The Kenneth Owler Smith Symposium has been the premier event for public relations students and practitioners in Southern California since its inception in 1990. Known colloquially by USC alumni by its initials, “KOS,” this annual event is organized by the USC Center for Public Relations in conjunction with the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Kenneth Owler Smith (1920–1988) was the 28th national president of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), and was regarded for his exceptional contributions to education for public relations, most notably creating USC’s international curricula in journalism, broadcasting in public relations and advertising courses, and the first degreed sports and information program in the United States. After a long PR career that included service in the US Army and work for Western Airlines, the Apollo space projects and two Olympics Games, Smith was a professor and director of USC’s sports information curriculum at the time of his passing.

Each year the KOS event highlights information from the center’s hallmark study, the Global Communications Report.