she would give to future PR professionals, Milbourn said, “People that want to come out of college and become a PR professional need to first network as much as possible, and second, have a passion for what they are doing.” Elisa said she loves working for the Bureau because of the people she works with and the great hours that she gets to work.

Public Relations: A Practical Guide to the Basics

by Callie Cady

The book I read was written by Philip Henslowe and is called Public Relations: A Practical Guide to the Basics.
This book is basically used as a beginner's guide to public relations. Henslowe, who is from the Institute of Public Relations, describes the process of creating a PR campaign. This is very helpful because he includes chapters on the role of PR, sources, ethical and legal concerns, suppliers, publishers, printers, photographers, designers, video, exhibitions, promotions, visits, sponsorship, business writing, crisis management, the media, planning, and evaluation. The author pulls alot of his research from codes of conduct, a brief legal guide, sample documents, checklists, and guidelines.
One of my favorite quotes from this book is "Public relations is not, nor should it be, a 'stand alone' profession in isolation from the rest of the business world." I like this quote because the author goes on to explain that internal as well as external communication is becoming increasingly important in the business world today. He also states that public relations is a necessary practice in all businesses and organizations.
I really enjoyed this book because it outlines the underlying principles of PR. It breaks it down in a way.

A Woman of Many Talents!

By Rachel Forsyth

Keli Pirtle Tarp is a woman of many talents! Keli currently works as a public affairs coordinator for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In this position, Keli coordinates all of the programs and policies of NOAA and the five NOAA organizations in Norman: National Severe Storms Laboratory, Storm Prediction Center, NWS Norman Forecast Office, Radar Operations Center and Warning Decision Training Branch.

Keli has been in the public relations industry for 22 years and has her professional designation in the public relations field (APR). She graduated with her Bachelors in Journalism with an emphasis in public relations from Baylor University. Keli graduated with honors and minored in marketing and management. After graduating, this Baylor Bear worked at the director of adult marking and public information writer for the Navarro Community College in Corsicana, Tex. From there, Keli publicized and coordinated community relations for 10 grocery stores in Tyler, Tex. Her life then led her to Oklahoma to an organization she still stays actively involved with, the Norman Chamber of Commerce. In 1999, she became the NOAA public affairs coordinator. Keli is currently working towards her Master of Arts in Communication at the University of Oklahoma.

Keli feels that when working in the public relations field that “writing ability is very important.” A “pr professional should be able to write a variety of styles: straight news, features or broadcast, and should be familiar with Associated Press (AP) Style.

Advice Keli gives for public relations professionals is “they should be aware of emerging trends such as social media.” Keli adds that her “advice would be to get as much practical experience you can through internships and projects.” Keli’s job descriptions have changed throughout the years, as she has had to learn how to write video scripts for the first time. “It’s been fun and rewarding to have the opportunity to challenge myself to do something new,” Keli says. A woman of many talents, Keli’s had lots of job titles within the field of public relations. Thus, she feels that it’s important to “know yourself, figure out what you’re good at and what you’re not, and focus on those things.”

Keli Pirtle Tarp is a member of the board of directors for both the Oklahoma chapter of the Arthritis Foundation and the Norman chapter of the Children's Arts Network. Some of Keli’s events include the annual National Weather Festival and the upcoming May 3 Anniversary Event.

Meet Aaron Lindley

by: Simone Fraid

During all four of my years here at OU I have had ties to Housing & Food Services. I was a customer my freshman year, and have worked in various aspects of the department for the past three years. I have seen firsthand how much work goes into making everything run smoothly in a department that serves thousands of residents.

Public relations is an important function that keeps the department thriving. The Marketing Department for H&F has the task of retaining residents as well showing Housing and Food Services in its best light. I spoke with Marketing and Public Relations Specialist and recent OU graduate Aaron Lindley.

Lindley graduated from OU with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication with an emphasis in adverstising in December. During the last year and a half of school, he had a marketing and public relations internship. He said it was helpful to have an internship that related to his studies.

Lindley's duties as a specialist include overseeing marketing interns and prospective student guide staff, writing and editing copy, creating advertisements, buying and scheduling media, and responding to media inquiries. While these are his basic duties, he said he faces many different challenges due to the reactionary nature of public relations. He said things come up that can change his entire plan for the day.

It is easy to see, then, why he suggests these characteristics for public relations professionals: a sense of calm under pressure, as wele as an ability to juggle different situations that occur all at once. He also stressed the importance of writing and speaking skills for the profession.

Lindley provided me with the unique perspective of someone who is very new to the professional world of public relations. It was refreshing to get to hear his experiences as I prepare to head into the "real world" very soon!

Communicating with a College Audience

Communicating with a College Audience

By Christie Gunn

With each generation, young people are becoming increasingly media savvy. As the amount of messages they receive on a given day increase and the methods used to deliver these messages become more varied, college students better their ability to filter, and often ignore, these messages. So what are the best ways to reach this audience?

Some suggest what is called a “360 degree” approach. As the name suggests, it involves send the same message as many times in as many different channels as possible. These methods include print media, online advertising, social media, blogs, vlogs (video blogs such as youtube.com), and text messages to their cell phones.

Others highlight social-media communication, in particular, as the best way to influence the college audiences. This was the case when Hewlett-Packard tapped Edleman PR to handle the promotion of its personal systems group.

It is also interesting to note, using text messages to communicate with students in the event of an emergency is becoming more common on college campuses, particularly after the tragedies at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. OU instituted this system last year, and many students received alerts on their phones last semester when the campus was briefly locked down. Though this method may not be widely used for non-emergency communication, past president indicates it is only a matter of time until it is.

Perhaps the worst method to contact a younger demographic is the landline telephone. Most students do not have landline numbers, and they are no longer readily available in dorms, apartments, and greek residences on the OU campus.

Though this research I learned just how difficult it can be to get a message to the college audience and make them remember it. Before researching this post, I also did not know how many universities are using text messages to warn students in case of emergency. The public relations value of the articles and blogs I referenced in this post is strongly related to my client, the Sooner yearbook, who is trying to reach OU students and increase the sales of the yearbook.