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Event Camp a view from outside

I got involved in what has been described as an 'un-conference' at the weekend as an outside viewer and contributer at Event Camp 2010 in New York. This was a grass roots gathering of like minded professional event organisers who had collaborated to get together for a one day conference all about Social Networking in Events.

There were guest speakers and open discussion sessions as well as some social time - there is a great description of the live event here - http://ow.ly/14VG5. 

As a remote attendee as was able to watch the presenters on video through a live stream and was able to follow the discussions, comments and information from the 200 or so on-line followers on Twitter - there was a live feed from Twitter at the event and the facilitator was monitoring the Twitter feed for questions and relevant comments - so someone 4,000 miles away was able to ask a question of the presenter and another was able to ask for the camera to be repositioned during one presentation. After some of the sessions there were live interviews with the presenters, just for the on-line audience - these were a great tool for helping the viewers to feel more involved.

While the presenters did their thing, the twitterers were adding links, comments and experiences about what was being presented. One of the best examples was this diagram, featured on the PowerPoint and linked on Twitter almost immediately afterwards - it's a really useful tool to see all the different sites and services being employed by web users in the global conversation...

 

The overwhelming takeaway from Event Camp as a remote delegate was the fantastic opportunity it presented to engage informally with peers and professionals from different background but sharing a common interest - crucially, not through a structured trade association or involving travel, selling or cost.

I tend to concentrate on the experience rather than the content here - the content was excellent, challenging and in places inspirational - there were plenty of things to take away and go and do differently - well done to all involved in putting it together.

In many ways it reminded me of my first real internet experience on the Compuserv Group sharing with eventprofs before the internet explosion destroyed that sort of direct connection. Let's hope this sort of collaboration is here to stay.

4 Benefits of Hybrid Conferencing for Corporate Events

A hybrid conference combines the benefits of a live audience at a live event, with the power of the internet and remotely accessed content and collaboration.

Hybrid as it can be delivered now is likely to be a glimpse of the future of conferences.

Managers attend a national conference. They are usually fairly passive - they watch and listen to presentations, maybe visit breakout groups and get to vote on something - and there might be a Q&A. All tried and tested and successful if delivered well. But very passive. These are

1 - Pre-event - Community

Involve the audience in the content, provide them with the mean to communicate with each other around the conference topics. Allow them to contribute to menu selection, to discussion topics, to vote and decide on some aspects of the conference - ahead of the conference. Encourage them to share their thoughts and ideas with each other - share best practice about their jobs. The conference is just a catalyst, but the existing comms channels often become stale or underused - a dedicated conference community adds to the success of the conference through engagement with the audience, but also has secondary benefits in the wider business.

2 - Missed the Event

There are always delegates who can't make it. Some because of holidays or illness but many for simple things - they don't like to travel, they can't get a 'pass' from home, they have childcare problems or there is no business cover for them. These delegates still need to be engaged and informed and if they miss the conference they become barren and lost until the next event or meeting. Streaming video of the conference over the web has been possible for a long time but because of the limitations of local internet speeds it has been rarely taken up. 

With faster broadband everywhere and new technology in the way we process cameras at an event, streaming the conference live to a remote audience has never been better. Add to that the ability to continue the 'conversation' from the community through the forums or social networking tools such as Twitter, means that the remote delegate can feel involved and take part in the event from afar.

3 - A Second Audience

With Live video streaming so accessible, the possibility of adding additional audiences is very real. For example, in an ideal world you would invite the Deputy Manager to the conference so that there was an additional person to enthuse about the conference messages - or you might like key head office people to see the conference but don't want to provide the additional facilities and budget needed for that many attendees.

By opening an event TV channel for remote viewers to log in to, we can switch between live presentations from the live video feed, Presentation slides, pre-recorded video inserts or messages and a live host who could talk directly to the remote audience while other activities are going on at the conference - so effectively you end up with a second conference tailored to the remote audience via a live TV channel. It's not expensive to deliver.

4 - Outside-in

The final consideration with our remote audience and conference community is using social networking, like Twitter and Facebook, as well as on-site tools like SpotMe, to involve everyone at the conference and remotely viewing the conference, to talk, share, engage and collaborate. This could be through dedicated discussion sessions or through 'back channel' style Twitter feeds displayed at the venue and simultaneously on the Live feed.

These are just some of the applications of Hybrid conferencing for corporate events, without doubt the adoption of some or all of these new techniques will bring a totally new dimension to conferencing.

Twitter Feeds at Conferences (madness?)

It seems that in the tech world, presenting a live twitter feed behind the presenter is becoming more common.

The way it works - the presenter presents, the audience listen and what the audience thinks as they listen, they Tweet - then the tweets are presented as a live update on the screen behind the presenter (so if someone tweets something funny, then the audience laugh regardless of how serious a point the presenter is making).

You can read an interesting article by Keir Whittaker which draws together some experiences of this in practice.

From our point of view at corporate events for UK companies, using Twitter 'live' could be a fantastic way draw in questions or comments for a Q&A or to promote interaction during a dedicated session for interaction, but the idea of having the audience accessing their phones and contemplating what to tweet during a presentation will inevitably lead to them not hearing or engaging with the very message that they are attending the conference to hear - which can only be a bad thing.

This is a video monologue from CNNs tech expert Chris Pirillo following an apparently bad experience at the Web09 conference in Paris: