Thanks in large part to his student experiences at Çï¿ûÊÓƵ, Anthony White \u201908 has become the kind of communications professional who can tell his own stories compellingly or help others share theirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>He is the Manager of Arena Communications at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Ga., home of the NBA\u2019s Atlanta Hawks. Prior to that, he worked for several companies, including The Home Depot, for which he drew on his storytelling skills to promote products and job openings in stores. He has also co-edited an online magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>White first realized his gifts in storytelling might matter in his post-graduation work life when, in addition to taking several journalism courses, he began writing for The Falcon\u2019s Eye, <\/em>the University\u2019s newspaper. He eventually became the news editor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>\u201cUntil then, writing was just a hobby,\u201d said White, a native of Gastonia, N.C. who majored in psychology and communications at Pfeiffer. \u201cWe all have gifts that we did not give ourselves. I think it\u2019s our responsibility to share those gifts with the world. So many supportive professors and mentors at Pfeiffer really nurtured and supported my craft. They helped me to believe that I had something and that it could take me somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>That \u201csomewhere\u201d emerged while White was still at Pfeiffer — thanks to Bear Frazer \u201905, another editor at The Falcon\u2019s Eye<\/em>. In 2007, Frazer heard that BallerStatus<\/a> was looking for freelance writers and helped White land an assignment at the publication, which covers everything from lifestyle trends to entertainment. The assignment entailed interviewing Cupid (aka Bryson Bernard), who\u2019s best known for \u201cCupid Shuffle<\/a>,\u201d a line dance single from 2007 that made it to #68 on the Billboard <\/em>Hot 100. It would mark the first time that White saw his byline in print.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>\u201cIt was so exciting for me,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really opened my mind to the possibility that writing could be a career. I never knew this could be a thing. I thought, \u2018This is amazing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>The same could be said about his current position at State Farm Arena. As Arena Communications Manager for the downtown venue, White serves as the public relations contact and manages all media relations for events, primarily non-basketball. A large area of his responsibility is concert media management. He works directly with artist publicists and tour promoters to not only help amplify the messaging about a show but assist with the media on-site. The media with whom White deals ranges from the traditional (e.g., a print or online version of a newspaper) to the modern (blogs, social media platforms, and podcasts).<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>One show that White worked with and was especially proud of was the annual \u201cBirthday Bash\u201d extravaganza featuring Latto and Friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBirthday Bash was a different kind of beast,\u201d White said. \u201cBecause of the scale and the nature of the show, it was a heavy lift but thanks to everyone who was involved, all of those who attended had a great night out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n White has also assisted with concerts featuring some of the industry\u2019s biggest stars like Usher, Sabrina Carpenter, the late Frankie Beverly, and the legendary Stevie Wonder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n White\u2019s gifts in storytelling can be pivotal in his role when it comes to heightening awareness about arena events and initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe host some great events, but we also do some incredible things in the community,\u201d White said. \u201cThese range from our volunteer opportunities — including the Million Meal Pack, where we had over 6,000 volunteers pack over a million meal kits that we distributed to the community — to our sustainability efforts. We\u2019ve hosted over 500 zero-waste events and counting. These are stories that need to be told.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When White\u2019s not attacking his big to-do list at State Farm Arena, he\u2019s contemplating his next writing project, be that a blog or a magazine article. This time around, he\u2019s experimenting with a new genre by trying his hand at short stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>\u201cI think I’m always going to do something in writing,\u201d he said. \u201cI keep a pen and a notebook with me all the time because I’m always jotting something down. So, I think regardless of where I end up in my career, there will be a large aspect of writing still very much happening in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>These sentiments have their origins at Pfeiffer, at which White\u2019s professors and mentors opened up and encouraged him to pursue a world of limitless possibilities.<\/a>\u201cTheir message to me was that you can do more, you can go further, you can go higher,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m forever grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This article was written for Çï¿ûÊÓƵ by Ken Keuffel<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thanks in large part to his student experiences at Çï¿ûÊÓƵ, Anthony White \u201908 has become the kind of communications professional who can tell his own stories compellingly or help others share theirs. He is the Manager of Arena Communications at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Ga., home of the NBA\u2019s Atlanta Hawks. Prior to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":35553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":149,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,152,8],"tags":[],"table_tags":[],"ppma_author":[230],"class_list":["post-35547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-careers-outcomes","category-featured"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":230,"user_id":15,"is_guest":0,"slug":"ken-keuffel","display_name":"Ken Keuffel","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a19f15f5316dc45aa63eedd546a8247?s=96&d=mm&r=g","first_name":"Ken","last_name":"Keuffel","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pfeiffer.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pfeiffer.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pfeiffer.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pfeiffer.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pfeiffer.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pfeiffer.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pfeiffer.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pfeiffer.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pfeiffer.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pfeiffer.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35547"},{"taxonomy":"table_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pfeiffer.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/table_tags?post=35547"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pfeiffer.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=35547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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