This is the first of a couple of posts on conferences which have been prompted by my attending quite a few recently – three in the last two weeks to be precise.
This first post has been in part inspired by a great post and discussion by Craig Taylor who highlighted the fact that a recent event he attended a speaker felt delegates couldn’t be learning effectively if they were typing away at the same time as listening – Craig was taking notes on his ipad.
A similar theme was picked up at this week’s World of Learning conference at which Mike Morrison (aka RapidBi) was pulled up by a speaker for tweeting sessions – that despite the fact the organisers were very keen for people to tweet.
This reminded me of some live blogging I did at a CIPD conference a few years ago where people who were sat around me and my colleagues were huffing because of the sound of us typing – that I can understand as we should have been given a table at the front of the auditorium.
All this got me thinking. I spent a lot of my time at World of Learning tweeting (a lot of the time sat next to Mike – pictured). Tweeting during a session really helps me engage with what is being said plus I get challenged in the Twitter stream if I tweet something that makes no sense or sounds wrong. I also get in to conversations that outlast the actual conference session. This engagement around the conference session reinforces my learning.
Plus I am creating content from the sessions that can be shared, which has a value to me and others potentially.
And this is a good thing, as Hermann Ebbinghaus describes in his Forgetting Curve, we forget a lot of what we learn very soon after we first heard/learned it – 50% in a matter of days. For Ebbinghaus it was nearly 70% in the first 24 hours after information acquisition.
It is repetition and reinforcement that helps us push information deeper into our memory and it is exactly this tweeting that helps reinforce what I am hearing and seeing. Add to that the pictures of the slides I might take and the notes/live blogging I might do and you can see how information from a seminar session can be reinforced almost as it is happening.
This being the case, I’d suggest it is high time conference organisers – who are increasingly keen to have their event amplified and engaged with through social channels – enable delegates to use their mobile devices (tablets, laptops, phones) without fear of other delegates and speakers getting a monk on (that’s technical speak).
This would involve redesigning seating plans so that people who wish to use their mobiles can do so easily and without comeback.
This would involve using less traditional methods of delivering conference content – think particpation, unconference formats etc.
This would involve conference speakers encouraging the use of mobiles and encouraging questions fromthe backchannel and indeed engaging with it after the session.
This would be putting delgate needs at the heart of events.
This would involve recasting the idea of what is diruptive. Conferences have been and are being disrupted by technology and it is time they refelcted that fact (I know lots are).
I was at an event the other week and they’d set up a #hashtag for the event. I set up a list on tweetdeck on my mobile to catch what was being said and it was empty all day.
As for less traditional methods delivering content, I can’t ever see a time when a conference documentation is available on QR code only.
Nice post – this is an interesting phase we’re going through. Perhaps as the rise of the unconference continues the mixing in of technology to extend event reach will feel easier. I have mixed feelings about all the in event stuff – some people can do it and I struggle a bit. I love to listen and I’m just not sure how well I can listen whilst formulating tweets etc. I sometimes sit on the edge of stuff and just observe – that can make the tweeting thing work a little easier. Enjoyable post about a subject that is growing in importance/enjoyment/irritation
Thanks for the comment, Doug. When I wrote it I was mindful that this appraoch is not neccessarily to everyone’s taste and that we are in a period of change so we don’t know where this will all end up. I do think that we need to start adapting to how we listen and engage with content at events. This is a challenge for the design and format of events and for speaker expectations – a traditional captive audience is suddenly not as captive
I really like the points you’ve made here Martin. On a related point, I find that if I openly inform the speaker that I will be live tweeting, and those sitting around me, those ‘monking’ comments are swept under the carpet really quickly. People just need to have their expectations set, and as much as conference organisers need to allow delegates to interact, I do think there’s a responsibility of delegates to be clear about what they’re doing.
@ Sukh – Thanks for the comment, Sukh. Totally agree with your comments – expectations are everything at events. I think speakers have a big role to play here – they should be acting as host and explaining how their ‘party’ will work.
@ Andrew – thanks for the comments, Andrew. A good example that Twitter is not filtering into all events! It can feel quite intimidating if you are the only one doing it. That said, I’m sure event organisers would be happy with your efforts in sharing the event learning to a much wider audience.
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