Tyler Neville joined the NU Athletic Communications staff in October 2017 after graduating from Saint Joseph's College of Maine in December of 2016, where he worked for Saint Joseph's Director of Athletic Communication Corey McCarthy for three years. He attended his first ECAC-SIDA Workshop this summer in Burlington, Vermont.

The first year at a new job brings ample opportunities to venture into the unfamiliar and accumulate as many new experiences and lessons as you can handle. My first year at Norwich University has done this to a massive degree, as each month brings new challenges and new lessons as I settle into this new career.
 
For June, the big first experience on the calendar was, of course, my first ECAC-SIDA. My colleagues at Norwich had gotten me excited for it with tales of the amazing panels, people, and experiences that awaited, and the fact that it was right here in Norwich's backyard in the great city of Burlington only heightened the expectations for the week.
 
Our week started off with some excellent ice breaking activities courtesy of the Saint Michael's Student Leaders, in which we got to see which of our colleagues could best imitate vegetables among other games and activities to ease the nerves and get everyone comfortable, followed by some table topics where we were lucky enough to have more experienced peers begin to share some useful information they've picked up throughout their years in the business. To cap off day one, the boys from Coast Guard held an excellent Rookie Welcome Reception in their room before we all split up to enjoy Burlington's Church Street Marketplace and an evening out socializing.
 
After a long night in Burlington interacting with many of our colleagues and learning which of us excelled at darts and which of us did not, we kicked off Wednesday with an incredibly illuminating mental wellness panel hosted by the co-creators of Hope Happens Here. After that, I was lucky enough to watch my co-workers from Norwich University moderate two straight panels. First up was Tanner Acebo presenting the panel on Web Streaming Options before Derek Dunning followed that with an excellent panel on Finding Your School's Social Media Voice, both panels chock full of terrific insight and advice from all of the panelists.
 
Following an excellent lunch featuring former University of Vermont men's basketball coach Tom Brennan's plethora of stories, the panels continued into the afternoon with each one being as engaging and informative as the last. We all headed out onto Lake Champlain on the Spirit of Ethan Allen Dinner Cruise before returning to our hotel for the first evening of Wally World.
 
Thursday opened up with a much-anticipated panel regarding the NCAA Partnership with Genius Sports, in which a lot of our questions and concerns were answered by representatives from the NCAA. Following this, we broke into table topics regarding statistics for individual sports before doing the same thing for Photoshop later on. Both of these panels proved to be personal favorites, especially the Photoshop presenters including Emily Machado (Wentworth), Casey McGarvey (Coast Guard), Sammi Chickering (NEC) Max Berkowitz (MIT), and Ben Stockwell (Assumption) (among many others) who showed us some tips and skills that I've already begun to apply for Norwich Athletics.
 
Capping off the week, we enjoyed an excellent ECAC-SIDA Awards Dinner and an incredibly fun Wally World night which proved to somehow be more fun than any of us expected and provided a perfect bookend to a fantastic week.
 
Engaging, informative, and a whole lot of fun, I honestly could not have asked for more from my first trip to ECAC-SIDA. Rarely are professional workshops able to so aptly blend a true development-minded atmosphere as well as an incredibly fun and social aspect for the week. The amount I learned, the friends I made, and the memories created with such an outstanding group of talented and passionate individuals cannot be overstated. A truly great week in Burlington already has me excited for my second ECAC-SIDA in Framingham next year. Thank you to everyone involved in the planning and execution of such a tremendous experience!