For the last few years I, along with Betsy Flanagan, have been speaking on the topic of millennials in the workplace. These are the tweets from 2 sessions we ran this year at SXSW.

Millennials at Work: Millennials Speak Out: How to Manage the GenX Boss

Praise & A’s: Maximizing a Millennial Workforce

Camp gives a young workers the first opportunity to deal with incredible risk, being responsible for other people’s children. The workplace is where individuals first learned to act outside of the family. It is where they learn how to recover from mistakes, apply life skills, and learn how to problem solve.

Two sessions I am involved with this year at SXSW are listed below. If you are there, please stop by and say hello. Seating at Sunday’s session is described as “campfire” so bring your marshmallows and S’mores.

Millennials Speak Out: How to Manage the GenX Boss
#sxsw #GenYWorker
Monday, March 11 – 11:00AM -12:00PM
Courtyard Marriott, Rio Grande Ballroom
Betsy Flanagan, John O’Loughlin, Luke Davids, Amy Mixa
Millennials are described as having a sense of entitlement, needing constant praise, and lacking in the work ethic found in the generations that came before. Research shows that Millennials are confident, interested in development, and have a quick ability to learn new technology. Hear from a multi-generational panel and learn what skills are necessary to bridge these generational differences.
If you attended the session please complete the evaluation: http://sxsw.tv/ctm

Praise & A’s: Maximizing a Millennial Workforce
#sxsw #GenYWorker
Sunday, March 10 3:30PM – 4:30PM
Courtyard Marriott, Brazos
Jennifer Selke & Tim Street
By 2014, Millennials will make up 36% of the workforce. This new group of workers brings a new set of expectations and demands. They grew up with constant awards, minimal free-range play, and were included in decision making discussions with adults. This combination has created a workforce in need of a new supervisor. Learn elements needed to attract, focus, and keep the most talented employees.
If you attended the session please complete the evaluation: http://sxsw.tv/d4r

I have been quite interested in generational shifts, especially in the area of the workplace and have seen a significant shift as Generation Y or the Millennial Generation has entered the workforce. And while I have seen campers come to camp with more technology, I have not seen their play quality and values change. When told to put the phone or video game away, kids comply and really just want to be playing with other children. I have seen our world become more protective of children as we worry about abduction, pedophiles, and failure.  Because of those fears children have lost the ability to play outside without an adult. The recent popularity of Caine’s Arcade, is an example of what a 9 year old can do when a parent doesn’t over schedule or over-parent. Fighting boredom at his dad’s auto-parts shop, Caine made an elaborate arcade out of boxes. How many parents would have felt guilty that their child was stuck at an auto-parts shop all summer and purchased the latest video game unit to keep him busy and quell the whining, “I’m bored” and “There’s nothing to do.”

Children have less time to play, are more scheduled into organized activities, and expected to do more hours of homework at younger ages than in the past. We over schedule our children and then complain when they are texting their friends. They are simply trying to squeeze their social life into the schedule the adults have created, between swim practice, soccer, homework, and music lessons. Don’t get me wrong, I love that the Huffington Post is running an article on the value of summer camp. My concern is labeling this generation as the group who does not want to go outside to play and would prefer to be playing video games. When else can children play without adults being involved? What is their alternative? I grew up with video games but my alternative was also going to the park and finding a pick-up baseball game and to play with kids I didn’t even know. Are you going to send your 12 year old out to do that today? No, you’re going to sign that 12 year old up for organized sports. More organization, less time to play on their own. When that child needs a break from the organized over-scheduled life we have created, they are stuck inside with books, TV, the internet, or video games. Summer camp is a welcome relief for them.

What exactly do employers think they are going to find that a good manager or interviewer doesn’t discover? Over the years as a camp director when Myspace first came on the scene and then Facebook, I have been asked by fearful camp directors about managing their employees’ digital life. As camp directors, we need to have an interview and screening process that selects people who will represent our brand well and keep kids safe. Staff need education on how to behave online and what their digital life says about who they are as well as what it says about the camp and the director who hires them. I know, from running this type of training at camp, that young people don’t consider that my reputation is tethered to theirs when I offer them a job. By saying, “You are right for our camp,” I am making a judgement based on two decades of managing people. In addition to my judgement, we also have additional background checks, reference letters, and supervision on the job. Do I need to see their private Facebook posts to make that determination?  Maybe I have been in Berkeley too long but I think people should be able to have a private life while presenting themselves in a professional manner when at work.

