Hey Conference Attendee: Your Hash Tag Is Showing

There are many people against it, as they find it disrespectful to the speaker, distracting to others in the audience and just plain wrong that an audience member would do anything but listen attentively during a presentation (other than taking notes, which still seems acceptable if done with a pen and paper.) I, however, see value in twittering a conference speaker. 

• You get to follow an event even if you’re not there.  
  Budget cuts kept you from this conference or IABC this year? Not cool enough to swing a TED invite? Search the hash tags for these conferences read what the people who were there were hearing in real time.  (Respectively, #commtell09, #IABC09, #TED)
• It’s an instant feedback tool for presenters.
  Moments after she finished her presentation, Stacy Wilson twittered “… tell me how I can improve my preso, what is missing, or what I should remove. Thanks for feedback!” Immediacy like that can result in actionable feedback. Even if you’re not that direct, reviewing what resonated with listeners is a valuable tool. 
• It’s a connection point at a conference.
  Even at small conferences it can be tough to meet everyone. Seeking out fellow twitterers can give you a starting point. I noticed that some attendees I hadn’t met yet started to follow me on Twitter during the conference, so it was natural for us to seek each other out. In other instances, you get a chance to meet live people you’ve only followed in the Twitter world. 
• It’s an opportunity to spread a good idea.
  I love to give a shout out to services, businesses and ideas that I think are worthwhile and deserve to be known. If I’m clicking with what a speaker is saying, I’m naturally inclined to do a little word of mouth marketing on their behalf. 
• It helps maintain focus as an audience member.
  Yes, this seems counterintuitive but let’s be honest. We all multitask and, for better or worse, it is the default state for some of us. I found that composing a tweet now and then gave the part of my brain that was screaming for action something to do while I was listening and it actually improved my focus on the presentation. Rather like taking notes. Did I miss some words while I was typing? Yes. Would I have missed some words if I weren’t typing? Yes. This is not a commentary on the speakers and their abilities, it’s just human nature. 

I asked Clara Shih, author of The Facebook Era and presenter at the conference, what she thought about audiences twittering her presentation. She shrugged, almost as if I had asked her what she thought about audiences breathing during her presentation. She told me that when she can, she often projects a live feed of tweets while she talks.