Campus Voices: I’m on the SoBe list


Public relations senior Nicole Garcia is among the 30 recruits from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC) who will volunteer at the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival Feb. 23-26. As usual, the event will serve as a learning ground for approximately 1,000 FIU Panthers. This year, organizers sought to nurture talent beyond the Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and reached out to the SJMC to help make 2012’s “SoBe” the great, hot-ticket success it has become. FIU News asked Garcia to write a first-person piece about getting this opportunity and what she expects it to be like this weekend.

Nicole Garcia is excited to be hitting the beach to volunteer at her first-ever Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival Feb. 23-26. She'll represent the School of Journalism and Mass Communication as a press and media associate at five events.

This time of year, there’s always a buzz at Biscayne Bay Campus and in Miami. There’s a chatter surrounding the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival. I’ve always heard friends of mine in hospitality brag about which events they’ll be working and how excited they are to be part of the experience. Oh, and when I say they brag I mean they’re excited about what they’ll learn and do for the festival.

This time, I get to do the same.

The buzz has spread to the School and Journalism and Mass Communication. Thirty of us have been chosen to volunteer at the star-studded event and represent the school as press and media associates. This is awesome and especially meaningful for me because, as a public relations student, I will have the opportunity to work closely with different outlets and meet professionals in the industry.

A couple of months ago, Heather Radi-Bermudez, the SJMC’s marketing coordinator, told me she had been interviewing students to send to the festival. I have been interning as her assistant for the spring and she suggested that I apply. These spots were highly coveted, so I took it as a compliment, especially because Heather had been meeting with students since last August.

Then we met with Devonie Nicholas, who’s the director of marketing and PR for the festival, and with Larry Carrino from Brustman Carrino Public Relations (they represent a lot of restaurants in Miami). At orientation a week before the festival, they taught us how to manage media at an event of this scale. They gave us all the ins and outs of the festival, introduced us to key players and told us how important our support was to their media tasks. They stressed we have to keep in contact at all times, ask questions, be professional, and not give credentials to sneaky press people who aren’t on the approved list. And they told us not to take personal photos with the talent since we’re all there to work.

My first event is the Moët Hennessy’s The Q out on the Delano beach. I’ve never been to any of these events, and I hear this one’s fabulous, so I’m glad I’ll get to be there. I’m not going as a guest. I’m going to work and I’ll be happy to wear the all-back Q outfit they’ve asked for and my flats. I do wish I could wear heels, but, like they told us at orientation and like my friends who have worked at SoBe before have told me, walking on the sand in heels is not comfortable, so it’s OK.

I’m working five events this weekend. I’ll be helping journalists, editors, media professionals and press photographers with anything they need to get that perfect interview, that awe-inspiring shot. I’m really excited to be in their company. I’m most excited about being part of such a grand event where I will really use my communications skills and learn new things about the industry and how the festival’s organized and executed. It’s going to be hot and a lot of work, but I also know it’s going to be fun.