#FF Back To School Edition

For those that are starting out or returning to the Ted Rogers School of Management to study Business Technology Management (formerly known as Information Technology Management) at Ryerson University, make sure you follow these important people:

1. Women in ITM (WITM): This organization is dedicated to supporting women within the BTM program. They welcome both men and women to many of their events, but focus much on encouraging young women to not only enter the technology field but to remain in it, especially past first year. Some of their past events include Networking Bootcamps, Computer Hardware Workshops and panels on Breaking The Glass Ceiling

2. ITM Students’ Association (ITMSA): This group is dedicated to the BTM students at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University. Like WITM, they have some great programs such as their networking night and the Apprentice program which looks great on a resume. Make sure you check out what they have planned this semester.

3. ITM: This is the official Twitter account for the School of ITM at Ryerson University. They are just getting started, so bear with them as they find their way around.

4. Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM): The twitter account for the Ted Rogers School of Management which houses not only the BTM program, but the Business Management, Retail Management and Hospitality and Tourism. They give information not only about the individual schools, but about goings on in the building itself, as well as the other organizations in the school such as RUBAA

5. RyersonU: The official twitter account for Ryerson University. Check here for information about the university, interviews, and events around the entire university. This is a must for every RU student and faculty.

Have a great school year!

Ryerson University

 

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Product Camp 2012

Once again, had a great day at Product Camp! This was my third one since I graduated in 2009 and it gets better every year. This year I even got to present! Someone asked a question about social media and I offered to run the session. Of course I enjoyed it, but I hope that everyone that attended learned something from it. Here is a copy of my slides from Social Media Channels:

Social media channels productcamp toronto-2012 from Shanta Nathwani

If there is anything else you’d like to see in them, please let me know.

#FF Alex Blom

I’m borrowing an idea that my friend Alex Blom started a couple of years ago. Instead of just listing #FF’s (Follow Fridays – A practice on Twitter where people recommend who everyone else should follow), he started doing a weekly blog post dedicated to a single recommendation for Follow Friday. So it’s only fitting that I give my first one in this series to him, not only for the idea, but because I was his first too (Minds out of the gutter, if you please. It’s pretty full down there already). It is still ranked second in Google when you use my name as the search term, ranking over Twitter and Facebook. The only one that’s beating it currently is LinkedIn.

I met Alex just over 2 years ago at Product Camp, held at the Ted Rogers School of Management. I attended a session for beginners in Product Management and he had made some comments on Twitter that I thought were of interest. I joined him during the lunch break and we discussed the session at length. I hadn’t really used Twitter all that much and my account was still locked down.  He’d had difficulty locating my profile and that was why. This was one of the biggest and best lessons I learned about Twitter vs. Facebook. Don’t lock Twitter down. It defeats the purpose. We had a great conversation and started meeting up regularly after the camp.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that the majority of what I know today about social media and marketing is from his tutelage. I’ve picked up a few things since then, but I would not be where I am today without his lessons. When I got hired on the mayoral campaign in Toronto and was told to help the candidate improve his tweeting, I didn’t know what to do. Alex gave me some pointers so that I could at least steer the candidate in the right direction. A year later, I was hired on another political campaign as the social media co-ordinator. Now, I have a successful social media consulting business and have multiple clients.

Today, I can still call on him if I need help or if I need a double check on what I’m doing. I highly recommend that you all follow him on Twitter and read his blog.  Thank you Alex Blom, for helping make me into what I am today and letting me borrow your idea.

Panels

I love attending panels. The topic isn’t as important, but the discussion is. Attending a talk with one individual is great, but if you have a few people with different points of view to bring their knowledge to the table, even better.

I attended one in particular called Panel on Panels thanks to Alex Blom. Now, sounds like a joke, right? Maybe so. As entertaining as it was, I actually learned a few things, not only about attending a panel discussion, but also how to go about running a successful panel, from being a moderator to organizing one to being a panelist. I was reminded of this event when I attended a panel at FITC Toronto because the moderator, Jason Theodor was so well prepared. If they have another one, I’ll be first in line.

Panel on The Secrets of Creation at FITC

One thing I’ve learned on my own: always have a question to ask. You may have one prepped from before based on your research or maybe from something that is said during the main discussion. I have a favourite that I like to ask of every panel I attend. I figured it out while attending a discussion on mentorship presented by Women in Information Technology Management (WITM) at my alma mater, the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University. I had graduated from the program a couple of years earlier and there were a number of current students in the room. I asked of the panel: “If there was one source, such as a book, blog, website, etc.) that you would recommend to everyone in the room, for whatever reason, what would it be and why?”. I’ve gotten some pretty interesting answers, but a couple of weeks ago at FITC Toronto, I asked one panelist after the presentation this question and got a surprising answer. The topic of the discussion had been about creativity and I asked the engineer of the team who was originally from the Soviet Union, Dr. Ivan Poupyrev. His answer: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky because (and I’m paraphrasing) Dostoevsky knows how to tell a story of angst and the trials and tribulations of life. A real story about suffering. Of course I’ve heard of the book, but know it’s on my list to read.

Though I’ve never participated on a panel (it is on my bucket list), I really had to think hard about what my own response would be. It took me a while, but then I figured it out: TED. It is full ow wonderful and amazing stories that teach, among other things, that anything is possible. If you want an eye-opening experience or need inspiration, Check it out. If you get me on a panel some day, ask me that question and I’ll tell you about my favourite TED Talk.