First #journchat LIVE: Recap
- 19 Comment
This past Monday was a surreal experience for me. My first day as a new business owner included sitting at the Chicago Tribune and watching #journchat come to life. Listening to people discuss and debate questions was intense and fulfilling. It was overwhelming (in a good way) as I attempted to balance seven live events, moderate the online chat and network with the crowd. We had a total of 300 people register for the LIVE events through the Eventbrite online invitations with approximately 250 (or so) participants, along with our normal online venue.
At our Chicago location we had about 60 people in attendance. There was a balance between journalists, PR professionals, bloggers, professors, students and interns–this was essential throughout our discussion. As I roamed the room, I heard discussions that could have been part of a master’s program in new media along with a need for MORE opportunities like this (i.e. journchat LIVE). We were arranged in small groups and after two questions, the entire group had to shift in order to connect with new people.
Upon reflection, there are many things I will do differently next time and realize that this is an evolving event. For one, I can’t wait to incorporate audio and video. The format for future events will be a bit more formalized, including a networking time, minimum number of attendees, location requirements, media partner, etc. I look forward to sharing these updates with the next round of champions when our next date is announced.
During this first session we were able to move through eight questions:
- Who owns the fan experience of social media at college stadiums?
- Are they trying to set up a local wire for MSNBC by buying Everyblock? Does it make sense?
- Have you noticed media companies now hiring social media journalists or companies soc med position?
- How do you communicate/show/tell the value of “social media” and online communities?
- Why are you participating in a LIVE version or the online version of @journchat? What do you hope to accomplish?
- If the press release as we know it is dead, what is next? Will something take its place?
- What type of “pitch” gets your attn? Journs: for a story; PRs: someone looking for a job or new idea?
- What advice do you have for new grads in PR/journ/marketing/comm? Doesn’t have to be social media specific.
Thank you to the seven LIVE locations across the United States and Canada. These folks are the pioneers of #journchat LIVE and I’m grateful the work they put into their events.
Chicago
Champions: Kate Gardiner (@kategardiner) and me
Detroit
Champion: Jamie Favreau (@jfavreau)
Philadelphia
Champion: David Spinks (@davidspinks)
A recap of the Philly event can be found, here.
Phoenix
Champion: Aaron Baer (@aaronmbaer)
Pittsburgh
Champion: Deanna Ferrari (@dferrari)
RELEASE: Pittsburgh to participate in seven-city, live-streaming event
Photos and video from the event (they’re uploading the video to the YouTube page soon)
Partners: WordWrite PR (@wordwritePR) and Pittsburgh Business Times (@pghbiztimes)
Minneapolis
Champions: Arik Hanson (@arikhanson) and Kristin Gast (@kristingast)
Here’s a review of the Minneapolis location.
Toronto
Champion: Jodi Echakowitz (@jodiechakowitz)
Jodi wrote an honest and thoughtful review about her group’s experience of the first #journchat LIVE.
A very special thank you to our sponsors who helped to support our mission:
- Care4Hire
- Chicago Tribune (@coloneltribune) and Chicago Now (@chicagonow)
- Disability Empowerment Center
- Domino’s and Ramon De Leon (@dpzramon)
- Drexel Science Center and DreamIt Ventures
- Eight O’Clock Coffee
- Foiled Cupcakes (@foiledcupcakes)
- Garrett Popcorn
- Half-Price Books
- Media Watch
- Marketwire (@marketwire)
- Matt Batt/Pipeline Media Relations (@storyassistant)
- Pingo
- Point Park University
- @Rusticaphilly
- Tunheim Partners
- Thornely Fallis (@thornley)
- VooDoo Tiki Tequila
- ZooLoo (@zooloo)
If you have any questions about #journchat or #journchat LIVE, please email me at: prsarahevans at gmail dot com.
19 Comments on this post
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Kate Gardiner said:
Loved doing it – so much fun working with you Sarah. Looking forward to future #journchat LIVE conferences!
August 19th, 2009 at 1:37 pm -
Mike Shaldjian said:
A bit disappointed that Media Watch AZ was left off not only all local postings of this even, but also off the re-cap as sponsor of all food & beverages for the Phoenix group.
I feel like someone really dropped the ball.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:05 pm -
Jodi Echakowitz said:
I’m glad to have been a part of the very first #journchat LIVE. Looking forward to participating in many more!
August 19th, 2009 at 2:20 pm -
PRsarahevans said:
Hi Mike. I’ll take full ownership of that one. For future events, there are going to be required participation by dates and a formal way to submit sponsorship. This should alleviate the problem in the future. In the meantime, I’ll add them to the list. Do you also have an email address or contact over there so I can reach out? Thank you.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:39 pm -
Mike Shaldjian said:
I’m the owner! My email address, mike@mediawatchaz.com
Not Market Watch…Media Watch.
Thank you!August 19th, 2009 at 2:50 pm -
Barbara Rozgonyi said:
Hi Sarah – congrats on staging such an engaging interaction! Enjoyed participating in Chicago’s live #journchat where our live conversations were so intriguing that it was challenging for me to break away to recap and tweet them. Thanks to @kategardiner for doing that for our group.
@wiredprworksAugust 19th, 2009 at 2:54 pm -
Deanna Ferrari said:
We were so happy to be a part of #journchat LIVE! Photos from the Pittsburgh event can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wordwritepr/show/ and we’re uploading the video to our YouTube page soon! http://www.youtube.com/wordwritepr.
Deanna (@dferrari)
August 19th, 2009 at 3:05 pm -
PRsarahevans said:
Thank you, Deanna. I just updated your links under the Pittsburgh event.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:40 pm -
Matt Batt said:
Thanks for an awesome event! I’m looking forward to the next one!
August 19th, 2009 at 9:18 pm -
Jamie Favreau said:
I had fun organizing this and I learned a lot. I somehow need to get connected with journalists who are interested and have an open mind to chatting with bloggers and public relations professionals. I had high expectations going on but everyone I talked with thought it was a success. Considering I am NOT working in the field right now I think I did a good job and hopefully more people will participate in the chats on Mondays.
August 20th, 2009 at 4:17 pm -
Love Graphics said:
I am also looking forward to the next one, I unfortunately missed this one, but hopefully there will be another one soon.
August 21st, 2009 at 2:00 am -
David Johnson said:
Sarah, looks like you could use an inside-the-beltway location for the future LIVE events. American University’s School of Communication might be an option. You can reach me @darthcheeta or @davidajohnson.
Keep up the good work and hope we can help the conversation.
August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 am
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[...] Sarah Evans began to look for new formats to host the chat, including video streaming, and even a country-wide live event. Always stay open to changing things up based on the community’s [...]