The Power of Twitter in Conferences

Twitter really shines in conferences. Let me explain. Conferences, even with the advent of wonderful technology, are about the sharing of ideas. Some of the best idea sharing takes place between speakers and presentations. That’s right, the hallways and rooms between sessions are just as important as the speakers because it opens up the conference for attendees to talk to other attendees.

Twitter makes conferences that much better.

Twitter, combined with hashtags, provides a universal mechanism for like minds to connect more efficiently at events. At recent conferences I’ve attended, people in the audience constantly tweeted, providing their opinion and analysis of the presentation on the fly. With the hash tag of the event, I’m able to follow the conference-specific tweets and reach out to like-minded people in the same room. This then leads to quality conversations with people I might not have met otherwise.

There’s also better feedback via Twitter to the people that put on the conference. The feedback is faster, the information is more accessible, and the messages can be saved for future reference. As a conference organizer, it’s better to know what’s working and not working while it is happening rather than after the event has already finished.

Twitter makes conferences better and is a great communication mechanism for events.

What else? What are your thoughts on Twitter at conferences?