NASPA Western Recap – The Conference on Anthology

November 28 2011, 4:12pm

The week before Thanksgiving, I had the opportunity to join four other OrgSync Rockstars in San Diego for the NASPA Western Regional Conference (#naspawr11) at the Hard Rock Hotel. This was my first experience as a NASPA conference attendee, and let me tell you I couldn’t have been more excited about the opportunity to attend. With the theme of “Anthology,” this year’s conference focused on providing attendees “a diverse collection of practices, priorities and values, grounded in the learning of yesterday and today, and committed to the promotion of student learning and success today and tomorrow.” In addition to the theme, the planning committee didn’t print any programs in an effort to promote sustainability and the green initiative.

Aimee with Alex (left) & Andrew (right)

During the conference, I had the opportunity to attend a number of sessions and listen to a variety of topics ranging from social media, personal branding, entrepreneurship, and assessment. On the opening day of the conference, Richard Setterson, Ph. D, from Oregon State University, shared his fascinating findings from his research and published book, “Not Quite Adults – Why 20-Somethings Are Choosing a Slower Path to Adulthood, and Why It’s Good for Everyone.” Take a look at the tweets and conversations during Mr. Setterson’s keynote presentation here. That same day, I was able to catch our good friend, Eric Stoller, and listen in on his sessions about introductory and advanced social media practices. Because of my responsibility as OrgSync’s social media evangelist, I was thrilled to finally meet Eric in person and to hear how Student Affairs professionals and departments are utilizing social media to connect with their students and build their personal brands. While exhibiting, the marketing team was able to meet our long-time campus partner Aimee Shattuck, Director of Student Activities and Leadership, from Portland State University. It was exciting to hear how OrgSync has completely transformed her department, allowing her and her staff to spend less time on paper work and more on student success and development programs.

Mobros!

On Friday, I was able to listen to Garret Westlake, Director of Disability Resources at Arizona State University – Polytechnic Campus, share his amazing initiative to promote entrepreneurship amongst students with disabilities. This presentation really hit home for me, because of the entrepreneurship culture at OrgSync and our understanding of what entrepreneurs can do to make this world a better place. Afterwards, I attended Sandra Mahoney’s and Serjio Acevedo’s presentation on “Nurturing a Culture of Assessment, ” from the University of the Pacific. Serjio’s contagious passion for Multicultural Affairs and teaching assessment filled the room as we were able to participate in a mock behavioral based interview and learn how the University of the Pacific assesses their programs and initiatives. We also meet up with a couple Mobros from Pacific!

User Meeting at NASPA Western!

The final day was really exciting, especially for us in marketing, because we were able to hold a user meeting. The following NASPA Western region rockstars joined us early Saturday morning: Boise State University, Long Beach Community College, Portland State University, University of California – Los Angeles, University of California – Santa Barbara, and University of Washington at Bothell. After eating a delicious breakfast, our campus partners had the opportunity to share OrgSync best practices, provide development feedback, ask questions about their implementation, and discuss techniques to market OrgSync to students. Overall, the conversation was very lively, which made the trip an even more success. This year’s NASPA Western Regional Conference set the record for number of attendees at any regional NASPA conference. But, I believe what made the conference even stronger was the backchannel. The buzz about NASPA Western was very lively on Twitter and you could tell attendees were enjoying the conversations both in person and online. Take a look at this snapshot from #NASPAwr11. We’re already getting excited and preparing for next year’s NASPA Western in Honolulu, Hawaii! See you next year!