DOYO Live coming Aug. 4

About two years ago, I met Dennis Schiraldi, owner of CYO Marketing, during the lead up to the first TEDxYoungstown event. Schiraldi and I spent a lot of time talking about social media, marketing and how we prepare students to be engaged and responsible citizens on social media.

Conversations always revolved back to how our students learn, share and interact with others because of (and, in some cases, in spite of) marketing and branding.

These students already use social media to manage personal and professional relationships. They are surprisingly good at it despite the fact no one ever really taught them how to communicate via social media.

These students are also really good at using social media to find information about their favorite TV shows, sports teams, restaurants and myriad other brands, products and services.

In communication and marketing classrooms, instructors have always used this connection as our way to get students to think about how they communicate with their world through social media.

As usual, Schiraldi was two steps ahead of me.

After a few beers at O’Donold’s Irish Pub in downtown Youngstown, Schiraldi laid out his vision for a one-day social media conference.

For this conference, Schiraldi envisioned the students as small-business owners and marketing professionals from Northeast Ohio, western Pennsylvania and beyond in search of ways to make their products and services shine on social media.

To get things moving, Schiraldi reached out to the amazing interactive design wiz (yes, he really is a wizard), R.J. Thompson of Youngstown State University’s Department of Art and creator of Youngstown Design Works. Anyone who knows Thompson knows that if you want something cool to happen, he’s the person to do it.

Enter DOYO Live, a digital marketing, interactive design conference coming to Youngstown on Aug. 4.

DOYO (short for “Do” Youngstown) is a showcase of some of the area’s best minds in marketing, social media and interactive design. Later this week, Schiraldi plans to reveal the names of two high-profile keynote speakers who will headline the event.

Our hope is that DOYO Live will introduce professionals to the latest trends in digital marketing and interactive design. More importantly, it will be the first event of its kind in the area that gives professionals an opportunity to network with other marketing and design professionals.

Of course, any undertaking like this takes a team (and Schiraldi has a great team), but it also takes buy-in from a bunch of willing souls in the community.

So, if you’re lifelong learner, a student of digital marketing and interactive design, and you’re in Youngstown on the first Thursday in August, be sure to check out DOYO Live to learn the latest innovations, strategies and applications.

For more information and updates, check out www.doyolive.com.

Registration information is coming soon along with a schedule of events and speaker bios.

Dr. Adam Earnheardt is chairman of the department of communication at Youngstown State University. Read his blog at adamearn.com and follow him on Twitter at @adamearn.