Lynn basks in glow from hosting final presidential debate
BOCA RATON – Maybe President Barack Obama got a boost from his stance in the final presidential debate. Maybe Mitt Romney also got a bounce.
But Lynn University in Boca Raton likely got the biggest kick of all from bringing thousands of people onto their Military Trail campus – and millions around the world onto their turf via TV.
“We welcomed the world to our campus for a few days, and they seem to like what they saw,” said Lynn President Kevin Ross. “People are now aware of what we have known for some time, that Lynn University is a dynamic institution full of diverse and talented people who are capable of accomplishing great things.”
They were talented enough to pull the debate together, Ross said. “Hosting a presidential debate takes months of planning, untold hours of work and several million dollars—a mammoth task for any organization, but especially challenging for a small, independent school such as Lynn University.”
“However,” he said, “The reward can be equally great as the early numbers related to the school’s hosting of the final presidential debate are showing.
Economic impact is hard to measure, encompassing several variables including: elevated local spending, legacy impact and publicity value, among others. To track this activity, Lynn University is commissioning an economic impact report with Enigma Research so the whole community can see the positive impact the debate brought to the community.
He said the report should be available in December 2012.
He said the first debate between Obama and Romney was watched by 67.2 million and the second 65.6 million, according to the Nielson Company. The final debate was up against Monday night football and the final game of the National League championship series which seems to have affected its viewership—an estimated 59.2 million tuned in to see the two candidates square off on foreign policy.
Despite the smaller audience, Ross said, the debate at Lynn enjoyed massive media coverage.
“The school is still adding up the value of the tens of thousands of articles and estimates earned media placements to be valued in the tens of millions of dollars. This number will grow as more media clips are captured through the university’s media monitoring software, and the total publicity value will be known in the coming weeks.”
On Oct. 22,
lynn.edu saw a 454 percent increase in page views. In addition, since Lynn’s debate website, debate2012.lynn.edu, was launched on Feb. 1, 2012, the site had 153,265 visits and saw 297,897 page views.
According to Twitter, Inc., on Monday, Oct. 22, #lynndebate was trending to the top 3 nationwide and top 5 worldwide. President Obama’s “fewer horses and bayonets” comment at 9:45 p.m. peaked Twitter activity with 105,767 tweets per minute.
Several influential people and outlets used #lynndebate in their tweets including BBC Breaking News, Al Gore, Fox News, USA Today, C-Span, Twitter Government and Darth Vader, among others.
Lynn is not resting on its laurels. The school has many plans beyond the debate during the remainder of its 50th anniversary year. For example, Lynn staff is finalizing plans for the groundbreaking of the new Bobby Campbell Soccer and Lacrosse Stadium and new International Business Center building, which will take place in the spring semester.
“I’ve always said that we’re a small school that does big things,” Ross said. “The debate is only the latest example of this, and I hope everyone stays tuned to see what we do next.”
