BOLD Hold Its 5th Annual ComCon Along With the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center in Celebration of International Women’s Day
After a one-year hiatus, BOLD held its beloved fifth annual communications conference, ComCon, on Monday, March 8th in celebration of International Women’s Day. The online conference was held in collaboration with the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication, a center established in 2012 by Dean Emeritus and Professor, Dr. Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver, to empower women professionals in the field of communication. ComCon featured three successful women leaders in the communications industry who shared their experiences and advice with FIU students, faculty, staff, and alumni. The alumni speakers included Senior Marketing and Communications Specialist at Baptist Health, Lourdes Reigosa; Integrated Producer at Alma Agency, Sabrina Paz Riesgo; and Learning and Development Program Manager at Tik Tok, Madeley Badey. The online conference event consisted of a presentation and panel discussion moderated by FIU Alumna and Digital Product Coordinator at NBCUniversal Media, Jess Mendez.
ComCon was kicked off by Madeley Badey who shared her journey from FIU to working at Tik Tok in California. After receiving her Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Communication from FIU, Madeley found that public relations was not for her and decided to make the jump to apply to be in the highly competitive Disney College Program. Despite other’s uncertainty, Madeley was accepted into the program and began as a Management Intern, and worked her way up to a full-time position as an Operations Training Manager. Although she believed she would work at Disney for the remainder of her career, Madeley felt inspired to take a risk and pursue opportunities outside of Florida which led her to her current position at Tik Tok. There she works as the new Learning and Development Program Manager where she designs and delivers training programs for employees. Madeley concluded her presentation with career advice for students and urged them to stay true to their goals. “Chase work that you’re passionate about. Don’t only go after what is perceived as successful by society or what your friends may think is cool, do what makes you happy,” she said.
Integrated Producer at Alma Agency, Sabrina Paz Riesgo followed up with her presentation about her experiences in the journalism, public relations, and advertising industries. Born and raised in Venezuela, Sabrina moved to the US at age 16 and was determined to pursue a career in journalism. “Coming from Venezuela where I experienced political turmoil and violence I was very set on journalism and making an impact through storytelling,” said Sabrina. She received her bachelor’s in journalism from Florida Atlantic University and later went on to receive a master’s from FIU in Global Strategic Communications. At age 20, Sabrina worked at a small public relations firm in Miami while pursuing her master’s. There she felt stuck, and through FIU was introduced to Chicas Poderosas, an organization aimed at developing opportunities for women in media, that inspired her to jump back into journalism. “Having a support group made of women that are in your field, was life-changing,” recalled Sabrina. Through Chicas Poderosas, Sabrina received a chance to work for Univision and Fusion under their environmental journalism unit and worked with leaders like Former Vice President Al Gore and environmentalist Jane Goodall. After an unfortunate layoff, Sabrina felt inspired to focus on her happiness which led her to her current role as a producer for a multicultural advertising agency, Alma.
Senior Marketing and Communications Specialist at Baptist Health, Lourdes Reigosa, finalized the presentation portion of ComCon by sharing her knowledge with students from her 10 years of experience in media and communications. She began her career as an intern for NBC 6 while pursuing her degree in communications at FIU. After graduating and working as a writer for Brickell and Key Biscayne Magazine, Lourdes’s career came full circle when she returned to NBC 6 to work as a producer for a lifestyle and entertainment show. “One of the most fun parts of my job was getting to go on sight and cover things on location,” said Lourdes. There she covered exciting events such as the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios and Pope Francis’s first mass in Cuba. Lourdes’s role at NBC also gave her the unique opportunity to meet stars including Chadwick Boseman, Derek Jeter, and Selena Gomez. After a fulfilling 10 years working at NBC 6, Lourdes decided to make a change from journalism to corporate communications and now serves as Senior Marketing and Communications Specialist at Baptist Health. When sharing lessons she learned throughout her career, Lourdes shared that “You attract more bees with honey. In being nice and being genuine with people you get a lot more done and go a lot further.”
Jess Mendez began the panel portion of the event by asking panelists what
has helped them reach their current points in their careers and in what ways they can help other women succeed as well. In talking about their own personal paths, Lourdes and Sabrina both shared similar experiences where other women in their circles opened up doorways for them to expand their careers. “Just having that recommendation and internal word, goes a long way especially in big places,” said Sabrina about her start at Univision through the help of one of her female colleagues. Lourdes also urged students to take advantage of different resource groups offered at corporations as a way to build a reliable professional network.
When asked about a career setback that later turned out to be an advantage, Lourdes talked about her time at NBC 6 when the show she was producing had to make a laborious transition to an online format because they could no longer have in-person guests due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “ It ended up actually being that in April, May, and June our viewership rose like 700% because our new format moved a lot and the audience responded better to that,” she said. Madeley also chimed in and recalled how devastated she felt after being rejected from her three attempts at becoming a full-time training manager at Walt Disney. “I feel like as women we can really hold ourselves down and hold ourselves to this really unrealistic standard of perfection,” said Madeley. Although having to deal with the rejection, the situation worked out in Madeley’s favor because it allowed her to come back from furlough to relaunch operations at Walt Disney World. She assured students that everything happens for a reason, “Even if things don’t work out, if you trust that you are putting your best effort at work every day and you are at the right place with people that support you, just keep at it because your time will come,”.
The panelists concluded the event by encouraging students to rely on their network for support and reminded them to stay true to their goals rather than outside expectations when it comes to their careers.
Connect with the panelists!
Senior Marketing and Communications Specialist at Baptist Health, Lourdes Reigosa.
Integrated Producer at Alma Agency, Sabrina Paz Riesgo.
Learning and Development Program Manager at Tik Tok, Madeley Badey.
Digital Product Coordinator at NBCUniversal Media, Jess Mendez.
BOLD is a student-run strategic communications agency at Florida International University. Click here to learn more.
Written by: Alejandra Chahine, Director of Public Relations.