The Good and Bad of Conference 2.0

I have good news! Using social media tools like Twitter conference participants can provide real-time feedback to speakers and panelists about the relevance and interest of their presentation.

I have bad news! Using social media tools like Twitter conference participants can provide real-time feedback to speakers and panelists about the relevance and interest of their presentation.

Business Week columnist Sarah Lacy got splattered with online tomatoes at the annual South by Southwest Interactive festival when her interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg failed to meet the expectations of the audience. They wanted to hear from Zuckerberg on issues such as trust, privacy and accessibility to software developers. Lacy focused her questions on his age and the company’s $15B valuation from Microsoft.

Rather than merely sit in torment, attendees fired up their cell phones and posted thoughts using Twitter. It led to an uncomfortable presentation and resulted in Facebook scheduling a follow-on session for attendees with Zuckerberg, minus Lacy.

The good news: this type of interaction, dialogue and engagement with an audience is at the very core of effective public relations. That’s how you build credibility and, ultimately, relationships with those who can influence the success of your business.

The bad news: public relations professionals are now challenged with monitoring audience feedback in near real-time and responding in rapid fashion.

At Strategic Communications Group (Strategic), we do a tremendous amount of prep work helping our clients prepare for conference speaking and panel presentations. What happens if we learn mid-stream a client presentation is falling flat?


Welcome to Conference 2.0
Fortune
http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/11/technology/fost_conference.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008031115