10 Ways Social Media Will Transform Events in 2010 – Event Coup

 

Social media is changing the way that we communicate, collaborate and share. 

It used to be that you watched the news and that was it. Today, CNN.com allows you to watch the news, read the news, comment on the news and create the news. More than 400,000 “citizen” journalists are uploading videos called iReports to CNN’s website. Many of these are included in news stories.

It used to be that you requested duplicate copies of vacation photos for family and friends. Today, you take digital pictures and upload them to Facebook or Flickr. Your family and friends comment on those photos online. Then you create a photo-book for your grandma that is automatically printed and shipped directly to her.

Those are two small examples of the transformation that is taking place in the way that we communicate, collaborate and share.  There are many others. 

As attendees become more comfortable with these new two-way communication experiences, they are going to start demanding similar experiences from their face-to-face events.  

Here are 10 ways that I think social media will transform events in the future:

1. Attendees will not wait for microphones to ask questions. They will text or tweet those questions as they think of them.  Attendees will not wait until the end of a session to ask questions that came up in the first five minutes of the presentation. This does not mean that the speaker has to stop his presentation to answer the questions. Rather, there should be a mechanism to send questions to the speaker in real time. 
2. Attendees will answer questions for the speaker – while she is talking. If the questions for the speaker are streamed through the backchannel, these questions will be available to all attendees. E-learning research tells us that it is every likely that attendees will start answering each other’s questions, while the speaker (instructor) is still talking. 
3. Attendees will tell you that the speaker stinks, the ice sculpture is melting and the croissants are stale – in real time. With Social Media, the feedback can be instant and shared with everyone. You should be prepared to adapt your onsite operations to this new reality. 
4. Attendees will expect to connect with other delegates before, during and after the event. Time is precious. Rather than nametag surf through the crowd, attendees will setup meetings with like-minded delegates before the event. After the event they will want to keep the conversation going.  It will be important that events help them stay connected and translate their face-to-face contacts back into the digital world. 
5. Virtual attendees will start using social media to engage with your content and the onsite face-to-face attendees. Social Media and other digital technologies will help virtual attendees join the onsite discussion. They will do this from 3,000 miles away. It will be important to make the experience inclusive and collaborative for all attendees.
6. Attendees will want a voice in the discussion, learning and decision making process. The gap between the experts that are speaking on stage and the amateurs in the audience has never been smaller. Attendees are well educated, informed and have information at their fingertips. As this gap continues to shrink, attendees will expect to be part of the discussion, learning and decision making processes. No more speakers talking and attendees listening!
7. New events will emerge from online communities

   . It is easier than ever to create an online group, build an audience and start discussions. However, there is still a strong desire for members to meet face-to-face. In 2009, we saw many new events created around Twitter. In the coming years, we will see many more events emerge out of

   online communities. Equally important, events that do not embrace online communities will be hurt and maybe even close.

8. Attendees will register for your event if their contacts are attending. In the future, knowing if friends or business associates are attending an event will become part of the attendee’s decision process. Social media tools that check to see if my Linkedin connections, Twitter followers or Facebook friends are attending an event already exist. Over time, I think that we will see more of these tools implemented in events.
9. Events will become communities that last for weeks and months rather than a few short days. Event specific social networks, create a social hub where we can start conversations before events and continue them long after the event finished.  Creating a social space where attendees can network and discuss trends, hot topics, industry (or business) challenges and best practices will be extend the life of your event. 
10. Sharable content will be the way that your event is discovered by new attendees. Your webcasts, webinars, blog posts and whitepapers will need to be interesting, relevant and easy to share. Then, your participants and raving fans will start forwarding, tweeting and facebooking this content to their like minded friends. This will introduce new people to your event and the type of education and thought leadership that you provide. Also, this will make it easier to search and find your event.

Bottom Line

Social Media is changing the way that we share, communicate and collaborate. As attendees become more comfortable with these experiences, they will demand them from their face-to-face events. Event professionals need to be prepared for this transformation. It is coming, soon.

What other ways do you expect social media to transform events in 2010 (and beyond)? 

(note: This article is an excerpt from the FREE ebook Social Media in Events: 2010. Download it Free!)

 

via eventcoup.com