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I’m back in the States after the Canadian University Press Conference. The first day, I talked about blogging and social media promotion. Students seemed genuinely interested, and asked some very thoughtful questions about ethics, privacy, how to promote your content, and personal branding. Both sessions were well attended. And the Internet access was non-existent. Sigh. #

One of the unique aspects of CUP as compared to U.S. student media conventions is that it’s entirely student-run, which means there are some traditions that are worth mentioning. One such tradition is that students run for election to national offices. The students who are candidates have to wear something on their head during the conference. One year it was a tiara, for instance. This year, candidates have to wear pink cowboy hats. Here are some examples. All of the candidates can be found here, apparently I only missed one of the pink hat brigade: #

The students who are elected serve for a year at the national CUP offices in Toronto as paid staff members of the organization. #

It would be interesting to have a similar structure in the U.S. for one of the student-oriented organizations to have student input into the decision-making process. #

Late edit: Just found out via Twitter user @Chrisberube that Cauchi was selected as president, and Webb as national bureau chief. #

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