I do like Jeremiah Owyang’s post Employers Shouldn’t Request Facebook Access – Instead Provide Governance and Training. He talks more about what happens after the individual is hired. I would add that you need strong interviewers on your hiring committee who have a better than average ability to spot trouble in an interview without needing to see a Facebook account. With the digital natives, it is then essential that you teach them how their private digital life can bleed into their professional persona and how to live successfully in both worlds. It is a form of code-shifting that they need to learn, testing me as their boss is different than texting a peer in both substance and form.

What do you think? Are you asking for passwords to see private Facebook messages of your potential employees? What sort of training do you do to help your staff manage their digital life?

Here is their YouTube video about the site: What is CampEasy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMPJeE26x6E

Features of CampEasy

There are many features of this service that parents will love. Being able to indicate what weeks they are looking for camp, the types of camp, ages, cost, etc are standard for these types of sites. CampEasy lets parents compare across different camps (residential and day camp) and to enables parents to use it for planning out the summer, taking into consideration vacation dates along with that baseball tournament. They can even tell their friends what they signed their child up for.  The ShareThis button adds a social sharing feature allowing parent to have the option of sharing content on many sites and also privately via email or Facebook private message.  Parents can have the schedule exported to their calendar. I did have some UI issues comparing camps but liked the MapIt feature which allows a parent to see on a map all the camps they are comparing. Also, like the American Camp Association’s Find A Camp, Camp Easy allows you to select camps who serve special populations. I would have loved to see camps that serve special needs campers distinguished by those who have a majority of typically developing campers versus those that only serve a special needs population. Just my preference since the summer camp I run at UC Berkeley has a social skills track that teaches social skills to a small group of children and teens who are integrated into an otherwise typical day camp population. After speaking on this topic at the ACA national conference, I realized this type of inclusion was not the norm. Keep in mind, CampEasy is very new and in the early stages of development. Twitter didn’t do everything it does today six years ago. I am sure they wanted to get it out the door with some basic features to allow camps to start to input their data and they will grow in richness as the site develops a user base. It is very hard for a start-up to stay focused and do a few things well and resist the urge to just add features because one person makes a suggestion.

The TripAdvisor of Summer Camp

While Brook from CampEasy describes her site as Expedia.com or Kayak.com for summer camps, I think she may want to aim more towards the TripAdvisor model who has a far stronger user community attached to it than Kayak or Expedia. Kayak does a great job integrating TripAdvisor ratings but the loyal TripAdvisor community is what made the the site popular.  We all know TripAdvisor is great for being able to search hotels by features, dates of availability and location but what we value even more is the user photos and reviews. <digression> Really wish TripAdvisor would integrate a database of hotel wifi speeds. I liked what Jeff Jarvis and Dave Winer were trying to do to get people to tag and report wifi speeds when they traveled. I think it was just before their time. If you find this service let me know. CC BFF: Chris Christensen) </digression>

The mommy grape vine has always had that power and now that moms and dads are connected digitally and blogger the reach and opinion is amplified. Harnessing the power of the parent community will make the CampEasy service more valuable. Parents trust other parents. This review feature is currently built into CampEasy as parents are going to be able to post reviews if their child attended the camp. I would like the users reviews to be as rich of an experience as it is on TripAdvisor. Of course, just like on TripAdvisor, give Camp Directors an option to address any complaints, just as you see hotel managers doing within the TripAdvisor review system.

Wouldn’t if be cool if CampEasy . . .

