#TeachAgChat - Careers in Agriculture

Well that is a wrap. The first ever #TeachAgChat is complete and my fearless team and I were the forefront of the pioneers on this journey. The emotions and stress level I felt during our one hour time slot was the exact same as when I was participating. A combination of "What is going on?" and "That went fast!" Ultimately though I would rather host. I enjoyed working with my partners, Sarabeth and Mason, and I was excited about the topic we were sharing, Careers in Agriculture. The most rewarding part was rereading the tweets after the hour was over and absorbing what was said because in the heat of the hour you do not capture it all. Another rewarding part was feeding off of the energy and excitement participants infectiously digitalized, that we felt and were motivated through.

So what worked?

- Plan, plan, plan, plan, and when you think you planned enough re-check your materials and continue planning.  This was our security for success and I believe success if what we achieved. We planned everything from what roles we each played, to questions, to invitation lists, etc.

- Personally contact participants to attend through whatever communication you can. We used Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, text message, and email.

- Create promotional materials that are informative and eye catching. This seems simple and basic but we received a lot of compliments on the both documents we created (which are included in this blog)

- Use tweet deck! Twitter does not allow you to keep up with the chat at the pace you need.

- Also use HootSuite too schedule all of your advertising tweets. It saves a lot of time!

- Play music during the hour. We sat as a team and played music in the background and it calmed us to the point where we were sining along at some points.

Where are our opportunities for growth?

- Only use one set of questions. We tried to break up the questions for educators and industry personnel and it was not needed. We could have developed questions that both sets of professionals would have been able to answer.

- Contact more industry personnel. We relied on the people who said they would participate but many did not show up. So planning beyond the number of people that is ideal for your chat.

To relive and revisit this chat and what was shared Twitter search #TeachAgChat or klandrews_24!