The Art of the Symposium

Posted April 2, 2013 by Carolyn Lucas

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a very cool symposium put on by many of GSLIS’ student organizations including SCoSAA, LISSA, ALASC, ASIS&T, Panoption, SLA, and UXPA.  This Symposium was the second one GSLIS has ever put on, and provided a really interesting glimpse into many different areas of GSLIS. 

There was a keynote speaker, GSLIS’ own Martha Mahard, and four panels of students and past students.  Each panel had a topic, and the panelists gave a presentation on their specific area of study and then answered questions.  Overall, there were a wide variety of topics, from Technology to Ethics, and it was incredibly interesting to see what my fellow students were working on (not to mention impressive… I’m feeling like a bit of a slacker for not having presented!). 

An additional super-cool part of this Symposium was that it was available for both live and future streaming.  As the Facilitator for the Archives Management Cohort Online, it was awesome to be able to present this opportunity to the online students that I work with all over the country, and even internationally.  This also allowed for student presenters to be able to include family and friends, which made for a very integrated experience that I appreciated immensely. 

Another part of the symposium that was unique and very much appreciated was the hashtag #gslissympa13 – a Twitter tag where members attending the symposium, both streaming and live, could silently exchange thoughts, ideas, and appreciation for aspects of the symposium.  This was another way I loved the integration between the streaming viewers and the in-person viewers, and was impressed at the level of social media know-how of the student orgs.

I sincerely hope and believe that all of these new technological integrations between in-person attendees and internet-connected attendees will be the new direction for both future Simmons conferences and the field of LIS in general.  For me personally, flights down to New Orleans for the SAA Conference this summer are looking a little steep, price-wise – I will be very interested to see if they attempt to integrate some of this technology so that I can “attend,” even if I can’t. 

And way to go, SCoSAA and all the student orgs that put this on – your symposium was a roaring success!  And the literally cherry on top?  Ice cream at the end!   (Although it may be difficult to have a virtual ice cream social… I’m sure we’ll figure out something.)