#cosida13

I'm #gladtobehere. What about you?

I had the honor and the privilege to present on a panel entitled "Media and Social Media Training for the Student-Athlete" at the 2013 CoSIDA Convention. Each school does media and social media training differently, and I was fortunate enough to join Tom Eiser (Xavier), Dr. John Lata (Florida State) and moderator Scottie Rodgers (Ivy League) to share our thoughts and ideas on the topic.

Thanks to Tom for inviting me to join the panel. Also, thanks to both Tom and John for their insight - both delivered stellar points and ones I hope to use in the future. Thanks to Scottie for serving as our moderator - he made things run smoothly.

Whether sitting on the same panel as others in the field or watching from the crowd, it's always good practice to see how other schools and organizations do things. I know I walked away with more notes from Tom and John than the actual notes I gave for my portion of the presentation.

Here's the complete PDF presentation from our panel discussion in Orlando:

I may be in the minority, but I firmly believe that we all must control, build and curate our personal brand. Whether we work in communications, marketing, ticketing, facilities, coaching or academics, it's ok to have a personal brand. Take care of it. Take pride in it. My portion of our panel discussed more of a professional aspect of social media education, which has a direct effect on your brand.

Self-promotion is ok. It’s about building a personal brand. If you aren’t on Google searches (in a good way), then you don’t exist in the digital space.

My two main points covered the R.A.I.S.E. Principle that is included in our Communications Standards...

Respectful

Authentic

Intentional

Smart

Engaging

...and 10 social media keys that we will be sharing with our staff, coaches and student-athletes...

Every day is a job interview.

Twitter/social media is a telephone, not a megaphone.

Take pride in who/what you represent.

If you can’t say it front of your mother, then don’t say it. (MOM RULE)

Have some common sense.

Don’t engage in Twitter arguments. No one wins.

What happens behind closed doors…stays behind closed doors.

Thank your teammates and fans every day.

Never criticize an opposing team, referee, coach or teammate.

Have fun.

Every day is a humbling experience, and we all have the fortunate opportunity to share our ideas and knowledge with student-athletes, coaches and co-workers at our respective schools.

I'm grateful to Tom, John and Scottie for providing me with the opportunity to join them on the panel. I hope our colleagues are able to apply some of this presentation. I know I learned something.

I'm glad to be here.

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Well, another CoSIDA is in the books, and from a professional standpoint, I believe I learned more from the programming at this session than I have learned at any of my previous conventions.

That’s not to say it was all sunshine and rainbows.

In my experience, the combined convention was a positive experience. I had the opportunity to visit with some of the most respected professionals in the industry and get some valuable insights just from striking up a conversation in the line at the hotel Starbucks.

And by the way, I think I may have an ownership stake in the World Center Marriott Starbucks after this week.

Having spent three years out of the business, the last convention I attended was San Antonio. And while much has changed in the years since that convention, much has remained the same. It was great to see old friends and catch up with them. We are members of a fraternity, and it seems to me that time doesn’t weaken those friendships.

With that said, my review of CoSIDA13 - the good, the bad, and the ugly. These opinions are my own.

THE GOOD

1. Overall programming. Kudos to Eric McDowell and crew for putting together some very timely and informative programming. When it came to quality of programming, the convention program crew certainly elevated its game for this year’s event.

2. Academic All-America Hall of Fame. This one just goes without saying. Being able to display one of the best things we do in front of a larger audience is incredibly important.

3. Joint sessions with NACDA. I thought the “State of Intercollegiate Athletics” sessions were hard-hitting and excellent. My only regret is that the sessions weren’t longer - I know that some people didn’t want to ask questions during the media half because they didn’t want to cut Jay Bilas, Dan Wetzel, or Dan Wolken short. The AD session was excellent as well, and John Foley’s session was quite valuable too.

4. New Media and Social Media training. These sessions were valuable no matter what level of institution we serve - from the BCS institutions with armies of beat writers to the small schools who can’t even get their releases printed in a one-horse town’s weekly paper.

5. CoSIDA Hall of Fame. It’s an honor to see some of the best professionals and best people be recognized for the work they have done. I’ll always be glad that I got to see my friend Fred Stabley, Jr. go into the Hall of Fame.

THE BAD (In no particular order)

1. The sparse attendance at the CoSIDA business session. There were fewer people in attendance than at a Detroit Pistons game. We may have had more attendees at the D2SIDA meeting, and that’s no exaggeration. If we want our voices as professionals to be heard, we have to take an interest in “how the sausage is made”. Fault for this falls both on the general membership and on the organization. To the members, take some interest in how our organization is run. If you can’t take the time to be in the business meeting and engaged in the discussion, you’ll never have a say in how CoSIDA advocates for our profession. To the CoSIDA leadership - perhaps the business meeting shouldn’t be held while other events (like the table topics) are taking place. Perhaps it shouldn’t be held from 5:15 p.m.-5:45 p.m., particularly on the day of the only opportunity we’d be allowed to visit the NACDA Exhibit Hall (and I’ll get to that later). The bottom line is this - we are some of the best people in the world at recognizing our audience and tailoring messages to them. We find ways to get the story to people when people won’t come to the story. That’s the nature of our business. So why can’t the actual business meeting of our professional advocacy organization be scheduled for a time when we’d have a better opportunity for higher attendance? To put it another way, when I was the SID at Arkansas-Monticello, we coordinated two football coach hire press conferences at the University of Arkansas System office in Little Rock, nearly 90 miles away from campus. Why did we do that? Because the media wasn’t going to drive through the woods to come to Monticello, and it was important to us that this announcement be as widely covered as possible. We took the story to the media. Rather than burying the business meeting during dinner (or perhaps just as bad, at 8 a.m.), why not have our business meeting in a 10:30-noon window, possibly immediately preceding one of our two luncheons? The business meeting needs to be conducted in a higher-traffic time to encourage as much involvement from the rank-and-file as is possible.

