The Women Mean Business Symposium is a terrific event that allows our students to hear from accomplished women leaders during a panel discussion. Immediately following the panel presentation, the girls can network and converse at table discussions, conducted by career "women who make a difference".
This year M-Hub partnered with Women Means Business on a new social media feature. M-Hub managed a scheme for allowing students in the audience to tweet questions to panelists as they made their presentations during the first portion of the program.
The WMB Planning Committee and M-Hub came up with a marvelous way to facilitate the "tweets". Questions were sent via @MercyWMB. Senior M-Hub member, Stephanie Luther monitored the tweets and projected questions to the screens flanking the panelists. The panelists were able to follow the tweets on Mercy iPads loaned by our IT Department.
As it turned out, Stephanie received about 21 tweets-- most of them very good questions (They are still posted @MercyWMB). As it turned out, only a couple were actually used by the panelists. Still, several people told me that it was "cool." I was particularly pleased to be complimented on the iPad/Twitter presence by communications expert and Mercy alumna Vanessa Denha Garmo of Denha Media. Most importantly, the twittering was unobtrusive and in the future could probably be used more robustly for sharing comments as well as asking questions.
Another important take-away: Over half of the M-Hub members attended. They felt a stake in the program and were drawn into the into through the very welcoming manner they were included in the planning. Perhaps there are other student groups that could be hooked in the same way.
The event is certainly a wonderful experience for our Mercy girls and the planners as well as the Mercy Advancement staff deserve great credit for hosting a truly special event.
- Photo by L. Baker
No comments:
Post a Comment