OK, so even though I said CampEasy needs to stay focused on a few tasks so as to not burn through all their cash on developers adding features to the site, I still couldn’t help myself thinking of all it can become. I think adding some notification elements like what TripIt does could be useful. CampEasy could email or text message parents two weeks out prior to a camp starting, let parents know when the refund deadline is approaching in case they need to back out of camp, and even enable easy access to camp emails and phone numbers all in one system. I have parents who bring their camper to camp the wrong week, come to my camp when they should be at a different camp, and forgotten they signed up all together. We often open registration in December. By August some parents have forget they enrolled.  They miss our email reminders and subsequently, miss camp. I also think it would be great for parents to be able to connect their account with other parents, not with a share button but by allowing them access to their account like the way TripIt does. In TripIt, when I allow a connection into my Inner Circle, I am letting those select few see my schedule as it gets planned. By making this connection in CampEast, a parent could share information continually without having to actively push it out. We all know parents really want to see what their social circle has planned. To be able to see what a friend is doing for a certain week can help a parent make similar plans if those two children want to be together. As we know, not only do these parents manage all the nuances of their child’s summer but they sometimes try to coordinate across families. That adds a new level of ninja parent planning skills. What do you think would be cool add-ons to CampEasy? (One of my favorite meet-ups at SXSW this year was the TripIt Breakfast so I think I have TripIt on the brain.)

CampEasy’s Own Use of Social Media

Being involved in the start-up culture of San Francisco, it is exciting for me to see a start-up who wants to help kids get to camp. CampEasy is working all the channels:  Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, YouTube, etc. You have to appreciate that. It is also evident that CampEasy is promoting the value of camp. They did a great job of including a Facebook Like Box (social plugin) within the CampEasy system. It is visible once you get into their database to look for a camp. I would recommend moving the Like Box to the home page to add some social proof to the site for both parents and camp directors. For example, it wasn’t until after I poked around the parent database that I saw the Like Box. It was crammed in the left corner and not even the typical size which meant I could only see 2 full profile photos. Since the Like Box rotates faces it wasn’t until it reloaded a few times that I saw my friend Travis Allison had liked the page. That meant a lot to me since I trust Travis’ opinion on tech sites. I clicked through to the CampEasy Facebook page and found a link to the interview Travis did with Brook in January on his CampHacker podcast. Had I not tested out the parent side of the site, I would have missed the Travis-Brook connection all together. The Like Box is also more valuable than a strict Facebook button that links to the Facebook Page because: 1) it takes me off the CampEasy site and onto Facebook where you will likely never see me again; and 2) it now take 2 clicks to get me to “like” your page.  The Like Box is one click for the “like” and keeps me on your page even when I click on it.

CampEasy also makes fantastic use of video embeded on their home page. In under 2 minutes I got a sense of what they do. I think they can take some of the advice in the videos created by David Betz from CampTV and posted on the CampTV YouTube Channel. After looking at the CampEasy YouTube page here are a few suggestions based on the CampTV YouTube marketing strategy:  put the web address first in the description; add more tags based on keywords (like “planning” and “plan”) people use to find the CampEasy site, use the full description area for more text and even a transcript, log in more, etc.  I have not spoken to Brook and her CampEasy team and I can only imagine, from teaching online social media classes, that she is working all her angles and focusing on priorities to get the word out about CampEasy rather than sitting at home managing YouTube metadata. Priorities. These are offered as free tips and not a criticism.

Marketing Summer Camp to Parents

I enjoyed hearing Brook interviewed by Travis on Camp Hacker. She offered advice to camps about their marketing strategy. In her market research in the Washington DC area, she found that parents don’t find the full page ads in magazines actionable or helpful in planning. I have to agree with that since a full page ad is often more for brand awareness. Brook suggests summer camps look at spending money on secondary platforms that link directly into the summer camp website. There are many camp databases that are like dating services for summer camps and campers. It can be hard to know which to spend money on. When you are on a limited budget, will you be better off throwing some marketing dollars into making your web site more parent friendly or should you put it on an external database site or Google ads? We all know that Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, in their early days, directed a good percent of Zappos’ marketing dollars to customer service and counted on that to generate word-of-mouth buzz.  In 2009 Amazon.com acquired Zappos in a deal valued at approximately 1.2 billion dollars. I have to agree with Brook, if a parent has to dig too deeply for details about your camp, they will look elsewhere. There are just too many good options these days for parents. Do yourself a favor and do some usability testing on your camp web site to see if it is as easy as you think for a parent, unfamiliar with your camp, to actually find out information and sign-up for camp. You may be surprised. Not sure how to do usability testing? Check out the work of Steve Krug whose books Don’t Make Me Think and Rocket Surgery Made Easy will show you how to run your own usability tests and fix your web site problems. These books should be on everyone’s tech book reading list.

