@AU_SMCEDU: First #SLS11 held in #MGC and #newSISbuilding on 4/1-3, discussed #newmedia. RT @alexpriest
For both the Twitter-savvy, the technologically-challenged and everyone in between, the AU Social Media Club’s inaugural Social Learning Summit featured panels on topics ranging from “Peace Through Tweets: Peacebuilding and Crisis Management in a Connected World” to “The NEW Media: Journalism in the Social Age.”
The Social Learning Summit, held April 1-3 in the Mary Graydon Center and the new School of International Service building, aimed to start conversations about new ways of communication and learning across industries, including education, politics, international affairs and news.
Participants and panelists alike echoed the importance of innovation and opportunities for engagement using social media.
“Because the Internet changes so fast, we’re trying to be one step ahead and guess where that next success point is going to be,” said panelist Greg Cypes, director of product at Clearspring for AddThis social networking. “If you’re not evolving, you will get eaten by a bigger fish.”
President of AU’s Social Media Club Alex Priest said he believes social media skills are as essential as writing skills and can apply to any field of work.
Educators and students need to adapt accordingly and take advantage of new forms of communication, he said.
More than 300 registered students, professors and professionals, along with many unregistered attendees, came to panels throughout the weekend, according to Priest.
“We decided as soon as we founded the organization that we wanted to do something big at the end of the year,” Priest said. “Smaller campus events and … tweeting wasn’t necessarily going to reach everyone. We wanted to do something big, we wanted to talk about this stuff really loudly and we wanted to make a statement, and I think we did that.”
Priest said 775 individual Twitter users wrote 8,693 tweets with the #SLS11 hashtag, 10,168 tweets mentioned the Social Media Club’s handle @AU_SMCEDU and the club itself tweeted 512 times over the weekend.
The event’s Twitter activity earned it a spot in the area’s trending topics.
“[The weekend was] incredible. It was beyond my wildest dreams,” Priest said. “Never in a million years did I imagine that we would trend in D.C. two days in a row.”
rkaras@theeagleonline.com
