#Hello

In a piece surrounding the usage of @replies and hashtags during a conference, Dennen says, “conference hashtags are active enough to attract several tweets per hour during a conference” (2011, p.81).” I found this incredibly interesting given my own experience with conferences. Before I dive into hashtags and conferences, I will speak briefly about my own experiences with conferences. 

As I have mentioned a few times throughout this course, Higher Education has a HUGE conference culture wherein students and professionals all over the United States often are encouraged to attend national conferences. This expectation goes so deep that attending a conference is even put into several graduate student requirements as professional development, as is the case with FSU’s Higher Education program. That being said, I have had the incredible opportunity to attend several conferences across the United States on behalf of FSU. My peers and I constantly have the thoughts of attending, presenting, or submitting proposals for conferences in the back of our heads as we navigate the school year. 

Presenting at conferences also is a huge honor for me and I have been able to present at two national conferences over the past two years. Both of those times, the only time I thought about posting about my presentation was afterwards on LinkedIn. This brings me to my thoughts on the hashtag culture of conferences. 

In my experience, as a student, I have not really seen a huge pressure to utilize the <hashtag conference> structure before presenting. That could very well be the result of my own disengagement in the hashtag culture, but I am curious about Non-higher education conferences. Is it similar for you? 

Dennen, V. P. (2011). Conversations on the hashtag: Does conference Twitter use promote professional discourse? Paper presented at International Conference on the e-Society. Berlin: Germany. 75-82.