Social Media Use at AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum Doubles Between 2016 and 2017 Written 4 August 2017

Social media use at AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia, was strong compared to previous years. At the 2016 forum in Salt Lake, attendees posted 288 tweets that appeared on social media display screens set up throughout the conference. At this year's forum, moderators approved 535 tweets to display to the boards. As a consequence of this increased social media activity, the hashtag #AiaaPropEnergy trended on Twitter for the first time ever. In total, tweets from the Forum in Atlanta earned 3.2 million impressions, partially due to the participation of large brand or company accounts in social media at the Forum. A tweet up was also held at the Twenty-Two Storys lounge inside the conference hotel, and 16 local section members or Forum attendees stopped by the event to network and mingle.                                                          

A social media contest was also held to encourage attendees to post about the event. Prizes were awarded to Herve P. Morvan, Laura Forczyk, and Rebecca Hitt. Professor Herve P. Morvan, director of the Institute for Aerospace Technology at the University of Nottingham, also wrote a summary about his experiences at the 2017 AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum on his blog.