Last week I began my internship at the Center for Democratic Development in Ghana. I joined the CDD’s social media and communication team and jumped right into producing content for the organization’s annual flagship event: a lecture series named Kronti Ne Akwamu. Kronti Ne Akwamu is an Akan symbol that represents balanced government. The symbol of democracy and good governance was adopted by the CDD to correlate with its mission to promote democracy and economic openness in Ghana through research and advocacy.

In preparation for the 13th annual lecture, I created a biography for the speaker to be displayed as participants entered the venue. I also produced a backdrop to be projected during the lecture that included a hashtag so that participants could join the conversation via Facebook and Twitter. At the event, which was last Thursday, I was responsible for posting live updates on the CDD’s Facebook page before, during and after the lecture. Each post required an image, so I also took photos and quickly uploaded and edited them for use in the posts. I must admit I felt slightly overwhelmed, but I knew this was my first chance to show the communication team I could be a valued team member. Naturally, I forgot my computer charger that day and had to scramble to find someone who had a compatible MacBook charger. Luckily, one of my coworkers brought theirs and lent it to me for the evening. After working from 8:30 AM until 9:30 PM that day, I was particularly grateful for my bunk bed and boxed macaroni and cheese. I was even more grateful to the coworker who let me borrow his computer charger because he also gave me a ride home from the event (I wouldn’t have known where to begin navigating myself home from that part of town, as I’ve just now mastered getting from home to work on the tro-tro).

With the Facebook live updates being a success the social media team gave me more responsibilities, which include creating a Facebook photo album for the event, compiling news articles about the lecture and sharing some of them on the organization’s Facebook page, and creating and excel file to track social media’s influence on the event’s attendance. I also had the opportunity to do some social media follow up on the event by thanking the participants and posting a birthday post about the speaker, who turned 63 the day after his lecture.

I’m excited to see what else I can learn about communication strategy at the CDD. With my first week being so full I have no doubt I will leave with extremely valuable experience.