As I mentioned in previous posts, my goal is to have at least one post a week dedicated to Google Glass and what it has been like for me to be a Google Glass Explorer. For this week, I decided to share my experiences I had at the AEJMC Conference this past week in Washington, D.C.
This was the first conference (and most likely not the last!) I brought Google Glass with me. Many of my friends and colleagues were going to be in attendance so they had seen my pictures and videos with Glass previously. However, I felt it was important to share the experience with my friends and fellow PR colleagues.
My former professor/director of USC Annenberg PR Program Jerry Swerling trying out Glass at AEJMC 2013 (photo courtesy of Karen Swerling).
There were some common reactions and things that were asked while they were trying on Glass. Here were some of the more popular observations:
- This is SO cool!: That was universal – everyone was like – hey! I took a picture! Or – wow! This is not what I expected, but it’s actually better. A lot of friends I talked to said they were surprised how it was easy to handle and work with. I think I must have allowed at least 10-15 people try out class while I was in DC for the conference.
- Is it okay if I can try Glass?!!: I had several of my friends at the conference ask me this and I said of course! Some of them were very excited – which I thought was cool! This gave me a chance to walk them through Glass and talk about the implications, challenges, and opportunities this has for professors, practitioners, students, and brands. This also resulted in scheduling a few guest lectures just on Glass for my friends this fall, which I think is fabulous! 🙂
- Great brainstorming sessions: It was super fun to talk with fellow professors about Glass and their thoughts on it. I really enjoyed talking to professor from sports, weather, communications, and PR on how they see Glass evolve and grow as a technology. In many ways, this was very enlightening to me and how I am going to pursue using Glass both in the classroom and in research. Lots of possibilities here. 🙂
- Great tool for recording presentations: What better way to showcase a conference? I had a chance to create several Ptchs based on presentations at the conference. Here’s one from the one I did with Tiffany Gallicano on our Top Teaching Paper, and here’s one from the Scholar-to-Scholar Roundtable I went to. This was helpful for me since I am part of the social media committee for the AEJMC PRD, so along with my iPad and iPhone, I had Glass to help me record, share, and upload visual content in real-time. Too cool!
- Getting a crowd around you when you are wearing Glass: It’s still pretty innovative technology, so it was interesting to see the reaction people had walking around the conference. Here’s a Ptch I created based on my experience at the opening social and Edelman Luncheon. There were people I ran into at the conference that wanted to try it out and have their pictures taken, while there were others that did not. However, you need to take these points into account whenever you are wearing Glass.
- Questions on advancements: A lot of my friends asked about what is going to be the next evolution to Glass including apps and actual features. Some of my friends were asking particularly when it came to wearing contacts or have special lens to see Glass through. I think this definitely a good point here.
Overall, it was a great and fun experience for me to share Glass with my friends at the conference as well as use it for my social media activities for the PR Division of AEJMC as well as personally on my social media platforms. I have a few more conferences this fall, so I will definitely will be bringing Glass along with me to continue sharing the experience of Glass with everyone.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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