Tag Archives: PRSA SV

2026 Predictions and Career Advice from Top Journalists 

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PRSA SV Media Predicts Did Not Disappoint

PRSA Silicon Valley Media Predicts panel and gala event happened on December 11, 2025 at the Belmont Sports Complex just off of 101. They discussed Bay Area real estate, GenAI versus SEO, autonomous vehicles, robotics, Substack newsletters and a myriad of other topics. Parking was easy and the sunset views during set up were breathtaking since the event venue was up a flight of stairs and there were big windows.

Dr. Shaun Fletcher of San Jose State moderated a panel made up of Ms. Abrar Al-Heeti of CNET, Matt Rosoff of The Register, Scott Budman of NBC Bay Area, Asia Martin of Silicon Valley Business Journal and Harry McCracken of Fast Company. 

The food was an eye-fetching buffet set up of many different heavy appetizers and tasty sweets, and they offered both an open bar and really good coffee at the start. The theme was sports and attendees could shoot baskets or play tabletop games. (Yes, I shot baskets.) The giveaways were high top tennis shoe key chains and mini spirit foam hands, the ones you see at games. Board members Mark Lewis and Jennifer Yoder and San Jose State’s PRSSA president received President’s Awards from President and Emcee Jeannie Entin. 

This story focuses on three parts. Predictions, advice for people starting out in their careers and story pitching tips. 

What they said about 2026 predictions: 

Matt Rosoff: I look forward to a new type of device that’s not a phone that uses AI. I also see a resurgence of crypto. 

Asia Martin: I’ll be looking at how much of our lives will be infiltrated by AI. AI is doing this without proper regulation. There’s a ton of personal information in AI. AI needs to benefit humanity. 

Scott Budman: Privacy  and security as they relate to AI will be important. A lot of what is happening in AI is in the future. When will people demand payment for use of their data?

Harry McCracken: Harry brought up a Rivian event he attended earlier that day as well as seeing ebikes.

Advice on starting a new career:

Abrar Al-Heeti (pink suit): When people tell you to do something besides what you want to do, don’t listen to them. Do what you’re passionate about. 

Asia Martin: Stay abreast of what’s happening in the world. Research and read about the companies you are interviewing with.

Matt Rosoff: Figure out what you will be a specialist in. What can you become an expert on? What can you be known for? (So true. Most of my experienced friends in tech PR have a specialty like semiconductors, fintech, AI or security.)

How to pitch them:

Scott Budman: I receive around 80 pitches a day but I only cover one story per day. You don’t need to pitch me four or five times. If you pitch me a healthcare story I’m calling back. 

McCracken: I have my own set of experts. I don’t need more. Target your pitches, make them brief and personalized. Put the most important information at the top in news releases.

Abrar Al-Heeti: I cover phones for CNET. I don’t like when a small startup emails me five times and it’s not on my beat.

Asia Martin: I don’t like when I’m offered an out of area spokesperson who can comment on the Silicon Valley. I want someone local. 

Matt Rosoff: Realize that The Register is an international media outlet based in the U.K. Read it before you pitch. After the panel, Rosoff messaged me and added, “When I was talking about knowing The Register, it’s really more about our subject matter — B2B tech for IT pros, mostly, with the occasional offbeat science type story.”

Their most viewed stories:

Scott Budman said it was the Elizabeth Holmes story for a year and he had much international interest in this. Recall that one of the Holmes-Sunny Balwani tweets garnered 15 million views.

Abrar Al-Heeti: CNET’s tariff stories got the most clicks. As a reminder she covers phones.

The group also discussed SEO versus GenAI and brought up real estate a few times, especially Asia Martin who covers commercial real estate and Scott Budman who asked, “Can young people who grew up here afford to buy housing here?” Martin said that AI has impacted real estate because companies hiring for AI need office space. However a company lays off because of AI and that affects housing. 

It was interesting that Martin mentioned residential housing a lot even though her beat was commercial. A lot of news stories and thoughts often go back to how things affect citizens. 