Another source of marketing camp directors should pay attention to is the local bloggers, podcasters, etc. In 2010 at Blog World New Media Expo, Tom Webster presented his research on the data he collected on The Current State Of Podcasting 2010.  One of the points that really stuck with me me was his conclusion that local content represented the greatest opportunity for profitable podcasting. With mainstream media abandoning local communities, Tom suggested podcasters could fill the niche since people are craving hyper-local news. Eighteen months later, we have seen a rise in hyper-local blog networks. In Berkeley we have Berkeleyside and Berkeley Patch doing a fantastic job covering the community. You can bet our summer camps advertise on these sites. Your community may have a local Patch blog or mommy blogger or a local resource everyone turns to. In addition to those popular blogs, Berkeley also has an old-school text based email newsletter called Berkeley Parents Network, founded in 1993 and sent to about 30,000 subscribers nearly every day. There is even one dedicated to schools and summer camps. You can imagine how valuable this hyper-local review and information sharing tool is to parents. Brook, from CampEasy, says that camps should pay attention to other sites like these that offer action based links. Do you advertise on local blogs?

What do you think about CampEasy?

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. As the CampEasy database fills it will be more and more useful. Because the CampEasy team is based on the East Coast, they started with their local community. They are branching out. Time will tell how much traffic CampEasy sends to camp websites as they get a more solid foothold. As a camp director, you can sign-up now for free and fill-in your summer camp’s data. You definitely don’t want to be left out of this one!

Brook and CampEasy had great coverage in the Washington Post, perhaps we can get Mashable to cover them?

As usual – if you found a typo? Email me jennselke @ gmail.com. I can’t blame autocorrect on these errors.

Here is a log line for the film:

Inspired by L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”

“After the sharp fragment of a fallen star descends into the picturesque Camp Starlight and transforms it into a world of wonder, delinquent camper Jonah must rescue his first love from the infamous Wicked Witch of Camp Starlight.”

This is going to be a really fun project to work on. The premise oft he story really lends itself to going wild with the art, wardrobe and makeup design. The writer/director David Shapiro’s inspiration for the project are classic kid’s on a journey films like E.T., The Goonies, and Stand By Me and that spirit is sure to carry over to production where we will shoot and live at a summer camp, most likely at the end of May, or early June. Our team is a mix of extremely talented Tisch alumni and students.

Since they are looking for funding – check out their pitch on Kickstarter here and let them know what you think.

Children and adults with a neurotypical (NT) profile or Neurotypical Syndrome, as the autistic population might call it, may struggle with new social connections when changing jobs or towns but their challenges are not as hard as for those who have a significant problem processing social formation. Children and even adults are not very tolerant of those with different social conventions. At the UC Berkeley Social Skills Camp, we admit a subset of participants who struggle with social communication and we coach them on making friends, having a job, and living in the complex multidimensional social world. Paul Adams, in stating the 4 categories of what people talk about online, said that people talk about feelings not facts.  This is based on Robin Dunbar’s research on the social brain. Those of us that work with the Autistic, Asperger, and Non-Verbal Learning Disabled population know they much prefer to talk about facts and often only the ones that interest them. The online world offers an unlimited supply of others who may share that niche interest in Eleanor Roosevelt, Railroads of the 1920′s, or clocks.

Facebook and online communication tools can be so much easier for people with social challenges since non-verbal communication is basically removed. Where these kids struggle is taking the Facebook relationship to real life. Many might argue that our social life suffers from social networks like Facebook but I have to say mine is richer. I am getting ready to head to SXSW where I will connect with people I often only get to see in person once a year or twice a year. It is easy to pick-up conversations because I am aware with all that has been going on with them since I am connected socially online.  I also see hundreds of children and teens who have a typical social interactional style and have not seen poor social skills when they are with each other in person. This generation is far more harmed by the hovering parent than by text messaging and social networks.