2. Limited access to the NACDA exhibit hall. For people at Division I institutions, I would argue that this isn’t as important. However, as a Division II SID, my role includes operations, marketing, and more, those pesky “other duties as assigned.” The fact that our time in that space was limited to one evening did a disservice to the membership. From numerous conversations with fellow members, that one night’s access cost our organization a pretty penny per member. (Again, more on this later.)

3. The CoSIDA exhibit hall. I would love to see the number of exhibitors this year versus exhibitors in past years. I don’t think that it would be pretty.

THE UGLY 

1. That cost a lot of money. If the World Center had a pay phone, it would cost about ten bucks to make a local call. Yes, that’s an exaggeration. But at around $15 a day to park a car if you were staying on-site (and $15 per time in and out if you weren’t), that adds up quickly. Not to mention the costs of hotel food - and a lot of people went that way, because if you flew in and didn’t get a car, you were looking at a good $40 round trip to take a cab to get to a place where food was served because you certainly weren’t going to be walking anywhere. This in addition to the nearly $200 a night price tag. This certainly adds up quickly. And for a Division II director such as myself, the very limited access to the exhibition hall was a big added issue. I don’t know what kind of food they have in there when they weren’t doing the socials, but that one mixer was one time I didn’t have to drop any money on hotel restaurant food. None of these items by themselves are deal breakers, but it does leave me considering how I am going to handle my registration for next year. Do I stay on site, pay the CoSIDA registration and consider renting a car - or do I bite the bullet and pay for NACDA registration instead, knowing I can hit all the CoSIDA sessions, because I’ll have more access - and opportunities to save money by “grazing” - than I did with the blue lanyard? 

MY FINAL THOUGHTS

All in all, I was very pleased with the programming content and the information presented. When the content was good, it was exceptionally good. 

However, I believe we can get better, and I’d like to be a part of making that better. To that end, I’ve volunteered to serve on committees (have indicated an interest in three in particular). My name is attached to this post, and I don’t intend to lob criticisms from behind a pseudonym. 

We all have varying levels of investment in our organization - and I am confident in the professionals we have serving our organization. My personal goal is to get more out of CoSIDA than I did during my first go-around in the business. Of course, I’m a little older and wiser now than I was then.

Not only is every day a job interview, every day is also a chance to get better. If I didn't learn something new today or have the opportunity to teach someone, then today was a failure. I base my daily success on whether or not I learned something new or taught someone something new.

After spending four days in Orlando at the 2013 CoSIDA and NACDA conventions, I go back to work Monday knowing more than I did when I left last week. One of the greatest things about this week was interacting with NACDA and NACMA members.

I was humbled to have the opportunity to be a part of two great panel discussions during the CoSIDA Convention - "Media and Social Media Training for the Student-Athlete" and "Streamlining". I learned so much more from my fellow panelists in each discussion than the information I tried to impart on those in attendance.

While I loved talking about all the things we're doing at The U, I spent the majority of my time in Orlando learning and engaging with what others were doing at their schools.

Starbucks in the lobby of the Marriott Orlando World Center was the epicenter of all the communications and social media chatter for the week. I was humbled to meet and interact with those in the profession that I admire and try to emulate. Social media allows for all of us to engage and share ideas on an entirely different level.

I can recite my notes from all the panels I attended, but that would be boring. Instead, I'd rather share the five things I took away from this week's conventions:

We're all in this together. I write this blog because I love what I do, I love to write, and I love to share ideas and my experiences. That's the only way to learn.

Never underestimate what you do. With CoSIDA and NACDA conventions now in one place, it was a great opportunity to interact with others in athletics outside of communications. Be proud of what you represent..

If you have a good idea you want to share, then share it. The only way we can get better is by sharing and exchanging our thoughts and ideas. Don't be afraid to share something you think would be beneficial for our industry.

You don't have to join every social network just to do it. Some networks work School X or A University, but they may not work for you. Stick to what works best for you.

"The secret sauce to happiness is gratitude." I thoroughly enjoyed John Foley's presentation Saturday on "high performance leadership". Don't take anything for granted. Be happy you're here. #gladtobehere

Unfortunately, one other lesson I learned during my time in Orlando was possibly the toughest of them all. There are some people that will always mock you or try to hurt you when all you want to do is help others. At the end of the day, my callings in life were to work in communications and to be a teacher. That's all I want to do and yet there were a few (the 1%) that decided to tear me down instead. And that's a shame because we're all in this together. I won't let that 1% overshadow the opportunity I had to share ideas with others and to learn from others I admire and emulate in the profession.

I'm glad to be here.

Thank you to everyone who made CoSIDA and NACDA a tremendous success this year. And thank you to all the great people I met for the first time - you have me a better professional and I hope to continue learning from each and every one of you.

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