The members of the ETSU PRSSA chapter will be getting advice from a public relations professional who has been through the toughest of business times.
Melissa Thomas, the director of Marketing and Air Service Development at the Tri-Cities Regional Airport, will be speaking to a group of Public Relations majors who are about to enter a field vastly different in the shadow of the war in Afghanistan.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee in corporate public relations, Thomas attended ETSU during her freshman year.
Thomas has since gone on to work in a wide range of jobs that has helped her cultivate her skills in public relations.
In addition to her job at the airport for the past five years, she has also worked for the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce as director of communications and membership services, been a marketing manager at Clemson University for on-campus business services and as an editor for the Christian Booksellers Association for their monthly magazine.
“Often you will work in jobs that you might not envision yourself in but they help you hone your skills so much for jobs you do later on,” Thomas said.
Since last year’s Sept. 11th tragedy, Thomas’ job has become more challenging than anything she ever imagined.
Everything that is media related at Tri-Cities Airport runs through her office.
This includes public relations, marketing, advertising and crisis planning.
Thomas’s office specifically trains for crisis events by constantly refining their planning for media staging, media access, how to handle requests for information, and addressing rules and restrictions that the Federal Aviation Administration en-forces.
“The FAA has most of the key elements in place in the event of a disaster at an airport,” Thomas said. “Our challenge is keeping up to date and making sure our plans are in a useful format.”
Another key part of Thomas’s job is the solicitation of air service to the area.
This is done by determining the needs and demands of the Tri-Cities area and developing a plan to make it attractive and lucrative for an airline.
A key business survey done by ETSU to help the airport determine what needs and issues the public was most concerned about with air travel.
“Research is such an important part of the public relations job because you need the right data to help you find the right airline for your needs,” Thomas said. “You can never fully know every single number but if you research and prepare yourself as thoroughly as possible, you aren’t left grasping for information and you can make a very convincing presentation to an airline.”
Thomas says that the best media strategy she employs is just being as honest as you possibly can with the media.
“There are things you don’t know or can’t say in this business because of safety reasons, but just because you don’t want to deal with the media doesn’t mean you can do a ‘snow job’ on them,” Thomas said. “If you lose your integrity in this field you are finished.”
Among the topics that Thomas will be addressing is how to handle communications in a crisis situation, strategies for dealing with media, soliciting of new business for the Tri-Cities Airport and day-to-day operations of a media professional.
The meeting will be held on Thursday night at 5:30 p.m. in the East Tennessee Room on the upper level of the Culp University Center.
The meeting is open to students and the general public. Admission is free.
For information regarding the event, please contact Billy Spurgeon at 914-1649.

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