SM Workshop 2025

Two weeks ago, our social media class attended the 2025 Social Media Workshop in McIntosh. We got to listen to a number of speakers from various backgrounds in social media and marketing. 

We started the day off with our first speaker, Jason Therrien who is the founder and CEO of thunder::tech. He gave his presentation on how social media has changed the trajectory in which we get information and how to use it to our advantage. Since it was early in the morning, the energy was a little down, but Jason was able to keep everyone engaged in his presentation and made it fun to listen to with his charisma and enthusiasm. Funny enough, that is a skill he said was crucial to master within the world of social media. If you cannot keep your viewers engaged with your content, they'll immediately forget about you and continue scrolling. 

My favorite speaker of the day was definitely Rebecca Jenkins who spoke to us about AI and how it's being implemented into most workplaces and is becoming the best tool for social media. Due to the fact that AI is simply taking everything by storm, being able to use it effectively and intelligently is now becoming a skill most sought out by lots of companies. If you possess the skills to navigate AI to get quick and accurate results, you will stand out of the crowd in the job market. That's why Rebecca really emphasized showing us how we can maximize our AI communication skills. She seemed really informed and passionate about her line of work and answered all our questions with lots of enthusiasm. 

There were a few presentations that I knew I wasn't going to attend, for instance the LinkedIn talks, because it didn't sound like it lined up with the career path I'm following. But, I'm sure those ones went just as well as the ones I did attend! There also were talks I attended that I didn't really get a whole lot of information out of, but I was still able to get some insights from.

Overall, I had a really great time at the workshop especially since I have a hard time listening to people speak for long periods of time. The entire day was filled with valuable insights about not just social media, but also AI, marketing and more! I definitely learned more about this field and enjoyed the time each speaker shared with us.