The talk that stood out most in the second part of this week was Dale’s #BetterOutside with two employees of Texas Parks and wildlife. It was really cool to gain some insight on what its like to be a wildlife photographer, something that I’ve always thought would be a ‘dream job’ but seemed so impossible to become. I also enjoyed seeing a government agency that defies the stereotypes of what an agency is (bureaucratic, stoic, stuck in its old ways). Seeing the actual numbers of engagement and different analytics that they have collected through effectively using social media showed that even old agencies can adopt these new technologies and are open to accepting what our generation has to offer. An obvious highlight of this session was watching dale crash the drone into the wall while the audience laughed.
Here is a picture of Dale’s drone just before he crashed it into the wall.
Earlier on Wednesday I saw Mike Cox share his experiences of being a crisis communication expert. He had some really interesting stories. This was more of a chance to sit back and learn about our states history from the perspective of a someone who lived it than it was inspiring or teaching me things to take into my career but I enjoyed it very much. One quote that stuck out was when Mike was talking about how to be a good media relations person and he said ” you don’t have to lie if you tell the truth just right.”
I found this interesting article from 1999 about Mike.