In a momentary lull between speakers at the #140cuse Conference, social media professor Anthony Rotolo took the stage to make an announcement. The #140cuse hashtag had hit 10,000 tweets.

The #140cuse Conference took place between 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Thursday in Schine Underground. Fifty-two speakers spoke about a variety of topics from social media enterprise to the importance of humility in humanity.

The conference drew big names from the world of social media, including Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, and Tim Pool, the independent journalist responsible for live-streaming Occupy Wall Street.

Pool presented ‘Tools to Tell it Like it Is’ during the first half of the conference. He focused on the changes occurring in news and social media, and the rise of social media as a source of information. This was his first #140 Conference. Rotolo invited him after the two met in late November.

While taking a break after his speech to meet other speakers and attendees, Pool talked about his presentation and the message he intended to send regarding the rise of citizen journalism.

‘It’s the responsibility of the people who are using social media to start taking into their hands,’ Pool said. ‘I think it’s a positive to have these conversations.’

Jeff Pulver, the founder of the national #140 Conference, attended the event and gave a speech directly after Pool. Pulver’s speech was titled ‘Being Vulnerable in the Era of the Real-Time Web.’ During his presentation, Pulver encouraged everyone in the audience to turn to the person next to him or her and give that person a hug.

Pulver was approached by SU last year at his own conference and was asked to present at #140cuse. He said he was extremely pleased with the results of the conference.

‘From an analogy perspective, I look at it with me being a song writer,’ Pulver said. ‘While I wrote the song, and maybe even wrote the lyrics, the folks here took it and made it their own.’

The conference speakers included multiple Syracuse University alumni. Lea Marino, a 2008 SU alumna, gave a speech titled ‘Everything I Learned about Community Management, I Learned in My Sorority.’ Marino was a member of SU’s Phi Sigma Sigma chapter.

Josh Lukin, a 2002 SU alumnus and current director of club initiatives at Major League Baseball Advanced Media, presented ‘Social Media @MLB’ and spoke about sports media in the Twitter age.

During his speech, Lukin showed the crowd various examples of tweets from large sports figures regarding MLB games, including tweets from Dick Vitale, Jim Rome, Spike Lee and Evan Longoria. Lukin also reflected on his time spent working for The Daily Orange sports section during his speech.

The conference also featured multiple student speakers. At 12:45 p.m., the conference held a competition in which four students presented their ideas regarding social media ventures and philosophies. Two winners earned a spot to speak at the national #140 Conference being held in New York City in June.

Isaac Budmen, a senior information technology major and co-founder of start-up company Little Tinker Co., took one of the coveted spots. His speech touched upon the discrepancies between real learning and falsified education.

Sam Morrison, a junior information technology major, took the other spot. Earlier this year, Morrison earned viral video fame when he recorded himself doing one back flip per day every day for a year, earning him $100 from a bet with his father.

After the #140Cuse Conference concluded, Pulver decided to give all four contestants a chance to speak at the conference in New York City, including Alyssa Henry and Steve Rhinehart, both graduates studying information technology.

Morrison discussed his desire to start a goal-setting website that would have a similar motivational effect as his video. Morrison obliged the audience with a back flip onstage, and Pool joined him for a cameo and performed a front flip during the presentation.

Students presented outside of the competition as well. Ariel Norling, a junior policy studies major, spoke twice at the conference. Norling had attended other #140edu conferences and said she relished her experiences both with this particular conference and the others.

‘There’s so much great energy here, and people who are doing really great things,’ Norling said. ‘When you bring great energy and great people together, amazing things happen.’

cedebais@syr.edu 

Published on April 23, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Chelsea: cedebais@syr.edu | @CDeBaise124