TWEET, TWEET - FREE
May 6; Noon – 1:30 pm
Evanston Public Library
1703 Orrington Avenue
Evanston, IL
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Wondering what the hype about Twitter is and how it benefits your organization? Community Media Workshop’s Diana Pando  discusses Twitter best practices and ways our organization can use it to further your mission.  Panelists include: Panelists include: Panelists include: Lovette Ajayi (Red Pump Project) Bill Smith (Evanston Now) Angela Brown (ABDCo.), and Antony van Zyl (Evanston Online.com).  More panelists TBA. Co-Presented with The Evanston Public Library. Here’s more about the panelists:

Angela Brown has been managing nonprofit development efforts in Chicago for six years. She is passionate about technology and media education in the nonprofit and small business work place and an active social media moderator and user. In 2008 she founded ABDCo. a nonprofit and small business development company to assist grassroots nonprofits and small businesses with communication and new media development.

Angela specializes in the management of social enterprise driven story-telling that focuses on an integrated media approach to classic nonprofit fundraising and small business communications. She has worked on behalf of Chicagoland nonprofits to streamline communications with supporters and increase the success of individual giving campaigns utilizing social media, web content, e-communication, newsletter writing, personalized eco-print marketing, and donor management systems.

Bill Smith is the publisher of  Evanston Now Smith was born in Evanston and graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

He has worked as a broadcast journalist in Detroit and as a journalism professor in Boston. He’s worked in online media since 1994, including a stint as a product manager for the search engine Lycos. He launched Evanston Now after returning to his home town in 2005 and
has been using Twitter to help market the site for several months.

Lovette Ajayi is a self-proclaimed web geek who is addicted to all things technology and is an avid blogger. She is a member of the Nonprofit Technology Network and co-creator of the Red Pump Project, an initiative to recognize the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls.

Antony van Zyl got involved in the Internet in the early days when websites were still a fad that would not last (at least according to all the marketing managers he pitched to). Several years of web site development led to numerous awards, topped by the Double Click Top 100 International web marketer award. Web design morphed into applications into Internet infrastructure and into social networking. Today Antony consults on integrating brands, products and entities into the new universal consciousness of the social web using non invasive engagement techniques.

In plain English, he assists companies in breaking down the barriers between themselves, their management, their products and their audience. Recent projects have included stints in the virtual worlds of Second Life, Kaneva and other fantastical places as well as a fascinating journey whereby he brought all of America to Hollywood via the interactive and engaged web. Antony is regularly traipsing through Twitter streams getting information, trolling for prospects, making (very short) pitches and generally testing the cyberwinds while communicating with friends, clients (and a few strange strangers).

Moderator: Diana Pando is Senior Trainer at Community Media Workshop helping nonprofit organizations tell their stories and promoting news that matters. She has also worked with local arts organizations and artists in Chicago and her communication efforts have produced segments on Univision television, WGN-Channel 9 and ABC-Channel 7 and Chicago Public Radio. Print coverage includes Chicago Tribune, Time Out Chicago, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Reader and La Raza Newspaper. She is the co-producer and founding member of Proyecto Latina Online featuring Latinas in the arts and beyond (www.proyectolatina.org)  and a founder of Proyecto Latina Reading Series.

She holds a BA in marketing communications with an emphasis in public relations from Columbia College Chicago. Through the Community Media Workshop she hopes to continue providing people with the tools and information to strengthen their communication efforts and tell their story effectively.