So last week was a week of events. There was the online communities gig* with Mark Pollard, Christy McCarthy, Angela Beesley & a crowd of participants. Thanks again to the Wesley Mission for their help. It was pretty darned good. If you didn't go, find someone who did & then ask them about it.
I also started teaching @ UTS. More on that in a few weeks. I also ranted a bit around social software at FISH@6, tagteaming Tom Kendall.
Probably my most conflicted experience of the week was @ E2EF. Ross knows how to put on an event & he did invite me so I'd better be nice. The social software newbies absolutely loved it. The jaded old 2.0 hacks were bored. Nathan Wallace & Peter Williams were fun. David Backley had 2 brilliant slides that were jam-packed full of experience. IBM were an event sponsor and the presentation by Brent Lello may have been good - I don't know because I found the first 5 minutes such a turn-off that I walked out**.
A conversation I had with two participants*** raised the issue about the back channel. Lots of people were on Twitter, tweeting away. I have mixed feelings about this. Many of the Tweets seem to be: "Hey, I'm at a conference, some just said something" or some form of public note-taking. The next conference I am speaking at with Tweeting, I want the Tweetfeed on screen next to me. Stuff the powerpoints, let's bring it on!!! Olivia Williams has some interesting points but I think the critical thing is that we have a feedback loop here. I want that exposed & integrated. What I really want is a tag cloud of the audience's comments flickering over my head: "interesting" "flawed" "rubbish".
Can someone build that for me please?
What's exciting about tools like Twitter is the immediate, shared feedback you get - which amplifies responses. 90s rave tracks would include samples of crowd roars in the mix - which would trigger copy responses on the dance floor. Tools like cheap SMS, backend computing & real-time visualisation will revolutionise how we experience things as crowds, as audiences, together. People crave that sense of collective experience.
Should we give it to them?
*A few people couldn't make it - including one man whose car broke down on the way to the venue. Ah you say, a likely story. He included a TIFF of the tax invoice from the towing company as an attachment to an apologetic email. N.B. I believe you. But we gave all the spare cash to the Wesley Mission, so I don't think we help you out on this one.
**I don't go to strip clubs because tired old routines being performed by someone desperate for my cash just don't do it for me. I asked the actKM list what they thought of good & bad vendor presentations. I will unveil the results shortly.
***Which took place in a deserted fun fair on a blazing hot day. This was in no way surreal, oh no.
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6 comments:
Congrats on the lecturing gig. You'll be a lot more engaging than the lecturers I've had.
Re: twitter in conferences. You're a brave man to say "bring it on" but I agree that that's where we need to go. As somone who was not able to make #e2ef I got a lot of value from the hundreds of tweets. And there were some experienced people who were engaged and not bored (such as @helmitch).
Did you see this item offering advice for when people are twittering http://pistachioconsulting.com/twitter-presentations/ ? I think its only part of the story and something we will keep twittering and talking about.
Andrew - Hello again!
Re: E2EF - Yes I was being a little broadbrush. As noted, there were bits I really liked but I find the trad conference format a real struggle. Possibly due to my short attention span.
Re: Brave man. Once you've died on stage a few times, you lose a lot of the fear. I think everyone needs to die on stage a few times.
Twittering article - I linked to it in the blog post AM!!! But yes, it has some interest advice and the debate ain't over yet. I think I have a partial solution actually...
Oooops, so you did. Silly me for not clicking through. That tag cloud idea has some interesting wrinkles. Such as needing to re-set when the speakers change otherwise you may be tarred by the previous presenter's brush for better or worse.
You are tarred by the previous presenter's brush no matter what - except that in most cases someone bad before you makes your job easy.
One measure of your effectiveness could be how quickly the tag cloud started to shift...
thanks for the link! just to be sure credit goes where due, that post is by speaking and presentations coach Olivia Mitchell http://twitter.com/oliviamitchell
:-)
Thanks Laura - Correction made to post. And that's an innerestin' middle name you got yourself there...
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