Last May 2013, YPARD was solicited by the Chicago Council to invite some Young Professionals to take part in the live blogging and tweeting of The 2013 Global Food Security Symposium.
A young live blogger would watch a panel discussion or a keynote address and then would write up summary and key points to be posted on the Chicago Councils Global Food for Thought Blog. It didnt have to be long but it was a way to capture a youths perspectives and their voice from one of the panel discussions.
Five of our YPARD Social Media Team (YPARD-SMT) promptly answered to the call with their constant enthusiasm and energy.
It was so wonderful to have YPARD members submit live blog posts to Global Food for Thought Blog. Sung Lee, Senior Editor & Research Analyst, Global Agriculture of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, says.
Keron Bascombe, Meerim Shakirova, Firdavs Kabilov submitted their blog posts to Global Food for Thought Blog. Rachel Friedmans article was posted on EcoAgriculture Blog and I cross-posted her article on Global Food for Thought Blog. And Kristyn Nanlal Khetia was absolutely amazing livetweeting from the event site.
All of their contributions can be viewed on our Blog or on our Pinterest page. They brought new perspectives to our conversations and presented persuasive arguments on the need to invest in sustainable agriculture practices, youth, and fair trade policies. Thank you!
Firdavs, one of our YPARD volunteers says: "I felt myself part of the audience despite being thousands of miles away from the conference venue. It was good to listen, learn and share about the activities of Chicago Council and get to know the updates in the world of agriculture and food security. Now I know that an institution such as Chicago Council exists, and they know us: that we exist in some corners of the world and that we care about global food security"
Sung expressed that this was the first time the council engaged live-bloggers offsite and that it would be great to work with YPARDs excellent volunteers again for future events.
Social reporting of events is still a recent activity where one learn and improve constantly as new tools are also developed at such a fast pace. The Chicago Council shared with us their lessons learned from this experience:
- Limit the amount of contents on the event day; publish commentaries in a staggered fashion to maximize the exposure and assign one live blogger per panel or keynote
- Provide more detailed guidance on the length and tone expected for the blog posts for live bloggers working remotely
- Request writing samples from potential live bloggers well before the event in order to assess their writing abilities and limit the need for live-editing services to all blog posts
The Chicago Council and YPARD are willing to find more ways to collaborate and, as mentioned by Sung : perhaps have some of YPARD members to become the next generations members at next years Global Food Security Symposium
Learn more about the YPARD Social Media Team. If you are a young professional working in development and interested in the power of Social Media to bring out your messages, thats a group for you join us! Contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..