Mass Comm Week @ Texas State!

The School of Journalism and Mass Communication hosted its annual
Mass Communication Week, Oct. 25-28. Woo Hoo!!!

Ever since my Issues in New Media class this summer with @Cindy Royal we have been talking about Mass Comm Week! So basically since July I have been interested in finding out what Mass Comm week was all about. I couldn't wait to get a chance to hear from some REALLY cool people working in very different jobs and industries. I attended 2 different panels. One via Ustream and the other in person. I can honestly say both experiences were extremely interesting and very helpful. I was intrigued by the whole thing! :)

I had the chance to attend (via Ustream) Social Graces: Understanding and communicationg with clients, co-workers, audiences and the media with David Wyatt & Lauren Tuttle from WyattBrand and Nick Weynard from Trademark Media. I was very interested in the things they were discussing. I was very glad to see that Lauren was a Texas State Alum. They were a very intelligent group with very different backgrounds. One thing they mentioned was the fact that in their industry you are being hired to help with the design of things...to give it a feel. They also stated that you have to be working on a goal. The goal of a project isn't to have a high # of followers on twitter (for example). All in all the group discussed the importance of working toward an ultimate goal and how important working together is. They also discussed how important it is to be on the same page as the clients in order to find out what it is they really want and to help them make those important decisions. I really enjoyed this session!

I was also able to attend one of the Panel's in person "Going Digital: Changes in the Advertising and PR Industry" with some folks from Fleishman-Hillard. I LOVED this panel! They showed a video at the beginning of the session and one of the statements included in the video was "Creativity is a drug you can't live without" this really got me thinking about digging deep and finding those creative juices within myself in order to be successful in this type of industry. They start off by talking about the representation of Story Telling and how important it is. (Another thing @cindyroyal has discussed with us before) Everyone in the group had interesting things to talk about and it was evident that each of them were passionate about what they do. I also found it interesting that each of them were from different educational backgrounds but they work so well together as a team. It seems as though they each have different perspectives and ideas on things, yet they can come together and make something work out of it!

The panelists also discussed branding your product and being able to look at yourself as storytellers. One thing they mentioned (that blew my mind) was using certain branding strategies for companies like CHEVY by putting stickers on several power cords all around the convention center for the SXSW conference. That to me was just amazing and SO simple, yet so creative! Once I heard this along with a few other things these guys did to get this brand recognized and ingrained in the brains of people at SXSW I was honestly amazed. Something else the panelists discussed were skills necessary to be successful in this industry and just a career in general. One of the panelists stated "be careful what you're good at" this thought really struck me. He talks about how it is important to have a diverse set of skills but the reality is stay good at what you're good at and run with it. That really hit home for me :) I really enjoyed this panel and I am thinking of applying for an internship with Fleishman-Hillard!

You can find info about Mass Comm Week on Twitter @txstatemcweek