By Jacob VanRyn, Assistant Commissioner for Strategic Communications

Entry 1 - Telling Our Story

Monday, June 27th

This week (Sunday through Wednesday) is the annual CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of American) Convention, which is being held in Marco Island, Florida. I am down here attengding the convention along with four other directors of athletic communications from our conference: American International College's Daryl Konicki, Bentley University's Dick Lipe, The College of Saint Rose's David Alexander, and Southern New Hampshire University's Greg Royce.

For me, it's my first one, for CoSIDA Hall of Fame member (Class of '02) Dick Lipe, it is not. Simple as that.

I thought a blog would be interesting to share to give people an insight into what goes on at one of these things, (and maybe to prove it is not just a paid vacation, although Marco Island is serving as a beautiful host this year).

This year's convention is full of programs, panel discussions, workshops, and meetings. If you don't believe me, take a look at this year's schedule. I got into Marco Island yesterday afternoon, and immediately noticed the unofficial sports information uniform (polo shirts and khakis or slacks) on seemingly everybody in the city. It's quite a rainbow of school and conference colors when you put a large group of us in a room together. (See photo) 

Regardless, the convention officially kicked off last night with the aptly-titled Kickoff Reception, sponsored by the National Football League. And with that, we were underway.

One of the things that's been extremely interesting to me about this year's convention is the constant discussion/debate/discourse with regards to the shift of the Sports Information profession. To quote the Northeast-10 Commissioner, and my boss, Julie Ruppert, "no position on a college campus has changed and evolved as much over the past few years."

The profession is currently undergoing a rather seismic shift with the days of annual and weekly publication and promotion of a school's athletic programs and student-athletes to one where scores are being tweeted as soon as the game is over (if not during), and Facebook posts and pictures help make family and friends feel as though they were at the game, even if they weren't. Gone are the days when you'd pick up a newspaper to see who won the next morning. Now, we know, and in some form or another, want to be able to see who did what in the game even if we couldn't be there in person.

In conjunction with that shift in philosophy, the Northeast-10 is currently in the midst of a revamp of one of our main promotional vehicles; the company's website. (See image) The new website (same address don't worry) will reflect these changing goals, and will serve as a hub for the Northeast-10's 16 member schools and the 23 intercollegiate sports that are offered under the conference's direction.

Video, photos, and blogs will become much more prevalent. Whereas in the past, maybe one was able to read about the game or the championship and what happened, now, there will be pictures, if not video of the event. Sure, the articles and recaps are still going to exist, but the mediums are changing, and we are doing our best to meet the needs of our fans and supporters.

This fall, you will notice (if we can get it all organized!!) blogs written by our school's student-athletes. One of our main goals is to better tell the stories of our most prized assets: our student-athletes, and what better way than to let them tell you themselves.

All four of the Northeast-10 representatives- five, including me- that are down here have seen major changes, or are currently in the midst of major changes to their own respective websites and how they do their jobs. This convention's main theme so far seems to be that shifting dynamic I referred to earlier. Many of the panel discussions and topics this week are dealing with the topic of how we disseminate information. For lack of a more complicated way of saying it, 'How do we best tell our story?'

I'll also pass along this note, where we are staying is literally right on the beach, and yet, you'd be amazed by how many attendees have been in each session so far. If it's a vacation, you'd never know it, as everyone here, Darryl, Dick, David, and Greg included, are all here for a reason – and that reason is to learn how we can continue to grow in our profession and better tell 'our story.'

Entry 2 - The Future of the Industry

Tuesday, June 28th

Today is the second full day of CoSIDA and was in my opinion, because of what was scheduled, the day I was looking forward to the most heading down here.  Most of the panels and the discussion topics today involved Social Media and the influence it will have on our industry, and how we do our jobs as directors of athletic communications. 

It's an interesting dynamic at the conference as there are, in my opinion, three prevailing opinions when it comes to the topic of social media. 

One is that of excitement and curiosity as to how we can best use it to 'tell our story.'  I'd like to think I fall into that category.  The second is the necessary evil opinion that some people have.  Yes, it's here - and it's obviously not going anywhere- so we have to live with it and do what our bosses or superiors think is appropriate within the mediums to promote our teams or student-athletes.  And third is the 'Man, what a nuisance this is' category.  I'm proud to say, with a degree of certainty, there aren't many people that fall into category three. 

I believe that at times, sports information staff can get type-cast as not very forward thinking at times, and I am proud to report that couldn't be further from the truth.  Each session that dealt with Social Media (see photo) was well-attended and people were eager to learn about strategies and plans, or simply, what has worked and what hasn't worked when it comes to social media from their colleagues.

Unquestionably, the highlight of the day for me was hearing former Notre Dame football head coach, Lou Holtz, give his talk on Gameplanning for Successfully Gaining Influence.  Most people these days recognize Holtz as the 'aww-shucksy' Hall-of-Fame coach from ESPN's wall-to-wall college football coverage, but his story-telling ability and motivational speech had people laughing, nodding their heads in approval of his words, and just overall, enjoying his speech on the sports information profession. 

