Written by Camila Fernandez/BBC Managing Editor
To succeed in the media industry, Philip Tucker, marketing and communication coordinator at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said that students need to be innovative and digitally savvy.
Communications Week is a week-long event opportunity for SJMC students to enhance their abilities in the industry, with workshops and lectures led by professionals in their field. From Monday, March 23 until Saturday, March 28, it is a week jam-packed with different aspects of the School’s programs, Tucker said.
“Communications Week is the SJMC’s sort of flagship event of the spring semester where we try to showcase to our students and the community just how varied and exciting the industry is,” Tucker said.
“We are really focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship and digital-first practices because we see that being where our industries are going,” he said.
The week kicks off with a visit from Chief Digital Officer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sree Sreenivasan, who will speak at Monday’s Hearst Distinguished Lecture Series. According to the Comm Week website, the lecture will be based on getting the best use out of time spent online and how to build more fans and followers on social media effectively.
Sreenivasan has spent more than 20 years teaching at Columbia University. In 2009, he was named one of AdAge’s 25 media people to follow on Twitter and one of Poynter’s 35 most influential people in social media in 2010. He currently leads a 70-person world-class team in New York City.
“He’s a really high profile, social media sort of digital tech guru and we’re really excited about having him come,” Tucker said. The lecture will be held in Room 244 at the Wolfe University Center from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. There will also be livestreaming through the website.
On Tuesday, students are invited to the Graduate School Colloquium led by speaker Leon Gomez, a serial entrepreneur in online marketing and advertising.
Along with SJMC graduate student entrepreneurs and SJMC Innovation-in-Resident Alex de Carvalho, the lecture will be based on what not to do when starting a business.
There will also be a Moving Women Forward webinar hosted by the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication which can be viewed at http://connect.fiu.edu/kopenhavercenter.
To help prepare students for the job market, Wednesday will include a group of Human Resource-related professionals at Professional Development Day. Followed by workshops, they will talk about how candidates are being sought by their respective industries.
“Since these are actually the people hiring right now, they’re going to give very cutting-edge advice on what the students should be doing on how they should be preparing themselves,” Tucker said.
On Thursday, students will engage in Panther Cage where four chosen student teams will present new media business ideas to be judged by a group of panelists. The game mirrors the television series Shark Tank. The winning team will be eligible for a $5,000 International Innovators Cup Prize.
There will also be a SJMC Awards Ceremony where recipients will be awarded with different recognitions and scholarships.
Jessica Figueroa, a senior public relations major and FIU Public Relations Society of America Membership Director, has been nominated for an Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award. In 2013 she transferred from Broward College and has been heavily involved as a public relations intern for the BBC Office of the Vice Provost.
“I basically learned as much as I could in terms of leadership experiences, professional and networking skills,” said Figueroa.
To finish, the Society of Professional Journalists will host an all-day conference with panel discussions and break-out sessions Friday.
Saturday, there will be a technology conference at BarCamp Miami in Wynwood’s Miami Ad School where people show up and pitch innovative ideas. It is entirely sponsored by the SJMC in collaboration with Hacks/Hackers, the Knight Foundation and the Fourth Estate.
“Companies are looking for individuals who cannot only stay at the cutting-edge, but can also understand where things are going,” Tucker said.
“You need to have that mentality of being able to look beyond the horizons and innovate yourself and become a leader in these changes.”
For more specifics on Communications Week, students can visit: http://sjmc-med.fiu.edu/commweek/.
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