Dreamt

Probably the most productive one and a half hours this semester.

I, along with James, placed 2 NX70 cameras around the venue, one that captures the entire seminar (wide-angle), and one that focuses on the guests and our host, Ned. We also manned 2 DSLRs to capture additional angles. I captured stills of the seminar.

(From left) Sarah Stone, Sophie Draper, Nick Pearce, and Ned.

We started off the seminar with Nick from Homeless of Melbourne, who co-founded the organisation with friends Robbie Gillies and Marcus Crook, who was with us during the seminar. They stock high quality first-hand clothes while distributing the profits to local homeless services.

When does ‘starting a dialogue’ start to translate to significant action, though? #socialseminar

— Alois Alois Alois (@TB_Love) August 21, 2015

This question posted by Alois makes a fair point. Some things are easier said than done. Nick emphasised the importance of social media as it is a tool with immense influence and reach. Homeless of Melbourne stems from a social media initiative, and now has a reach of 27.5 thousand people on Facebook.

Uber was developed and marketed as a smartphone app that allows users to use it as an alternative to taxis. The emergence of smartphones and social media apps propagated the business to a global level.

Sophie talked about how to acquire and maintain a job in such an industry. Amongst the massive pool of social media apps and businesses which share similar models, it is the motivation and drive that distinguishes the regular apps and those that of the caliber of Uber.

With both of our guests speaking mainly on the business aspect of social media, we had Sarah Stone as our final guest to speak about creating a career in social media.

Does creating content for mass ‘youtube’ audiences mean you have to compromise on creative integrity tho? #socialseminar

— Ajeet Sandhu (@azzyteam) August 21, 2015

Sarah spoke of creating content purely out of personal interest, and it is entirely up to her audience whether they like it or not. She also said that she does not compromise on creative integrity, and not catering to specific audiences. A fair point to be mentioned, because Sarah says that Youtube channels that are about food, or gaming, generates a lot more revenue compared to her own.

I concur with Sarah’s view on not making creative compromises just to cater to a wider audience. Just like our seminar series, we were focusing more on creating a seminar that would potentially give more clarity on how to acquire a career in social media.

Overall, I think what brought about what I think of is a successful seminar, is a cohesive and dynamic group. The roles were established relevantly early and we had clear group goals and objectives. Disputes and questions were resolved within the Facebook group, if not face-to-face meetings. Having Mark in the loop was also very helpful in overall group productivity. Even though a career in social media isn’t my first option, it is an interesting field to work in.

Thank you social media group #socialseminarpic.twitter.com/hd0OCIMMTD

— Sam Kininmonth (@saminburncity) August 21, 2015