Wake Forest receives Silver Anvil Award from PRSA for Call to Conversation program

Wake Forest staff with Silver Anvil Award in New York City

PRSA, the nation’s leading professional organization serving the communications community, presented Wake Forest University with the Silver Anvil Award at a ceremony in New York City on June 6.

Wake Forest won the award in recognition of its Call to Conversation program, which began in 2017 and has become an international movement with one goal: to spark more meaningful conversations.

From its first days as a pilot program of moderated, small-group dinner conversations with alumni and parents, Call to Conversation now reaches out to the entire Wake Forest community—on- and off-campus.  In such gatherings, participants “share a meal, discuss a single timely topic and form relationships based on empathy and mutual respect,” according to a story posted online last fall.

The Call to Conversation website explains that “the immediate impact of the Call to Conversation will be new relationships and a stronger community.  Long term, a culture of conversation will be a recognized signature of the Wake Forest Experience.”

At the June 6 awards event, PRSA handed out 50 Silver Anvil Awards and 62 Awards of Excellence.  The full list, which includes Wake Forest, is available here.

“This year’s entries were among the most innovative we’ve seen in the history of the awards, truly reflecting the rapid transformation that technology, social media and myriad cultural forces are bringing to the communications industry,” said Debra Peterson, 2019 PRSA chair.

Wake Forest’s award was in the category of internal communications for associations/government/nonprofit organizations.  Many of the recipients included some of the best-known companies in the world, whose communication projects were managed by top international public relations and design agencies.

Staff representing Wake Forest at the awards event were Brett Eaton, Melody Miller, Hannah Duane, Hannah McGee, Megan Donovan, Lindsay Hudson Ortyn, Andrea Ellis and Shakinah Simeona-Lee.