The University of South Carolina's School of Journalism and Mass Communications will host a two-day conference this fall on how artificial intelligence is reshaping the communications industry. The event, scheduled for Oct. 9-10 in Columbia, S.C., will feature leaders from BBDO Worldwide, AT&T, and FOX News Media, alongside a student competition with $15,000 in prizes.
The conference is designed for professionals in journalism, advertising, public relations, marketing, and corporate communications, as well as students preparing for those fields. It comes as organizations across the industry are working to integrate AI into daily workflows while preparing their teams for what comes next.
What's on the agenda
The main conference on Friday, Oct. 9, will focus on how organizations are putting AI to work in newsrooms, creative agencies, and corporate communications departments. Interactive workshops, executive conversations, and industry discussions will cover leadership, creativity, human-AI collaboration, and organizational change.
Featured speakers include:
- Andrew Robertson, Chairman, BBDO Worldwide
- Valerie Vargas, Senior Vice President, Creative Content & Advertising, AT&T
- Porter Berry, President & Editor-in-Chief, FOX News Digital
- Benjamin Vaughan, Head of AI Research, Vurvey Labs
- Robby Thomas, Vice President and General Manager, WIS-TV / Gray Media
- Stephen Brown, President, Cookerly PR
- Peter LaMotte, President of Strategic Communications, Chernoff Newman
The conference is presented in partnership with the South Carolina Research Authority, Google, and Vurvey Labs. Registration information is available on the university's website.
Student AI Challenge
On Saturday, Oct. 10, university students from across South Carolina will work in interdisciplinary teams to solve a real-world communications problem using AI, research, and strategy. Industry professionals will serve as mentors during the challenge.
The top three teams will receive cash prizes, with the first-place team taking home $7,500. No coding or technical skills are required to participate.
What the organizers say
"The communications professions are experiencing one of the most significant periods of change in their history," said Tom Reichert, dean of the College of Information and Communications. "This conference brings together leaders who are navigating that change every day. Our goal is to create meaningful conversations that help professionals, educators and students better understand how AI is reshaping journalism, advertising and public relations while reinforcing the importance of creativity, ethics and human judgment."
For professionals looking to build AI skills ahead of the event, AI for PR & Communications resources offer practical training on applying these tools in daily work. The conference's focus on human-AI collaboration and ethics aligns with the core competencies covered in the AI Learning Path for Public Relations Specialists, which walks through real-world applications for communications teams.
Why this matters for PR and communications professionals
The conference signals how quickly AI adoption has moved from experimental to operational in communications departments. The speaker list - spanning advertising, news media, and public relations - suggests the industry is treating AI as a core strategic issue rather than a technical sideshow. For professionals, the practical takeaway is clear: the skills being discussed here - human judgment, ethics, and creative collaboration with AI - are becoming baseline requirements, not differentiators. Attending sessions like these, or pursuing structured training in parallel, is one way to stay current without waiting for employer mandates.
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