WEBVTT

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Hello everyone, my name is Olivia Graham.

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I'm a current rising sophomore or second year

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here at Northeastern University and I'm so excited

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to get to speak with you all about

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my experience working on the Budding Economist Symposium.

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It was truly a blend of collaboration, creativity,

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and learning and I feel so fortunate to

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have been part of such an amazing event.

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I joined this project because I've always personally

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been very interested in economics despite it not

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being my major and this was definitely one

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of the biggest hurdles that we experienced with

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our marketing and with our advertising of the

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project.

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Based on the name, the Budding Economist Symposium,

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some people might think that it's only open

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to those who are majoring in economics or

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who are involved in PPE (politics, philosophy, and

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economics) and so we wanted to show that

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economics actually touches all aspects of life, all

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different majors, all different concentrations, and this was

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something especially important that we wanted to take

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into consideration when selecting our speakers and also

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our activities.

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And so, speaking of activities, when first hearing

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about this event, the reason why I loved

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working on it and the reason why it

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was so impactful and meaningful to me was

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because Rav, the professor leading it all, didn't

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just take charge and tell us what to

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do, what to say, who to pick as

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a guest speaker for our panel, or what

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activities to do.

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That was actually all up to us.

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We did all that research; we came up

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with the creative games; we came up with

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everything and all the activities, and I think

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this made that project just so much more

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meaningful because of the fact that we knew

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that everything was coming from the heart, and

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also it was activities that we would like

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to do because we're the same age as

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the people participating.

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So when we all first joined as

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co-directors on our Zoom call, we all had

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to come up with five different ideas that

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we want to pitch for the symposium to

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see what would stick, what wouldn't, and I

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think that this aspect really helped with the

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co-collaboration of it all because Rav was

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there as the guiding force to tell us

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about things like the budget, the ins and

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outs of having a symposium, having an event

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this big, and stuff like that, and we

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were just the creative elements of it all.

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I think that him being able to

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guide us in this experience was extremely important

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because he offered wisdom, he offered instruction, and

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he also offered a lot of experience as

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Ethan, who was running the symposium last year,

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he based a lot of criteria off what

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happened before.

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So I think that it was extremely important

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because we had two different kind of mindsets

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going on, but there was so much collaboration

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throughout the project, and it wasn't just necessarily

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being told what to do, but rather we

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had a creative initiative and creative drive in

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doing so, which is why I loved being

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a part of this team.

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One of the best parts of the entire

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experience was being able to bounce ideas off

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of my fellow peers, but also Rav.

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This kind of led for us to all

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develop our own unique jobs.

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Personally, I was in charge of marketing because

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I really love marketing and outreach, and this

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is something that I want to continue to

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pursue.

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So with this, I was in charge of

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running the Instagram.

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So I created a bunch of different graphics

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and visuals that people would repost on their

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stories to hopefully spread awareness and spread the

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word about the event. Obviously we did

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run into some issues and it wasn't just

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smooth sailing.

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This occurred especially in the earlier stages of

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the project, when we were just trying to

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get engagement up and convincing people to come,

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and that economics could be fun.

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And so in order to pivot, in order

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to get more people to sign up and

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obviously come, we wanted to create fun and

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engaging Reels.

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So Reels are short little clip videos on

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Instagram that scroll, become scrollable and are on

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people's feeds.

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And so with these fun videos, again I'll

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put them up, we were able to increase

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engagement and people were reposting them on their

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stories, letting them, their friends know about the

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event, liking, commenting, and this was extremely exciting

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to see that the Northeastern community was getting

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excited about the event, and social media was

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definitely our biggest platform because we had to

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consider our target audience, our target demographic, which

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is, you know, Gen Z teenagers, and what

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a better way to reach them through short

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dopamine-receiving and dopamine-exuding videos.

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So that was really exciting and I'm glad

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that we were able to have such great

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engagement, and correct me if I'm wrong, but

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we had around 80 to 90 sign-ups

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for the second ever Budding Economist Symposium in

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London, which is incredible, and I cannot wait

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to see how this organisation gets to grow

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in the following years.

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Participating in this project gave me more than

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just marketing experience, it gave me confidence in

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my ability to lead, to communicate, and it's

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one thing just to talk about collaboration, but

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it's another thing to put it into execution

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and actually do it, and I think we did.

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And this is something that I'll take with

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me for the rest of my life, something

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that I'll be able to apply to a

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bunch of different scenarios, as leadership and collaboration

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never go away, and are things that are

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applicable in so many different facets of life.

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And this project really showed me the power

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of collaboration, and I look forward to applying

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this experience into everything I do.

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So thank you so much for listening!