Tweeting at conferences has become so commonplace that if you’re a presenter and you don’t see folks in the audience with their heads buried into Smartphones, tablets, or latptops, then it’s probably a bad sign. They share tweetable tidbits from speakers, thoughts and observations about the topic at hand, and even have conversations with other Twitter users. So what’s a conference to do when the Twitter hastag isn’t behaving and participants can’t follow in real-time?
On the first official day of conference activity at the National Arts Marketing Project conference (#NAMPC), the gods of technology were conspiring against conference attendees in the form of overloaded wireless connections and Twitter feeds that wouldn’t display tagged results in real-time. But that didn’t stop folks and their perserverence paid off as both issues improved throughout the day. As of Sunday evening, here are some of the more memorable tweets (check back later as I’ll update the list throughout the day):
- @tomoconnor: I want to RT this every day. @ArtsMarketingPR: Companies lose good people because they won’t fire the bad one. Here, Here!
- @Pkj1017: We should have had an #awesome drinking game during this mornings #NAMPC keynote!
- @dougphi: What’s up with the hotel bar closing at 12? Didn’t they know we were coming?
- @H_Sarah: Lots of sound bleed from next room – not good for people with ADD tendencies.
- @Nonprofit_Mo: wondering if part of our marketing problem is we take ourselves too seriously.
- @obalilassoc: Killer offer will not change the audience experience. Must address the experience to retain customers.
- @dekingraham: Flash for mobile is dead. Get it off your website now.
- @ArtsMarketingPR: I ask for php in the rfp. They gave me asp and I said “WTF!”
- @amelianorthrup: I love @adaptistrations’s smooth radio announcer voice (granted, I’m personally biased; but I think this is one of the best tweets from the entire conference)
- @jrsawyers: how do I convince my website to slit it’s writs? #uglywebsites
Overhead…
- “I loved Scott Stratten’s book so much I’d make out with him.”
- “The one thing about following the conference on Twitter is you don’t get the Bourbon.”
- “How dare you forget the Cracker Jack.”
Such A Refreshing Conference
Amusing tweets and eavesdropping aside, what’s really worth noting about the NAMPC conference is the complete lack of doom and gloom that has accompanied other service org conferences this past year. As this was my first conference with this group I wasn’t entirely certain what to expect and although it wasn’t something that was clearly thought out, there were assumptions on my part that it was going to be one segment after another of Chicken Little Think Tank discussion that has been the hallmark elsewhere.
I’m happy to report that I couldn’t’ have been more off target; instead of doom and gloom, there was quite a bit of optimism and enthusiasm. It was a profoundly refreshing experience and I’m grateful to my session host, Ceci Dadisman for inviting me to take part in the conference along with everyone from Americans for the Arts for putting together such a great event.
Today I’ll be conducting One-To-One coaching for a quartet of attendees on website related issues along with hosting a Dine-Around later that evening on the same topic. I’ll post some additional thoughts on all of that as well as the wonderfully successful Your Website Is Ugly! conference session. In the meantime, check out the rather prolific twitter thread from the session at #uglywebsites.
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