I just replied to a thread on an NTEN listserve where a couple of people were not really understanding the benefits of using Twitter during a conference or event. They thought attendees were not paying attention, for example, and that attendees “were obviously elsewhere”. Now, technically, this can be true of some individuals – but if your speaker is not holding the attention of the audience then clearly the problem is not just about Twitter.

I thought I’d post my response here with three really good links about backchannel Twitter use. I’ve posted these before but it’s a good reason to do it again!

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Hi all,

I do think sometimes it’s a very good idea to be “laptops down” during a presentation. But I’d like to offer an alternative viewpoint. In my experience, event attendees are MORE engaged when they are using Twitter. While they may not be staring at the speaker or the powerpoint slides, they are using Twitter to actively take notes on what they are hearing, pull out important quotes or points, and also responding to those points in agreement or pushing back on them – and engaging with others in the audience while they do so. Many people on Twitter are also actively using an official or unofficial event (or session) hashtag which not only enables them to see what everyone else is tweeting at the same time, but allows them to find the entire thread of discussion after the fact. Others are actively tweeting a presentation for the benefit of friends and colleagues who may not have been able to attend the conference – I have seen this (and done this) A LOT recently because of travel budget cuts.

Here are some really thoughtful posts which may be of interest to fully explain how Tweeting during an event can be beneficial for both audience, remote audience and speaker.

How to Present While People are Twittering (Olivia Mitchell for Pistachio)

Educational Uses of BackChannels for Conferences, Museums, and Informal Learning Spaces (Nina Simon)

10 Reasons Why you Should use a Backchannel at Your Conference (Jeff Hurt)

Funnily enough, I just participated on a panel on Tuesday at a conference in Chicago where there was no wifi at all – and it honestly felt a little strange not to be aware of a virtual swirl of conversation in the room. The room was huge and quite dark and our stage very bright, and although the session went great and we had fantastic questions from the audience, up until that point I had no idea if they were engaged or not. It was really quiet, no tapping of laptops, and I – seriously! – worried that people were not into it.

Ah, how times are changing!