Roles as company story tellers and relationship-builders are important. Please join a public relations group or network with colleagues to gain support for this career choice, and to share best practices. 

Thank you PRSA Silicon Valley for donating your time to run this event especially Tara Thomas as well as giving all proceeds to the diversity and multicultural college scholarships. 

Please check out my friend Gerard Corbett’s new book “Aspire to Hired: The Essential Guide to PR Career Success” here. Gerry is a public relations rock star in the PRSA National and local chapters. 

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This story was written by Michelle McIntyre a PR consultant, IBM vet, and former VP of Marketing, PRSA SV. Michelle lives in Saratoga, Calif., with her husband and big dog, Ringo. Her son is half way through his mathematics PhD program at Duke. He’s studying probability and teaching math to undergrads.

And shout out to our small but mighty, Media Predicts Table 6! Deidre Wright, Scott Budman, Albert Hu and myself.

Photo credits: I took all of the photos here except for Gerry Corbett’s book cover which was borrowed from Amazon.

10 Takeaways from PRSA Silicon Valley’s June Media Panel with NBC, NYT and SiliconAngle

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Meghan Fintland, PRSA Silicon Valley Chapter’s President who is also Rubrik’s head of global PR moderated a PRSA SV panel of three journalists on June 5th at AMD in San Jose. Panelists were Scott Budman, business and technology reporter, NBC News Bay Area, New York Times Contributor Don Clark, and Mark Albertson, senior writer, SiliconANGLE Media, Inc. 

I missed the event due to a summer cold but have notes from a couple of friends who attended. Here are 10 takeaways I thought were interesting: 

  1. The pace of reporting is much faster than a few years ago. SEO and algorithms matter.
  2. News we cover is what impacts the community. (Scott Budman)
  3. AI is big but what is it all for? What is this moving towards?
  4. If I can snap my fingers, I would get rid of (the terms) “platform” and “solution.” It’s such obfuscation. Just be simple. (Don Clark)
  5. Thank you to the PR world—you are the bridge between me and the CEO, and it’s saved me a million times. (Scott Budman)
  6. Think about other angles, pitching me something related to a hot tech but maybe not necessarily what your product is. (Scott Budman)
  7. AI is impactful in software programming, chip design and test. (Don Clark)
  8. Learn the technology at a deeper level than you need to than to do just the transactional pitching. You are building your brand as a communicator, and that’s more than just what the client wants. (Don Clark)
  9. I cover the tech beat. I can come in ready to report on the newest chip, but an editor will say yeah, there’s a fire. But talking to people in the community, they’re talking about tech. (Scott Budman)
  10. (On how reporting has changed.) Politics! Tech covers China, Washington and AI, especially in semiconductors. (Don Clark)

My PRSA colleague Jennifer Yoder is penning a longer more journalistic article for the chapter’s blog. Look for that story soon.

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Michelle McIntyre is a PR Consultant and IBM vet in Saratoga, California. She thanks Mark L. and Jennifer Yoder for their event notes. Credits: The first photo is Scott Budman and that is from the NBC Bay Area website. The second is of Don Clark and that’s his LinkedIn profile photo. Clark is also a musician.

Inspired by a Speech on Kindness and a Decal Application Task, I Raised My Hand for a Bigger 2024 PRSA Management Role

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I enjoyed being a part of the PRSA Silicon Valley team in 2023 and that was especially true the night of the annual Media Predicts event Dec. 6th at The Grand Bay Hotel on Redwood Shores. 

I had so much fun I raised my hand to be vice president of marketing for the chapter this year. In other news, Tara Thomas stepped up and will continue in the programs executive role. Yay team and I’m already looking forward to Media Predicts 2024. In other big news my South Bay buddy Mike Sanchez took on the PRSA SV Secretary role.

Part of the reason I like volunteering is that I’m a freelancer: PRSA SV gives me teammates and dare I say, friends. Face it. We do develop friendships at work. You spend 30 to 60 hours a week working so this is goodness.

