Twitterfall as a Conference Tool
It’s now well-established that digital back channels in conferences make for some of the most interesting idea sharing forums, and they act as an in-session mechanism for business networking. Rather than being forced to introduce yourself to complete strangers while also juggling a plate of buffet food over lunch, and trying to reach into your pocket for your business cards, while determining whether the person you’re speaking to is actually going to be a useful contact; digital idea sharing in conversation backchannels allows you to engage with the content of a conference, share ideas with equal voice and make connections that have longevity beyond the framework of the event. And as backchannels tend to happen in real time (’live’), they can be a useful means for presenters to stay on track with their audiences, and to respond to queries as they arise, without disrupting the natural flow of a session. Increasingly, conference organizers are permitting these backchannels to be screened to all the participants in a conference on a separate screen. So even those who choose not to engage with the backchannel can at least have the opportunity of following up on ideas in a manner not previously possible, particularly if hyperlinks are included to documentation or examples that illustrate the content of a conference session.
Until recently however, the manner in which a twitter backchannel could be displayed posed a problem for conference crews. Even if a conference had had the foresight to determine which hashtag(#) to use on tweets about an event, there was always a need to refresh pages on search.twitter.com as new posts arose. It’s clumsy and doesn’t give a sense of issues arising as they are posted by participants. And in an event where someone on stage actually poses a question to an audience, the delay in aggregating responses through the twitter channel makes the feasibilty of using search.twitter.com on screen rather limited.
But then along came Twitterfall. Based on a Javascript interface, Twitterfall can be set to follow specific keywords or hashtags and updates live every few seconds, with new posts auto-updating as they are posted. As an interactive feed, it’s superb for conference organizers, because management of the channel is essentially a “set and forget” process. The color scheme of the interface can be set appropriately, given the lighting at the venue, and the side-panels which allow customization of the manner in which posts appear can be hidden from view, so that only the twitter content is available.
I know many people use Twitterfall to follow ‘hot trends’ on twitter, but it is really in mass viewing at conferences where Twitterfall comes into its own. Where TweetDeck may be more valuable at tracking a range of content streams, Twitterfall is particularly good at presenting a single stream of ideas, and delivering a sense of the event ‘as it happens’.
If conference organizers want to get maximum value out of digital backchannels it’s always important to consider the interaction design of the channel. And at conferences, you want to enable idea sharing, focus on the content of the event, and maximize interaction between what’s happening on stage and what questions attendees may have. Of the tools currently available for displaying live twitter feeds, Twitterfall is the most efficient tool out there.
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@joannejacobs: This Guest Post was provided by Joanne Jacobs. |
2 comments March 26th, 2009
