I have been thinking about writing this post for some time. How to phrase a key trend we are seeing right now happening in the industry, but doing so in a thoughtful, yet direct, manner.
There’s no better way to say it then simply this:
Academic organizations and conferences are facing extinction.
I say this with both sadness and urgency. It does not have to be this way at all. There were so many opportunities to change course to avoid this, but I am afraid that some of these academic organizations are too stuck in their ways to make a change.
As a professor, I have been an active member and contributor at academic conferences from my times as a PhD student to a professor in the field. It is the place were we hope to get latest insights on research, teaching practices, and new perspectives. However, as each year that has gone by, I have not gotten the same value from these events as I have previously done in the past.
Each August, I would have the chance to attend and present at AEJMC, which is an academic conference I have been to every year except 2011 (because the paper deadline was the same day as my dissertation defense – so my PhD won that contest!)
What I saw this past week at AEJMC was a wave of emotions from colleagues and myself.
Lack of industry and academic representation in research and presentations. I feel academic conferences such as AEJMC have missed the boat completely when it comes to integrating what we are doing in our work (research and teaching) and what is happening in the industry.
In my research and sessions, I have tried to do this over the years to incorporate this by inviting guest speakers (this year we had a chance to bring in Facebook for the very first time to the conference on our panel for the Facebook Educators Portal) and there are others who have done the same in their own fields. However, this needs to be done throughout.
Learning from industry on virtual events. COVID19 has significantly made an impact across the board for everyone, even in academia. One of the biggest things that happened is 1) travel support was suspended and 2) many of the events and conferences went virtual. With travel support being suspended, this meant if a professor wanted to go to a conference or present their work, they had to pay out of pocket for the registration. This is not only going to be an issue for 2020, but for the next few years I am afraid.
Most of the conferences and events I have had a chance to go to and present this year were free, which I am very grateful for and were extremely well run. Adobe, Stukent (ProfCon), and Cannes Lions really showed how to do a virtual event effectively well and provided great content. Props to everyone who did these events!
Academic organizations need to take a page out of industy’s virtual event playbook to survive. Everyone in the event space had had to go virtual, and the industry has led the way in this.
However, AEJMC took a completely different stance on this. Not only did they charge a huge amount for the virtual conference ($225), but the system they used cost them $90k to run. That’s a lot.
I have been very vocal on the issue of the conference registration cost with AEJMC on Twitter, bringing forward many other conferences in my field along with psychology that were either going free, or at a reduced cost because they understood where professors were out with their funding.
Below is a screen shot of their conference. I am not sure it warrants the hefty price tag of $90k. It was links to different pages and Zoom rooms. No interactive features, just chat functions. No social listening leaderboards in real time. Just links to their own platforms.
There are many, MANY other virtual companies that could have provided more features, engagement activities, and user friendly services than what AEJMC provided here, like X-CD, for a much lower price.
Blinders are on to emerging communities in the field. Academic conferences have had their blinders on for years on growing trends and changes that are happening in the industry. Some want things to stay the same, their areas to have the most members and control over the field of research and teaching, and are afraid of new players coming into the fold.
It reminds me a lot of Gru and Vector for Despicable Me. Gru is trying to get funds to steal a rocket to still be the biggest villain in the world, but he has competition for Vector, who has new ideas, tools, and tricks in his work.
Lesson of the day here: There’s always going to be someone younger, hunger, and more motivated than you coming up in the ranks. Instead of viewing them as competition, embrace them to collaborate to become even stronger together.
In the case I will be sharing: AEJMC is Gru, and #SMprofs is Vector. We are the new rising cohort that is emerging as the new wave of future scholars, educators, and professionals in the field.
To put things into context w/ the rise of #SMprofs I have created and managed a community of social media professors for the past four years, and this community of #SMprofs has grown tremendously over the years. Even as the editorial in Journal of Advertising Education stated in their latest issue:
The group has more members than the American Academy of Advertising and the AEJMC Advertising Division, combined. And during the COVID-19 response, it’s become a semester preserver for faculty moving their courses online.
We provide value in a positive, dynamic, and inclusive capacity. We bring in educators, students, and industry partners to the table where we talk, discuss, share (novel thought for academics, right?!!) and help each other. That’s been the ultimate goal for the group and will continue on this path. This is the culture and mission of the #SMprofs community.
We have proposed to create a separate interest group just for social media professors and researchers to come together in one place to share research, ideas, and teaching perspectives. We actually did research (special thanks to Amanda Weed for leading in this effort) to show not only would this be a competitive angle and opportunity to take, but we would bring in MORE members.
We proposed this three years ago. Each year it has been “tabled” for the next meeting. This has happened each quarter for the past few years. We just got word we got tabled again. This news comes as AEJMC faces a decline in over 400 members in a year. That’s A LOT.
Let me show you #SMprofs growth. This is the total number of members we had on August 1, 2019:
And this is what we have in August 2020:
This is a growth of 553 members in one year. I’ll let the data speak for itself. Plus, these are members who are not part of AEJMC. This means of the total 1824 members here, a good number of them are not AEJMC members but would become members if there was an interest group. That’s what we found in our research and presented this point to AEJMC.
#SMprofs is just getting started. This is a movement that will continue to grow and we have big plans in the works. Stay tuned.
#SMprofs does not need AEJMC. AEJMC needs us more than we need them.
Politics playing a role at conferences. I hate politics, I really do. If you know me pretty well, fairness is extremely important to me. This is natural for all of us – we want things to be fair and when we see that they are not fair – we get upset.
This brings me to the classic psychology study by Frans de Waal’s study with capuchin monkeys. You can see the video and see for yourself what happens to the monkey with the cucumber when his colleague gets grapes for doing the same thing. Guess which monkey you think I am!
I bring this up because one of the things I share w/ colleagues, friends, and graduate students is what sometimes is not discussed in PhD programs. When you get to a certain point in your career where you get a reputation, there are many great opportunities that come your way because of this. There will be people who will be your biggest fans and supporters of your work. However, on the other hand, you will also gain people who do not like your work and what you stand for, and unfortunately, they will use their power to not be fair and judge your work based on their own bias.
I bring this up because this has and is happening in our field. I know because I have experienced this myself for the past two years presenting at AEJMC. Teaching and Research Projects that have gotten me a lot of praise and citations previously have been rejected because the reviewers knew I was the one who submitted the work. I say this because I know for a fact this happened. This will not deter me from submitting in the future.
Is this fair? Absolutely not. So why do I bring it up? It is important to bring transparency on this subject. We discuss being inclusive and welcoming in the messages we share with our members, but actions that are taken byt members tell a different story. Speaking up on this, calling out those who we doing it, and leading by example by taking action in creating a community that embraces fairness and does not tolerate politics will be one of the things I will continue to do.
What are the next steps?
There are a lot of issues here for academic organizations and conferences to address. What we have seen here is not a pretty picture, and if we do not change course or do something different, we will not see these events continue on and this could hurt the profession in many ways.
If I had any recommendations for academic conferences and organizations to take from this, here are a few things I would recommend for you to do:
- Reach out to industry professionals who have successfully done virtual events and learn from them;
- Be mindful the cost of your event may be a barrier more than ever to professors and students not just this year, but next year as well;
- There needs to be more options, training, and transparency related to the reviewers for bias they may have on work by others to be fair.
- Expand your horizon when it comes to new areas for interest groups. These could bring in new members, which means more $$$ and sustainability as an organization.
I am always open to having a conversation to see what we can do to address this. We are all on the same page here and in order to move forward, we have to work together to address this.
Hope you all are doing well and having a great day!
Best Wishes,
