Guest Speakers

So far this semester we have welcomed 2 different guest speakers into our class. While these guests spoke on different topics, both were extremely knowledgeable in their given fields, and through their presentations they conveyed a lot of passion in what they do.

Nate Herzog was our most recent guest speaker, who came to discuss his work beginning StoryhackVT. StoryhackVT was started as an offset to HackVT which specializes in digital app creation. Storyhack was a way to merge digital with the creative. He has organized and held 2 24-hour "hackathons" for Storyhack contestants with given criteria in both 2013 and 2014. Due to limited participation and the increased amount of time putting on such events he has moved on to other things in his career, though he still has a passion for this type of storytelling.

This raises the question as to how these creative events can actually be a solid business model. Because he came to visit us at our college, the thought of holding these events at universities is actually a great idea- students are used to staying up working at all hours of the night, they have the abilities based on what they are studying in courses or what they are inspired by, and the colleges have the resources to provide students with all that they may need- food, location space, technology, etc.- for events like these to be successful on college campuses.

His visit to class provided a perfect real-life example to all that transmedia storytelling encompasses. Seeing Storyhack submissions served as great examples of what our class projects should be like. And lastly, the discussion sparked curiosity as to how these types of events can become a more sustainable business model rather than using transmedia storytelling as a way to market a business. Is the medium the message?- Is marketing the concept of transmedia storytelling in competition form a good idea?