I have partnered with other freelancers to serve clients and pitch prospects. I recommend it; the slight downside is you DM a lot which is time consuming. This could be an upside if you are friends. Having a bad day? Message your freelancer partner for a few kind words of support.

Truth be told, I also made friends working with my 2023 robotics software client. Our interviews were in person (TechCrunch’s Brian Heater, Mercury News’s Sal Pizarro, several broadcast. Shameless plug, i know.) and it gave me a chance to better get to know them. 

Anyhoo… back to Media Predicts. Head of programs Tara noticed my early arrival to the hotel and relaxed stance. Someone had plopped a glass of wine in my hand so I looked pretty ‘cushy.’ 

Everyone else is running around setting up with serious looks on their faces. Meghan Fintland was on stage practicing her welcome. Jeannie Entin was helping the 11 student volunteers get situated.

My typical volunteer roles are writing and editing: I’m an extrovert and it’s hard for me to ‘focus’ during events. Give me a great meal and a dance floor. The food was surprisingly good and we did leverage the dance floor and DJ at Media Predicts.

Flashback memory of another volunteer gig: I tried to staff the welcome table at a TEDxSanJoseCA event but was quickly pulled off because an attendee wanted to have a deeper conversation. I did better handling the publicity. At Santana Row, KTVU interviewed Gold Medalist Swimmer and Speaker Dana Vollmer. Dana who held the Gold Medal in the butterfly overcame a heart defect. The same reporter interviewed a scout leader when I volunteered at council. I enjoy working with broadcast. (Shout out to Sharon Chin, Scott Budman; the list of on-air friends whom I greatly respect goes on and on.)

Back to MP23. Tara quickly assigned me to window decal application. That went fine and the space looked captivating with the next level decor including the lit-up letters spelling PRSA. (Tara: The S is in my garage. Readers please see the S photo below.)

I finally felt useful on event night and the decals were not crooked. Yessss.

5 Honorees

Who got awards that night? PRSA Silicon Valley Chapter President Meghan Fintland and President-elect Jeannie Entin presented awards to three PR professionals, Camille Clark and Alannah McDermott co-honorees for Board Member of the Year and Jeremiah Lineberger who achieved the Young Professionals Award. An older person can win because the point is to be new to PR. In fact to this day I have no idea how old Jeremiah is. 

Former National PRSA President Gerry Corbett presented David Vossbrink with his PRSA Fellows Medallion. I was honored to be at Gerry and David’s MP23 table. (Some of my awesome table mates are below.)

Kindness Counts, According to Honoree 

Global PR Powerhouse Yvette Noel-Schure was presented the chapter President’s Unity and Purpose Award by Rochelle Nadhiri.

Noel-Schure’s award acceptance comments brought audience members to tears. The comment that stuck with me the most is, “The secret sauce is to continue to operate in kindness.” 

She mentioned several entertainers that she represents including Chloe X Halle, John Legend, and Jessica Simpson. Yvette Noel-Schure spent most of 2023 as the publicist for Beyoncé’s record-breaking Renaissance World Tour. To my friends who like Prince: She represented him too! 

The 2023 Media Predicts panel included Moderator Rochelle Nadhiri, Shawn Chitnis, Connie Guglielmo, Kayli Hays and Eric Savitz. That story with their comments is here. 

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Who am I? I’m Michelle McIntyre, the new PRSA SV VP of marketing, a PR freelancer, IBM vet, and author of this story. I’m accepting new clients in 2024. Please hit me up for a breakfast meeting to discuss how to get your business attention. I like Bell Tower cafe in Saratoga. If you don’t want to talk about work, the drinks at night option works too. I love going up to Berkeley!

Be aware that PRSA Silicon Valley is devoted to diversity and mentoring. We invite you to get involved and check the website for new scholarship opportunities. Proceeds from MP23 went to diversity programs.

Photo credit: I took them with my iPhone 14 Pro. Camile Clark took the first photo selfie-style. I can’t remember who took the one of the group of us but it was taken with my iPhone.