For a guy who 'can barely use a telephone' in his own words, Holtz's speech on embracing the change in the profession was well-crafted and certainly served it's purpose of motivating the group to continue down the path of doing important work.  There was not a seat to be had during his talk, and I seriously doubt that anyone walked out of there doubting the profession they had chosen as a career.

Prior to Holtz's talk, I had a great meeting with AnnMarie from Presto Sports.  Without getting too in-depth, Presto is our wesbite provider, and the company that is helping (i.e. doing all the heavy lifting) with our website revamp.  One of the things we discussed was the new 'Enhanced Stats' platform that will be a part of the Northeast-10's new site.  I'm excited about this development and think our fans will enjoy the new look and feel of our statistics for all of our sports for the upcoming 2011-12 school year.

I leave you with this for today, see the picture that is to the right.  Yeah, that's the view out my hotel room here in Marco Island.  Not too shabby right?  I can honestly say I have not even had time to venture down to the beach so far this week.  I left my room today at 7:30 this morning, and returned around 4:45 this afternoon. 

Now, don't get me wrong, this is not some woe-is-me tale.  I wouldn't trade what I've done so far this week for two straight days for anything, but I will say, it is my goal to at least take a stroll on the beach and put my feet in the water before I head home tomorrow night.

As Saint Rose's David Alexander and I were walking into lunch today, DA, who's been to a number of these events prior said to me, "I've never seen these panels so well-attended as they have been this year." 

This group has come to this beautiful place for a reason.  Have we enjoyed ourselves- absolutely, but this group has come here with a purpose and that's to learn about the future of our industry and how we do our jobs to the best of our abilities.

Entry 3 - Where Do We Go From Here

Thursday, June 30th

The 2011 CoSIDA Convention came to an end last night after another information-filled day, and I have to say what I think is on a lot of people's minds is 'where do I go from here?' 

So much information was passed our away during the three days that now it's time to process what it is we learned and somehow put some of it into daily use.  My first priority today to just go through all the notes I took while I was there, and try to process them so it helps me, and hopefully our office, better do our job.

I will say one of the frustrations that I heard while I was there, and it's actually an opinion I share, is the concept of knowing your audience.  Most of the people in attendance this year were from smaller schools - Division I, II, and III.  I felt as though an inordinate amount of time was spent targeting issues and problems that "bigger athletic departments" have, as compared to who was actually in attendance.  No complaints - just a note.

On the flip side, I do want to report that, once again, I was proud to associate with the representatives from the Northeast-10.  So. New Hampshire's Greg Royce was good enough to volunteer his services when asked to sit on a panel to discuss hockey statistics, as frankly, he was one of the few people there that knew anything about them. Greg didn't plan or know he would be doing this when he boarded his flight for south Florida, but he had a knowledge and a passion and was willing to share it if that what was asked.

In terms of the subject of where do we go from here, I think that's the great unknown with regards to social media and the future of the profession.  To quote social media expert Jason Falls, who spoke on Wednesday, "there are no rules when it comes to social media - no how to's and no how not to's."  So, we tackle a subject that is still a little daunting in terms of successes and failures.  Will there be mistakes made?  Absolutely.  But I truly believe in the end, the talented people that work in this field will figure out how to use it to serve their needs and our end product will be better because of it.

For what it's worth, Jason posted a follow-up blog to my issue with his presentation.  Check it out by clicking here.

No, my office is not working on any ticket campaigns to promote Auburn Football - which was discussed at one panel session - but we can take away some helpful hints with regards to maybe what might work and what might not.  Also, maybe we take a second to step back and try to understand our audience and what they would like from us.

Dr. Bill Smith, from the University of Arkansas, relayed to us an example of how his staff had spent hours and many resources putting together these elaborate videos to promote the school's baseball team during their recent NCAA Championship appearance.  At the end of the day, however, he told us how a video he had done where he simply walked onto the field and stood on the pitcher's mound and just recorded what it looked like from there was the most watched video during the entire trip.

As much as I'd like to dream and hope, the Northeast-10 will never have a million Facebook fans and we will never have hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter, but that's not a bad thing.  What we have are people that are passionate - maybe it's a mom or a grandpa, or a roommate or classmate, and those are the people we work to serve.  We have a community that cares about the young men and women that compete in the Northeast-10 Conference. 

Telling the story of who we are is a fun task, because in the end, by and large, it's pretty darn good.  The challenge of how we best do that falls upon all of us here in the office, but is certainly one of my main tasks, and I can safely say that this week in Marco Island, I learned some strategies and tactics that I think will help us better meet that goal.

And finally, I will say that yes, I did take a walk on the beach Wednesday afternoon, and if I get the opportunity, someday I'd like to go back to the beautiful city of Marco Island, which served as a wonderful host.  Oh, and the weather being overcast most of the time we were there.... maybe not the worst thing in the world!

It was a great few days, I was proud to be a part of it, and I thank all the people and the friends -  both new and old - who helped make it a wonderful experience.