Does Twitter Add Anything To Conferences?
Robin Blandford speaking at TEDx conference
I was at a conference tonight and due to a combination of my phone being nearly dead and the fact that I’m trying to cut down on my Twitter usage (long story) it was the first conference that I have been to in a while where I actually fully concentrated on the speakers. I have a new habit at conferences (which nearly everybody has) of sitting there with my laptop on my knees answering emails and updating Twitter with interesting things I hear and even talking with other people at the conference on Twitter. Something changed tonight when I was watching the talks and giving them my 100% dedicated attention… I enjoyed it and left feeling inspired and uplifted (mostly thanks to Robin Blandford).
I don’t think it was the content of the actual conference but more the way in which I consumed it without distraction and really listened to the message. I like to think that I can multitask as well as the next person but how well can you listen to somebody and watch their body language when you have your head stuck in a computer screen or phone? Remember that most of what we remember is influenced by people’s gestures and facial expressions and people pay ticket prices to conferences to essentially watch a performance by the speaker rather than to learn new information as the facts that are shared are not always new or remarkable.
There is no doubt that Twitter can enhance the conference experience and it does add value especially to people who could not be there in person but I just wonder sometimes is it noise for the sake of noise? Do we really need to get a blow by blow commentary of everything that happens? I’ve seen so many conferences were it becomes a bunch of inane babble streaming past on Twitter and I very often have to filter it out of my stream as I try to find good content.
I know Twitter at conferences adds some value and I can totally get how it adds to the experience but I found out by accident tonight that you actually get a lot more value out of listening to what the person who has taken their time to prepare a meaningful presentation is trying to say. I am sure people will happily go on tweeting in greater numbers from conferences but I just think that I will go back to the old way that has worked for millions of years and sit there as part of a group and listen to the wisdom that people with more knowledge on a subject than me are sharing. Sometimes you just don’t need tools to enhance an experience and sometimes they take away from the reason why you showed up in the first place.
