The power of twitter at #BCCE2014

On August 3-7 Grand Valley State University, www.gvsu.edu, hosted the 2014 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, www.bcce2014.org. For those that where able to attend like myself, a discussion I heard several times was that there were just too many good sessions occurring at the same time. So as much as we would love to have the time traveling capability of Marty McFly in Back to the Future or Hermione’s time turner from the Harry Potter series then how can we find out about all the information from the different sessions? What was said and what was missed? What about those that were unable to make it to the conference?

With the power of twitter, and by following the conference hashtag (#BCCE2014), many attendees and those that were unable to attend the conference itself, were able to find out about many of the great things mentioned in each of the sessions virtually. According to Keyhole.co, data was gathered showing the results of tweets that contained #BCCE2014. Here are the results as of August 9th.

1. These posts reached 43,646 (unique) followers and 233,428 impressions (which is the number of times followers would see these posts).
2. 400 posts were made that included the #BCCE2014 by 73 different users during that week.
3. Included within the #BCCE2014 tweets, keywords #chemchat and #molympics were mentioned the most.
4. Demographics of tweets were 74% female and 26% male.
5. And the tweet getting the most retweets was a tie at 13 between a tweet from David Read mentioning Dominick Casedonte that most students don't want all classes flipped and my own tweet showing what happens when a bunch of chemists come to the BCCE conference and the result of dumping blocks of dry ice into a fountain. twitter.com/dragan39/status/496744451994574850/photo/1
6. A special recognition to AACT (American Association of Chemistry Teachers) for being the most influential of tweeters. Follow them @AACTconnect

Again, thank you to all that participated and sent tweets out whether it was great things heard in the sessions or during the plenaries, pics of the awesome food, or even those awesome dance moves while attending Al D. Hyde and the Ketones. Special thanks to David Read (@lowlevelpanic) for combining many of the tweets into a storify. Check it out here: storify.com/lowlevelpanic/bcce2014-at-grand-valley-state-university-aug-3-7 Here is a highlight one as well put together by BCCE: storify.com/BCCE2014/bcce-2014-some-twitter-highlights

If you are new to twitter or haven’t signed up for an account then I encourage you to do so. That way when you attend the next conference you will be sure not to miss anything and maybe you can tweet several great things you learned for others to enjoy.

For me my twitter friends have been at times my support, my answers to questions, my best PD 24/7, my guide, my R & R (rest and read), my means for collaboration, and many other things. So go ahead give a shot. www.twitter.com