The people at a disadvantage are those who cannot transfer from the one-dimensional communication style permissible on Facebook to the multidimensional in-person communication expected in person, on the job, and at school. People on the autism spectrum when on Facebook can friend, like, comment and share facts, share what they think or feel, and even have reciprocal conversations because it can move at their pace. They can pick and choose who they talk with and don’t need constantly be trying to interpret gestures, postures, voice tone, facial expressions, etc.  On Facebook, when someone make a comment that is confusing or non-literal, you often can look at what other people are saying to see if you can figure it out. In a one-on-one in person conversations, this is difficult. I am heartbroken by the loneliness our spectrum kids face and worried for their future. Some will complain about Facebook and how it is disabling the current generation but I see it as opening a new world for those with Autistic Spectrum disorders who in the past only had a face-to-face community. Facebook and text messaging has giving them a communication tool less riddled with non-verbal attributes that have to be decided upon in the moment.  Make no mistake, they still need support using skills in person. It is so much more difficult to put into practice all the pieces of social communication at once, on the fly, in novel situations. Facebook just makes it a bit easier to exist as a social being on a communication platform that is so wide spread and one dimensional, at your own pace, void of gestures, postures, facial expressions, and voice tone.

On a side note, the American Camp Association has an online course designed my Melanie Berry and myself on Integrating Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders into Recreational Settings.

What did I leave out? Did I mention some of your favorites? What do you use and how does it save you time?

Whether you are headed to big events like SXSW or Tri-State or smaller regional conferences, a bit of preparation can make a world of difference in how much you get out of the event.  Here are some of my tips to getting the most out of a conference.

1) SESSION PLANNING
Take a look at the program guide and highlight sessions you want to attend. For fast-paced conferences where there is a lot happening, this is critical.  If I arrive without a plan I am likely to miss a session or event that I was really interested in.  If you are traveling across time zones you can use the time-zone feature in google calendar to be sure you have the correct time for events. I don’t like to change the time on my computer but the time changes on my phone. Makes for a confusing schedule if your time zones are not right. For SXSW you often need to RSVP to events and you will want to look those up in advance.

2) STUDY THE MAPS & LOCATIONS
Check out the area and the hotel where you will be staying. Confirm your room, look on google maps to see what is near by. It helps to know if a drug store is around the corner or will you be stuck with $8 water at the hotel. You may also be able to save money on your transit to and from the airport. For SXSW companies often run free shuttles if you sign-up in advance. There is also a $1 bus if you are really on a budget. For the ACA conference the hotel and airport is connected to public transit and you can save $30 on the cab ride by taking MARTA. It can also help to get an idea of where the conference will be held and the overall spread. Small conferences like ACA National are likely self contained. SXSW is spread out all over Austin. Take a moment to get an idea of what it it will look like when you arrive.

3) FOOD PLANNING
Not all camp conferences are flooded with free food like SXSW. No matter what conference you are attending, look at the schedule and see what food will be provided for free at the event. Sometimes there is food at an exhibit hall or awards lunch. At SXSW there are so many options for free food that with the right planning you can avoid paying for food nearly the entire trip. Your hotel may also offer a free breakfast or happy hour with free hors d’oeuvres. Hotel food can often be costly so take a look at what you local options are first. It is also wise to pack some snacks to help when food is not near or the lines are too long.  If your conference has a lunch break, try to get a jump on the crowd. I have a favorite place to eat at SXSW across from the convention center and if I don’t beat the crowd for lunch my wait can be over an hour.

4) SET SOME GOALS
The reason you attend these conferences will vary. Some people head to SXSW to connect with people they already know where as others are trying to make new contacts.  Make a list of the people you want to meet, questions you want to get answered, or vendors you want to see.  Then you can make a plan to either attend a session the person is giving or hit the exhibit hall and find their booth. At a conference like ACA, finding a booth does not require a map and a sherpa. I went to the Consumer Electronic Show this year and finding a specific vendor among the over 35 football fields of exhibit space was challenging. In some cases, you may be able to set an appointment with people in advance. You do have to be sensitive to their time but it never hurts to ask.

5) PACKING
It helps to know the dress code for the conference and what events may be happening. Will you be meeting potential employers? Will there be award banquets. Camp conferences tend to be more casual and regional conference are more casual than the national conference.  Will you mostly be in the hotel or do you have to cover a lot of ground going from one hotel to the next. I find I rarely leave the hotel at ACA Conferences but at SXSW you can’t get around being outside because you have to cross town to get to sessions and events.  Consider what type of bag you will need to haul around all day and if you can get back to your room to change for evening or to store your bag.  Some items always pack: refillable water bottle, umbrella, iphone battery pack, cold medicine, comfortable shoes, sleep mask for daytime naps, phone charger, heath bars for snacks, cash for tips, and sweater for layering.

