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Using Digital Communications to Create Event Excitement, Collaboration

By: Marijean Jaggers | 10/12/2009

Standing Partnership client Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) approached us with a challenge. The School of Pharmacy would be hosting a learning summit for pharmacists and students studying pain management and palliative care. The school wanted a solution to offer both participants in the summit and those who could not attend. They envisioned some kind of online space that would foster collaboration and idea sharing, creating an ongoing discussion and reference point for all those interested in pain-related pharmacy.

At Standing, we're not Web developers. In fact, we typically partner with Web developers when a Web site is needed, working on the strategy and content on our end, but leaving the development to those for whom it is their core competency. We, however, are social media specialists, which means, in our case, having deep knowledge, capability and experience in working with WordPress for a host of client needs, including simple Web sites, campaigns, online annual reports, podcasts, newsrooms and, of course, blogs. There are, obviously, other free and open-source tools like WordPress available. However, we have found through working with numerous clients and nonprofit community partners that WordPress is preferred for many reasons -- its templates are easily customizable, giving the site a branded look and feel, the sites can be self-hosted with a desired URL and, above all, WordPress is very easy for even the most technologically challenged clients to learn and maintain internally.

We recommended, given the time frame, budget and purpose of the site, that we create a WordPress site for the Pharmacy Pain Summit and did so, staying within a limited budget and with a rather short turnaround time. The client was quite pleased with the result. (We were significantly cheered when one of the leading pharmacists sent an e-mail saying simply, "You rock!" Those are moments we live for in our jobs.)

The site launched in conjunction with the event and became what the client wished -- an online gathering space for those in their industry. The client was thrilled when several comments appeared on the site's blog section within hours of the launch -- evidence that the added effort by the school was much appreciated and would, indeed, be used as intended.

As for the Standing team, a few team members had the opportunity to work closely together on a project that was, all at once, gratifying, challenging and completely enjoyable. It's times like these we savor and hope to replicate again and again.

Posted in Digital Communications