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Monday's #CoSIDA17 day had many new elements mixed with some of the more popular convention sessions and activities.
The day began and ended with some new opportunities for convention attendees. The morning began early with a kickoff breakfast, sponsored by CoSIDA corporate partner CBS StatCrew, with featured presenter Jack Ford. Ford is an award-winning broadcast journalist, documentary producer, author and former Yale University college football player. An advocate of collegiate athletics, Ford spends time traveling around the country and speaking about the opportunities and benefits of collegiate athletics, the importance of the art of "storytelling" and how to communicate our messages throughout all the 24/7 communications noise when it comes to promoting college sports.
The breakfast and Ford talk led off the full day which included division-specific programming, the CoSIDA Hall of Fame luncheon, and panels on diversity and inclusion and an interactive new edition to the convention: a speed (date) networking. Afternoon and evening social events, including the annual ESPN party held for CoSIDA attendees, concluded the day.
CoSIDA's Hall of Fame luncheon gave the 800-plus in the room an up-and-close look at the day's award winners: the Jake Wade Award given to a media member for their coverage of college athletics (Michelle Smith-McDonald, recipient), Lifetime Achievement honorees, and five inductees into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame.
For the second consecutive year, the Hall of Fame luncheon emcee was ESPN and SEC Network reporter, host and analyst Maria Taylor. This fall, Taylor will join the crews of College GameDay Built by The Home Depot and ABC Saturday Night Football as a reporter.
CoSIDA.com caught up with Taylor after the Hall of Fame luncheon. See the video below as Taylor talks about being at the CoSIDA convention and working with athletic communicators.
Follow and use the #CoSIDA17 hashtag on Twitter and log into CoSIDA's Facebook page all week long for up-to-date news, information, sights and sounds from the annual convention!
Speed(date) Networking with Alana Muller proved to be a huge hit for attendees
Are you connected? Do you feel like part of a community? Well, if you were at Alana Muller's speed networking session Monday afternoon, at a minimum you came away with six new people you exchanged contact information with, learned a life lesson or two, or shared a challenge or experience.
New to CoSIDA this year, speed networking was introduced as part icebreaker part training. Almost 100 people sat across from each other and spent four minutes answering a prompt provided by Alana.
The energy was out the roof. Despite the constant buzz of interaction present in the room, eye contact was being made, smiles and stories were being shared and business cards were being exchanged. And when time was up, musical chairs ensued and a new round of connecting began.
If you like interactions at conventions, this is your kind of session. Look for more of these in CoSIDA's future.
Photos and video courtesy of CoSIDA secretary Jeff Hodges and The SkyBoat of Orlando, Fla.