2/25/24
We’re going to play a game. We were supposed to be downstairs for breakfast at 8AM. Guess what time I got out of bed this morning… I’ll give you a few seconds to think. If you guessed a reasonable and responsible time, you’re incorrect. It was 7:47AM. But I did make it to breakfast in time, so that’s my morning achievement.
After a second morning in a row of actually incredible breakfast, we returned to the NACA Live convention center and got the chance to listen to a keynote speaker, Payton Head, to start of the day. His talk was really informative as he gave a lot of ideas and shared his experience being a student leader on campus. One thing that I took away from that session was the inspiration to start connecting with other organizations on campus to help create new events that can reach more people. There are lots of different social pockets on the campus that may have shared interests, but may not know about all the other groups. I’ve started thinking about some new events that would help to engage other organizations on campus and to better establish our organization’s presence.
We then attended our next two ED Block sessions. My first of the day was called “The Fall and Rise of Social Connection on Campus”. This session was one of the ones that I was most excited for because I can see the change in how our campus is socializing and engaging with the clubs and activities. This session gave a lot of really helpful data on the loneliness of college age individuals, and what kinds of mental, cognitive, and physical detriments social isolation can have. This session wasn’t just explaining the engagement crisis and telling you stock ways to fix it, but instead gave you the numbers for you to understand and the frameworks that can give student leaders the ability to enhance socialization on campus. When thinking about creating an event, it’s vital to think about the socialization that occurs within the span of the event. If you are not advocating for these social connections, then you’re not creating a space where everyone can gain social capital; that innate feeling of belonging. It’s important to belong. There were also tips for helping to remember someone’s name, which is something that I definitely need and found helpful.
The second ED Block that I attended today was called “What’s Happening on Campus This Week? Marketing Your Events in an Engaging and Accessible Way”. Yes, that title was a mouthful, and honestly so was the presentation. It was a lot of information very quickly, but there was a lot of helpful tips thrown in there. When event planning, you need to consider the 5 W’s (who, what, where, when, why) and make sure that there is a clear understanding for each of them. That can better help to establish the logistics and needs for the event. You can also take a SWOT analysis of the event as a whole, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the event, the opportunities that you have regarding your event, and any threats that may impact the amount of engagement with your event. Engagement with an event is not just one way, but a process that ideally has four stages, before, leading into, during, an after. All of these should be thought about and met in order to create a memorable event that students will want to continue engaging with, and it’s especially important to create engagement that is accessible to all in many different ways. Things such as time of day, location, and incentives can really impact the student engagement of an event.
After our ED Blocks, we went outside to the food trucks that were there for the event. Now, friendly reminder that we are in Pittsburgh. In February. Outside. It was very cold. Too cold in fact. So cold that once we knew that we would still be standing outside for over half an hour before even getting our food, we decided to find somewhere else to go. There was a pizza place down the street that we had passed by a few days prior that we decided to try. The pizza was actually really good, and I got two pretty sizeable slices of pizza, so I was happy. I was slightly surprised by the number of Furry decorations in the restaurant however. Yeah, you read that right. Furry signs. Furry stickers all up and down both bathroom doors. Cities certainly have charm.
We returned to the convention center for the Speaker Showcase, hosted by GUSTAVO FROM BIG TIME RUSH?!?!?!? AND HE SANG BILLIE EILISH TO US?!?!?!? OKAY!!! The rest of the event consisted of people talking. The ones I liked (remember) were the first two, Ashlee Haze with Moderne Philosophy and Brian Miller. Ashlee talked about sharing ourselves and our philosophies through poetry and spoken word. She was fun to listen to because of how relatable she was. She had us take some of our own mundane thoughts and sentences and just reframe them in our minds to make them poems. Brian Miller was the other speaker that I enjoyed because he encouraged that everything that you would ever want is just one interaction away. As someone who desperately struggles with interacting with people, that felt both very targeted, but also informative. The best thing to say when you go blank at the end of a conversation is “tell me more about that”. That not only shows your interest in the person you’re talking to, but allows for the conversation to continue naturally.
We returned to the Marketplace for the remainder of the afternoon. We actually met Stephen Kramer Glickman and got to take a photo with him, which was incredible. We also saw someone who I didn’t recognize at the time, but later found out that he’s been a PRODUCER FOR SURVIVOR FOR 20+ YEARS?!?!?!? AND I DIDN’T KNOW HE WAS SO I DIDN’T TALK TO HIM!!!!!!! Devastated. We continued walking around to see if there were any new booths. We got the chance to talk to Heat Above, the band from the previous day that I really enjoyed, as well as Adam Paddock, another music artist. We got to listen to a sample of his music and it was also really cool and up my alley, so I really hope that I can get a part in bringing some of these awesome music acts to BSU. We also talked with Trigg Watson, a digital magician, who actually blew my mind. I’m a little skeptical with magicians because I know there’s always a trick and I just want to find it out, but this was absolutely bonkers. He literally made a playing card come out of an Instagram post on my phone????? The tricks he did with us were so crazy, so mind-boggling, and so unique. I literally cannot even begin to try and explain how they worked.
As the afternoon winded down, my brain started winding up. Literally feeling like my head was going to implode, I decided I needed to rest for the remainder of the day. I was bummed that I wasn’t at dinner with everyone from BSU and all the people from the Northeast region, but I knew that I had to put myself first or else I wouldn’t have enjoyed the experience and would’ve made it all worse. I did manage to feel better to return for the Comedy Showcase, which for seeing about two and a half of the acts, was incredibly funny.
Another day at NACA, another blog post. I’m literally sitting here never wanting this experience to end. I want to keep meeting more people. I want to keep learning things. This is so much fun. Does this maybe make me want to reconsider going into higher education so I can keep doing things like this? Lowkey, yeah. We’ll see.
To sign off, I leave you with the inspirational words of Caryn Groedel of Survivor: Palau,
“We’re gonna sleep good tonight!”
SOC & Treasurer Zach 🙂
Bridgewater State University goes to NACA 