Things have changed, and there is no going back.
I’ve been going to Student Affairs conferences since 1997, both at the regional and national level. After not being able to attend any national conferences last year, I found myself at two this past month: the Association of College Unions International’s (ACUI) 90th Annual Conference in New York City and College Student Educators International (ACPA) here in Boston. Both were fantastic experiences that enabled me to present educational sessions, reconnect with old friends and colleagues, and meet many new ones!
But, this year felt different. Twitter (among many other technology tools) had broken onto the Student Affairs conference scene. Each of the conferences I had attended, integrated some form of social media from planning and marketing to announcements and education. But it was Twitter’s splash that got my attention. I was excited that these Higher Education Student Affairs conferences were using it “officially” and it made me realize that things had certainly shifted. Both conferences made attempts to connect with the established (and forming) Twitter communities and did a good job overall.
For any Student Affairs association leaders who are planning future conferences, I have some advice and takeaways:
Advice:
1. Have a Plan, With Proper Buy-In
Before you make decisions on Social Media usage for your conference (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, FourSquare, Ustream, etc.), decide what and why you want to use it for and that you have buy-in from your executive leadership. You and your team will need a proper understanding of these tools and how they would accentuate the conference experience for you and your delegates. Whomever will be sharing the responsibility for managing these tools will have to be proficient in the technology.
You will also need proper buy-in! In their public addresses, ACUI’s Executive Director, Marsha Herman-Betzen and ACPA’s President, Tom Jackson both mentioned the importance of using social media tools in our Student Affairs work. Tom took it to the next level by encouraging ACPA delegates to use Twitter throughout the conference by using hashtags #ACPA10 and #SAchat and even praised Eric Stoller for his work in raising Twitter awareness in ACPA.
2. Tap into your existing Twitter Community
Identify who the “Power Users” are within your association. These folks will be the ones who will be most active in supporting your Social Media implementation. Ask them for feedback and recommendations and include them on your planning teams. The great thing about these folks is that they don’t necessarily need to be at your conference or planning meetings to help since they can promote your content and provide advice from wherever they are!
3. Use #Hashtags / Backchannels to Enhance the Educational Experience
If you decide to use Twitter as part of your Social Media plan, make sure to have a proper conference hashtag that all participants can use. On top of that, encourage your presenters to have their own hashtags as well. This will create educational backchannels where all those interested in person and online can contribute to the conversations. This also encourages live participation from conference delegates and creates an online transcript of what folks took away from the educational experience.
4. Organize a Gathering
Whether it be in an educational round table and/or in a networking social, bring these folks together to meet in person. At ACPA and ACUI, this was a major highlight for me and added value to my conference experience. For the most part, I had been Tweeting with these folks for months, so the opportunity to meet was something I didn’t want to miss. Having “Tweetups” gives these online communities the chance to continue the conversations in person. Everyone I met at both conferences were fantastic, and “as advertised” 
(#ACPA10 Photos | #ACUI2010 Photos)
Takeaways:
1. Student Affairs Professionals Are Behind The Social Media Curve
Consistently at ACUI and ACPA, there was only between an 8% and 10% overall conference participation rate in using Twitter. While I am not surprised, it has become more evident to me that the Student Affairs profession needs to seriously adopt an educational technology benchmark or standard. Too many folks are either turning away from emerging technology, don’t use already adopted technology to it’s fullest potential, and/or delegate it all to students, graduate students or new professionals to manage. It is time for us to look at ways to increase Educational Technology proficiency in our graduate programs, perhaps adding requirements to ensure that our “NextGen” of professionals are ahead of this curve. We simply cannot continue at this lackluster pace of understanding or the next adaptation of technology will set folks back even further.
2. Mobile Access and Video Delivery/Production Are Necessary Components
Something that ACUI did very well at their conference was provide an excellent mobile site for their conference attendees. Based on Seth Hagler‘s Social Media Engagement Report for the ACUI 2010 Conference, there were some very cool statistics:
· The entire site had 1,964 total page views between February 21 and March 9, 2010.
· Of these, there were1,415 unique views of all pages.
· The most popular page of the site was the home page, with 593 total views. More telling, however, was 387 unique views of the site.
· The most popular feature of the site was the conference schedule, with a total number of 472 views, 346 of which were unique. Also, this page had an average view time 3:07, high for a mobile site.
· The least popular feature of the site was the delegate list, with only 29 total views.
· The most popular operating system used to access the site was the iPhone, with 391 site visits.
· The Bounce Rate, as addressed in the Conference Blog section, for the mobile site was significantly lower, with a figure of 35.86%, indicating a larger percentage of users visiting more than one page per site visit.
If there is anything we can learn is that mobile technology is growing at a rapid pace, and with more of our attendees on smartphones like Blackberrys and IPhones, this is a value added service that needs to part of your technology landscape.
Also, consider live streaming some of your larger keynotes and featured speakers. I realize that there will be some “contractual” issues with certain speakers, but it doesn’t hurt to ask if this is an option as you begin to secure these folks. With travel budgets where they are or falling, providing this “pay per view” alternative would be a very attractive and sought after service. The first Association to do this will certainly make a huge splash. Other “video” ideas include: creating a YouTube Channel for each Association, Video Blogs from Association Leadership, and Short Video Clips of people sharing their conference experiences.
@SethHagler Talk about ACUI | @WillisTJ Talks ACUI | @MrsKeegin Talks ACUI
3. Make sure your Conference Site has Complementary (and Reliable) Wireless Access
This was my one point of frustration, that I don’t fault the respective Conference Planning Teams for. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around why, in 2010, there wasn’t consistent, reliable, and FREE wireless access at the Conference Hotels. As a delegate, presenter, and consumer, you want to give me and the hundreds of others using your venue the opportunity to tweet about how wonderful it is to have that type of access. I understand it is an economics issue, but I hope that by this time next year, it is the norm to have this access. I encourage the Conference Planning Teams to negotiate something so it’s delegates can enjoy some level of consistent WiFi access, even if I have to pay a little to get it.
