College Sports Communicators

During Global Diversity Awareness Month, the three panelists and moderator, all leaders in the DEI space, offered their thoughts and answered numerous questions from webinar attendees on today's environment for diversity, equity and inclusion in the ever-changing and somewhat volatile politically charged landscape that administrators, coaches and student-athletes are currently navigating in. They spoke on the shift towards a more nuanced approach to DEI - moving away from only offering programming initiatives and training, to policy writing and carving out space for people to bring their authentic selves to work and to the competition fields and arenas. They discussed various ways to build an inclusive workplace when laws and policies are changing all around us. Additionally, they addressed the following in DEI work, with recommendations for CSC members: - Storytelling: How communicators can best show employee and student-athlete impact and how CSC members can help tell these stories and humanize and personalize student-athletes, coaches and staff members in this inclusion space - Read and get educated on legislation and what DEIB (belonging) policies are in your community - Noting the danger of placing DEI work in a silo, as it needs to be woven into the fabric of your department and leadership team - Managing DEI work when serving on a committee/in a department where everyone is not on the same page with the importance of this work - and how to approach people to bring them together - What are the "blind spots" right now when it comes to inclusion work in athletic departments, and strategies and ideas in managing them - Best methods to ask DEI questions to lead to healthy conversations when those conversations have not typically taken place in your workspace Panelists: - Derek Cowherd, University of Louisville Associate Athletics Director for Community and Culture - DeeDee Merritt, NCAA Managing Director, Leadership Development - Ashleigh Clare-Kearney Thigpen, LSU Associate Athletics Director for Strategic Advancement Moderator: - Kendrell Watkins, Long Island University Senior Associate Athletics Director for Revenue Generation

The CSC U committee and panelists discuss our College Sports Communicators (CSC) organization, our members, the CSC U Committee and the benefits of being part of our ever-growing membership. CSC is the professional organization for all those who are athletic/media relations contacts and the creative/digital athletic department members - and those exploring the profession. Bring your questions and see how we can help you navigate issues and questions AND how we provide lots of networking and mentorship opportunities and how these opportunities can open doors for your future successes. Note: This webinar is geared toward the audience of the CSC U Committee - new full-time and part-time athletic communications professionals and emerging professionals (undergraduate and graduate student assistants, graduate assistants, interns) Panelists - Caleb Garner, Arkansas State Director for Media Relation - Katie Gonzales, Illinois Wesleyan Assistant AD - Athletic Communications / CSC Executive Board Member - Amanda Phillips, Oberlin College Associate Director of Athletics Communications & Digital Media Strategist/Assistant Women's Lacrosse Coach Moderator - Brian Odgen, Mississippi State Associate Director/Communications

In this October edition of our NAIA-SIDA Spotlight series, we visited with Mitchell Huppert of Marian University in Indiana. We talked about his time as an intern with the Indianapolis Colts before he the Assistant SID and now Head SID for the Knights in Indianapolis!

As athletic communicators and creatives at every divisional level are responsible for setting up team media days/photo days to capture a wide variety of content for their digital/social and broadcast campaigns, the webinar panelists discussed how best to create a sports media day with structure, organization and best practice suggestions to make media day planning and execution more efficient, fiscally responsible and productive. These Media Days/Content Days/Photo Days events can include any or all of the following: headshots, video interviews, photography for promotional collateral, fun personable videos. long-form video interviews. In addition to answering 14 questions from the attendees, the presenters gave insights and suggestions on: - planning your budget and time and assessing the scale of the event to gauge appropriate resources needed - how to hold a successful content day with limited budgets and resources/personnel - types of equipment and setups to use, in terms of actual room space, backdrops, camera and video equipment and making stations for each student-athlete to go to - how to make each teams' media day feel special and unique for them - how to keep your collection of student-athletes engaged and energized as you work with them on content; how to ensure that they stay organized and - types of content to collect on media days - how to work with hesitant/shy student-athletes - how to work with coaches and being clear on your strategies and the "why's" of setting up these sessions - in the age of NIL, how to best distribute content from these special days to your student-athletes for their own personal branding and posting needs - post event, best practices for the work involved to organize, catalog and disseminate the content you captured Panelists: - Temi Bajulaiye, America East Conference Associate Director, Creative Services & Digital Media - Emily Dorko, Adelphi University Associate Athletic Director for External Relations/SWA - Imry Halevi, Harvard University Senior Associate Director of Athletics - Content & Strategic Communications - Tyson Hutchins, BYU Associate Athletic Director for Creative Strategy Moderator: - Cobe Wastler, Air Force Academy Director of Digital Strategy

During this webinar, Adobe specialists Donna Caldwell and Eric Rowse held a discussion on all-things Adobe Express and some of the newest additions to the software and answered audience questions. For those who attended CSCUNITE24 convention in Las Vegas, both Donna and Eric were popular presenters throughout the four-day event, holding numerous Adobe workshops and office hours where they worked directly with CSC attendees on projects and helped with specific questions. This webinar focused on the tools within Adobe Express that will assist CSC members and our colleagues in creating brand-worthy content with production shortcuts and time-saving techniques. There are tips and advice for all, regardless of your level of experience with the cloud-based design and content creation platform. One main theme of the session was to help CSC members improve their productivity when creating graphics, web pages, videos and other digital assets. Topics included: Using the Adobe Express tool of lockable template fields; setting up "bulk create" templates for asset creation; working with Firefly Gen AI styles in making brand-approved assets. Presenters: - Donna Caldwell, Adobe Principal Solutions Consultant - Eric Rowse, Adobe Senior Solutions Consultant Moderator: - Patrick Murphy, Colorado School of Mines Athletic Communications Coordinator/CSC Creative and Digital Design Contest Committee chair