Voices heard around the world.

In my term as Vice President, several initiatives to engage the 7,000 members of the organization in dialogue were begun. First, a comprehensive branding [via design and graphics] of our virtual spaces was an initial attempt at creating a social “layer” to the digital presence of the organization while costing little as the effort had no funding. Additionally, podcasts engaged members on their own terms by giving news parallel to traditional email blasts as well as engaged leaders in the profession through interviews in an attempt to educate the members on various important topics. Rather than reinventing resources, the project sought services familiar to the membership as a means to supplement rather than reinvent as well as to meet the “budget”.

Results
The response to the online content was unbelievable. In the time between December, 2007 and May, 2008 the number of downloads grew by as much as 400% a month with downloads from as far as Asia. As marketing budgets were non-existent, the growth was viral, by word of mouth. Facebook groups were created by fans! Additionally, we made it into YouTube’s top 10 daily non-profit listings as well as in iTunes’ featured list of new podcasts.

Additionally, the series on the Solar Decathlon were extremely popular as they were the only ones to document the processes of building live from arrival to judging.

Products
Hear a sample audio podcast- Solar Decathlon Student Choice Jury Reactions
See a video podcast- AIA Convention
See the AIAS YouTube Page