Initially I started this column with a very specific U.S. pop culture reference that had to do with a large cell phone, Zack Morris, and syndicated tween television programming from the early 1990s. Then I realized that not only was this age- and America-specific, it was probably tired. So, to get to the point, technology has changed and due to it, our presentation of self with and within these ICTs.

These changes happen all the time, even at specific cultural events like an academic conference. Last year in Boston, ICA was hit head-on with this realization. Essentially, ICA planned for two conferences, the one that happened within the halls of the Westin and the Virtual Conference held online with the help of Wiley-Blackwell. What ICA didn’t plan for was the third conference that happened 140 characters at a time.

It’s now standard for an association to have a dedicated constituency interacting with each other on social networks, even more so with an association that studies the effects of this in its mission. ICA has active communities on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and a fledgling following on Google+. This is one of the main reasons I’m now with ICA, to address a large portion of our membership that interacts on these new channels of communication.

This year we are prepared for the conference that lives on Twitter. First, we will be monitoring for questions and tweeting specific administrative and scheduling information from our official Twitter handle, @icahdq. We encourage members to use the #ica12 hashtag for easy aggregation and identification for the ICA staff to monitor and reply. Second, in conjunction with the each division’s leaders, we have created division-specific hashtags for tweets regarding the actual sessions (see the list below), themed, sponsored and association wide sessions will use the #ica12 hashtag. These hashtags will be listed on each session in the program, including the mobile app. All of this will allow the staff to react and respond quickly and with more accuracy.

We encourage attendees to live tweet during sessions, in the halls and out on the streets of Phoenix. Live tweeting during sessions can be extremely useful for those in conflicting sessions or couldn’t attend the conference. Last year I attended a conference called Journalism Interactive at the University of Maryland. This was my first crack at live tweeting. At the time, I tweeted that the conference took an amount of multitasking I was just not accustomed, but it was clear that most attendees were constantly typing away, expressing opinions or sharing what the speakers had to say. So, to be candid, if you’re presenting and someone is typing away, don’t be offended, be flattered that the reach of your words, your research is spilling into the thousands that will be watching the conference unfold on Twitter.

But, what if I’m not on Twitter? Don’t worry we got you covered. At the end of each day ICA will compile a Twitter "best of" and post them in one easy place using Storify for those off the Twitter-grid. In addition, we are planning for a monitor, or monitors strategically placed that will stream tweets for all to see.

If you have questions or ideas, let me know. You can email me at jpgutierrez@icahdq.org.

Special thanks to Francois Heinderyckx and Katy Pearce for helping with the development of these initiatives, your insights have been extremely valuable. I hope to see everyone in Phoenix; I hear the weather is great.