A few weeks ago I saw this comment on a blog about the use of Twitter at conferences, and I've been thinking about it ever since:

"Twitter (or something like it) will define almost every live, public interaction we have in business in the near future". (The complete blog posting can be found here: http://www.tradeshowfeed.com/2009/03/25/twitter-storm-whats-that/).

At first, I thought this was just an exaggeration. But increasingly I think those of us who are involved with conferences, roundtables or any other sort of presentation to a live audience need to be thinking about the impact of social media. My guess is that a large proportion of our staff have or will have involvement in live events--as presenters or discussion moderators, organizers, sales staff, etc. So having us all learn how to make good use of the tools would seem to make sense. Here are some examples of what I'm seeing:

1. Increasingly I notice that people preparing to give presentations are using Twitter and Facebook to source ideas. They will post a note that says, "I'm giving a talk next week about X--does anyone have any good examples I can use in my presentation?". And, more often than not, someone sends them some ideas or an example or just random thoughts on the topic that may help to shape the discussion.

2. Anyone who stands up in front of a large group--say, at a conference--needs to assume that some people in the audience will be using Twitter to share a summary of whatever it is that's being discussed. One way to harness that power and make it easy for those not in the audience to follow is to provide what's known as a hashtag or code that everyone can use in their postings. That, in turn, makes it easier for all those comments to be found when running a search. At SES New York, everyone was encouraged to use #sesny somewhere in their postings. Running a search on #sesny turned up hundreds of pages of commentary from attendees--some just summarizing the presentations, others sharing their own opinions about the comments, the speaker, the coffee, the wireless connection or whatever else was on their mind.

3. Some speakers are harnessing those live Twitter feeds to monitor audience questions and comments during their actual speech. By doing so, they can respond to questions in real time or take the pulse of the audience. And it becomes another way for the audience to "vote" on ideas or direction, which used to require special gadgets that allowed for real time polling.

4. For conference organizers, those live Twitter feeds are a great way to gauge the audience's reaction to the program, speakers, venue and related events. Not as a substitute for program evaluation forms, perhaps, but as another way to understand the audience's likes and dislikes.

5. And, since networking is such a big part of what live events are all about, social media has become a preferred tool for bringing participants together. Using the hashtag system provides a quick way to remind attendees about scheduled events (e.g. "don't forget the cocktail party on the patio at 6:00") or even unscheduled meet-ups among like-minded peers.

6. Just because a conference ends doesn't mean that the networking and discussions need to end as well. For larger events, creating a LinkedIn or Facebook group may make sense. But those discussions need to be moderated by someone on staff, or else the group simply withers away.

I'm sure there are other ways to use social media, and if you have ideas on the subject I'd love to hear them.