I’ve been consistently telling colleagues and SA professionals that I am presenting to that I believe #sachat to be one of the best professional development opportunity available. It is a statement that I wholeheartedly believe. Between January 2007 and February 2010 I tried twitter 4 times, under different names and for varied reasons. I could not find a reason to stay, that something that tethered me to the twitterverse, and as such never found that social world that I knew had to be there.
Then on Monday February 8th I saw that a lot of people were joining “the sa collaborative” on facebook. I joined the fan page, I watched a video , and I rejoined twitter to see if time number 5 was the charm.
For me, it was. I found a community that embraced new people and was always growing. I found a weekly pro dev opportunity that had me creatively thinking again. (At the time I was in kind of a third year rut where I was doing a lot of the same things all the time, and wasn’t really getting much opportunity for professional development. )
@cindykane, she was the first person to welcome me to the community, and it was her advertising on facebook that caught my eye in the first place.
#sachat is not just a weekly chat. It is a community that keeps people together (even when your job demands you take a month off from twitter at a time). You can jump back in at anytime, and you can make new connections all the time.
Some great memories I have over the past year would have to be, in no particular order.
I was away with my wife for our first anniversary when this post by Mr @ericstoller. I remember hearing it because I would put down my iPhone. The ensuing #SAchat conversation that occured over that weekend, solidified in my mind how much the professionals in this community cared.- I remember a time when I @m1hamilton would often talk to @jollyjinster, @thestacyface, and many others. However something happened in march 2010, many of us had identity crisis’ and names started to change, and grow longer… we all apparently wanted to make it harder for people to use our name in tweets.
- #SAChat helped me to reconnect and work with a college friend @jmayojr who I had lost touch with.
- Being on #SAchat has led me to working on some great projects such as the Live Video Interview series with @edcabellon.
- I have been able to have a number of great conversations on #sachat, particularly a multipart discussion about gender and media with @jpkirchmeier (we still haven’t analyzed Grey’s Anatomy yet).
- Of course my first tweetup at Kings Boston during #ACPA10 was an awesome experience as well.
- Along the way I have developed great twentors like @tbump, @reyjunco, and the rest of the people mentioned in this post.
- And many more memories.
Since joining #sachat I have started blogging more, creating websites regularly. and finding ways to use social media everyday. I have generally just been more inspired and felt more creative than I have in years. One of the best parts about #sachat is that you can disappear when your demanding SA job dictates (May, August, September…)and come back to an awesome welcoming group of people.
I look up to @tomkrieglstein and @debrasanborn. They have worked to create a community that helps professionals to grow and learn every day. There are many more people that make #sachat go and thank you to each and everyone of you.
If you have not already followed the people mentioned in this post, you should do so, they are just a few of the great people I have interacted with on #sachat.
