We have lofty goals at NEPABlogCon, like education, community building, and economic empowerment. All while having fun.
Last year a few college students volunteered the day of the event. This year, we knew we wanted to work with students again, but in a an expanded capacity - one that would help them to develop some hardcore skills, give them some portfolio material, provide them with a professional networking opportunity, and help us out a little bit. We are generally symbiotic like that. We brainstormed the concept of a '"street team" - I'm pretty sure it was at Lucky's Sporthousewhile I was devouring a veggie burger...
Our Vision
We decided we wanted to work with a group of students to help them develop their social media, blogging, and general digital marketing skills as our mentoring contribution this year.The students would focus on outreach to their peers at regional colleges through social media, work their contacts, hit up on campus marcom, and IT departments to help drive discounted student ticket sales - and learn while doing it.We have already accomplished a good bit of that goal, but there's more to it!
NEPA BlogCon is October 5. That's where the students will turn into real time event coverage on the plethora of apps on their phones and on their laptops. They'll be encouraged to Storify the goodness and post it to their online portfolios for future employment opportunities - and giddy laughs with their grandchildren one day when Vine is as useful as an 8 Track tape and they've made a career out of some yet to be determined platform.
The Students
It just so happens that a very good friend to NEPABlogCon, Leni Konstas, is teaching a social media class at Misericordia University and was looking for a project for her students.In fact, why don't you tweet at them at@NEPABCStreet!
More public and higher education collaborative projects mean more students will be ready for that first professional opportunity.
Read all about the NEPA BlogCon Street Team project and be sure to read the students' blog posts. This is proof you can help to foster new talent getting ready to join the workforce, create a pipeline, make a real difference in the community... and have fun all at the same time. And then put your thinking cap on to figure out how your organization can help to develop students. I'm not talking about a standard stale run of the mill internship. I'mtalkingabout a project with an intense opportunity for inspiration, learning, positive growth and change.
Then come back and tell me your idea!
Leave a Reply