5) USE SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS & APPS
Many camp conferences use online scheduling tools. I love it when conferences use Sched.org because I find when they build their own app it never functions as good as Sched. That being said, do download the app if your conference offers one. You can also start to follow speakers, the event, the event hotel, etc on social sites. Often conferences have a #hastag for the event and even specific sessions that you can add to twitter posts. Set up a search to follow the back-chatter at the conference. There can be apps that are also useful for exchanging virtual business cards. I like uMe and also use 41411 (just text JENNSELKE to 41411 for my contact info). Some people like Hashable. There is also nothing wrong with paper business cards, it just can help to make a note about the person on the card so it makes some sense to why you have it and that follow-up actions you need to take.  When it comes to collecting paper I try to bring home as little as possible. Turboscan is a great app for turning paper into a PDF with your mobile device. Sites like Plancast, Lanyard, Meet-up, Eventbrite, and Sched.org are sites to follow where you can see what others are doing. These are great discovery tools or ways to plan your own meet-up.

What are your tips to get the most out of conferences? What do you like to pack?

found a typo? send me an email – jennselke at gmail.  I am an awful proofreader.

Who is Michael Brandwein?

Michael Brandwein is one of the top experts in camps, recreation, and education. Many people in the camp community don’t realize he is well sought after in the field of education and business. I know we camp professionals thought we had him to ourselves. Michael has presented in all 50 states, on 6 continents, is the number one best-selling author in the camp field, and served on the national board of the American Camp Association. His heart and passion is for camp and it shows it all they he does. Those who have attended his sessions know he is famous for providing handouts that are ready to be used with your camp staff. Sometimes I use the handouts, sometimes I make my own from what ideas I have gotten in his session. Regardless, I always come out of his sessions with my summer camp staff training planned. My brain gets in a groove when I listen to him. Here is a video clip of Michael Brandwein on WGN giving parenting tips – I have to admit this is what I now cover at camp training. Parenting tips and staff training have so many similarities.
That is why I am excited to tell you about his upcoming leadership weekend. And to fully disclose my relationship, I get no financial reward for promoting this. I am seriously looking at my schedule to see if I can swing a trip east to go myself. This is only a 3 hour drive from my hometown outside Chicago. I used to stalk Michael at all the camp conferences like ACA National and Tri-State Camp Conference.  My speaking obligations at SXSWi has conflicted with Tristate the past 4 years and I am limited to seeing him at ACA National. Fortunately I have made it up to the role of  “Handout Passer” during his sessions, a truly coveted position <smile>. I talked to Michael and got some details about the conference for my readers.

Brandwein Camp Leadership Team Seminar: Super Skills for Supervision, Training, & Program

April 13, 14, & 15, 2012 (Friday 5:30 p.m.—Sunday noon)
Sherman Lake YMCA Camp / Augusta, Michigan
Registration PDF link

For Resident & Day Camp (Nonprofit or Private) Supervisors, Area Directors, Camp Directors, Assistant Directors, & all other Administrator members of the Leadership Team

An in-depth, skill-packed, hands-on training of immediately useable skills for:

• Superb Supervision, coaching, motivation, team-building, and handling behavior of staff to bring their performance to the highest professional levels
• Mission-Driven Programming: Creating the “Intentional Camp” that goes beyond just fun and friendship and makes every minute build real youth development and essential life skills. Make your programs fresh and magnetic to campers
• Top Terrific Training Techniques: Make this year’s orientation and ongoing training the best ever with unique, outstanding tools and materials to plug in right away so that staff are excited and really learn and practice skills for leadership success
• Large Group Leadership & Communication: Creating respectful culture and seizing and keeping attention with confidence

Cost: $485 for one person / Only $385 for each additional person from your camp/org
Registration PDF link

Free $210 Gift for each camp/organization that registers before March 19th, 2012 Extended to April 3rd
Registration is limited. Register before April 3 and get, for free, five Brandwein best-selling books, a $210 value! (One set per camp/organization.)

Questions? Please contact: Seminar@michaelbrandwein.com / Phone: 847-940-9820

Like him on facbeook: Michael Brandwein Official Facebook Fan Page