Did you hear the Buzz July 9, 2009? 
Did you hear about “The Living Conference?”
And no it wasn’t the hornet’s nest that I poked this time. It was the Buzz 2009 association leaders (not social media strategists) pollinating new social media fields. Yes, those assocaiation leaders even stepped right into our meeting and event flowerbox this time.
That’s right, 70 nonprofit association leaders had gathered in Washington, DC to hear some big name thought leaders like GasPedal’s Andy Sernovitz , Alltop’s Guy Kawasaki, Return Path‘s Stephanie Miller, National Geographic‘s Brendan Hart, California Tortilla‘s Stacey Kayne, Never Stop Marketing‘s Jeremy Epstein, Smartbrief‘s Rob Birgfeld and of course the Socialfish Supremes’ Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer.
These 70 association leaders were there to learn about bringing social media to their association nonprofit jobs. The bee waggle dance really begin to jive the hive with the FREE, (yes free, hint, hint to long time readers and conference planners), live streaming From Brainstorm to Firestorm: Creating an Environment for Viral Marketing Success Webinar panel of four moderated by Kawasaki was broadcast to more than 5,000 virtual attendees online. The Webinar was packed with bit-of-honey social media sauce that association leaders should unwrap, chew like the cud and let the sweetness and stickiness ooze into their social beings. Thanks to KRM who live-streamed the webinar and is hosting the recording, you can still view this FREE Webinar
Immediately following the live webinar, the Twitter Chat group #eventprofs held its Thursday chat to discuss the presentation. Did you get that? A group of professionals took the next hour following the Webinar to continue their learnings and take-aways online in Twitter. That’s the nectar of virtual associative learning at its best, often referred to the sweet spot.
What struck me as one of the most profound bits-of-honey from Buzz2009 actually occurred after the Webinar in the #eventprofs chat and onsite at conference location. (I was still following Buzz2009 tweets and got excited as if I’d found a new source of honey. My waggle dance got interesting and I’m glad no one was around with a flip camera.)
Suddenly both audiences, without knowledge or guidance, begin to talk about extending the association’s conference experience for the broader community at large, and not just for attendees who paid for the face-to-face event. That’s right, these social media and association thought leaders were coming to the conclusion that the face-to-face association conference needed to be captured and shared with the entire association community. Both groups were arriving at the conclusion that extending the content, the user experience, the buzz into the overall community is a must. And that it was the association’s responsibility to turn the conference into a “Living Conference for the entire association audience.”
There it was in sweet tweets, the same point I had been 
arguing for more that 10 days that the face-to-face had to morph into something that affected the community and industry at large, not just those who could afford to attend an event. It was and is the Association’s duty to engage those members that cannot attend as well as those that are attending the face-to-face event. The Association had to become the Queen Bee and teach others how to share their own waggle dances with all. Buzz2009 illustrated perfectly how to take the face-to-face experience and engage 5,000 more people with its content live during the event, FREE. Wow, 70 to 5,070!
Yes, I had more take-aways than this but this one has to be shared quickly.
So tell me, who in the association, conference and event planning world doesn’t want an ROI like that? How would you engage your association or industry community with the face-to-face conference? How can you extend the experience to the entire associaiton community? And how can you do it without placing a high fee on your membership that can’t afford to attend?
I’m kicking myself for missing the Buzz09 event, but the follow-up #eventprofs chat was fantastic. You make great points here, Jeff. It feels like people have been trying to “extend the life” of meetings for some time, and I wonder if we’re going about it all wrong.
Instead of trying to stretch out a meeting into our regular lives, should we not design a process of interaction within a community first? That interaction MUST be “virtual” for most of the year (that’s why we can only get together for an “annual” meeting). So let’s design a virtual process of collaboration, of “network learning” as you put it, and then design an occasional face-to-face experience to support/enhance/accelerate that ongoing process of virtual peer exchange.
The general mindset is still that the face-to-face meeting is the ONLY time we can learn from one another, but SM tools are finally getting to the point where we can learn from each other constantly. Instead of asking how to extend the life of a physical conference, I’d want to know what it looks like to hold a face-to-face meeting that supports a SM community!
Great Post. Right on the money!
I attended the Buzz2009 webinar and moderated the #eventprofs chat, yesterday. I made these 4 observations for associations and event organizers:
1. Each event and association has a “secret sauce” or “magic” to it. By broadcasting the webinar for “free” you are bottling the magic of the event and giving everyone a taste of what must be happening onsite. Each time I see one of these webinars, it makes me want to attend the event in person.
2. By making the content easy to share you can create a powerful “word of mouth” campaign that delivers your secret sauce to thousands of “like-minded” people. I can’t imagine a simpler way to introduce thousands of new people to your event and organization than by having their friends share the “secret sauce” of your event. TED does this exceptionally well with its delayed release of presentations. Buzz2009 gave us a “live” taste. IMO, this would be especially powerful for associations that want to grow future membership OR grow attendance at an event.
3. Twitter and the backchannel allowed 5000 people to expand upon the ideas that were being presented on stage. These comments and thought streams were presented to the audience and on the screens of the virtual attendees. Plus, these comments are archived. Some people will read through these transcripts (or segments of them) to extract additional insights. It’s a powerful way to capture the thoughts of the audience.
4. Finally, the post-event chat format allowed us to continue to expand upon what we saw and learned. There were many different points of view that helped all of us capture additional take-aways from the presentation. Again, these ideas are archived as well. This small group discussion format could also work for face-to-face events.
Jeff, IMO, with today’s communication tools our reach and range for connecting with people is unbounded. There is no reason that our events should be constrained to the people onsite. We should be able to create an opportunity for all members to participate and engage in a global dialogue. The tools are there and #Buzz2009 has provided a blueprint for extending the onsite experience that other groups can follow.
Sam
twitter: @samueljsmith
@Jay Smethurst
I concur. As a blog post I recently read said it’s about ABL: Always Be Learning. Learning can occur in so many ways from formal instruction to social, informal networked learning.
@Samueljsmith Fanstastic take-aways from the Buzz2009 Webinar. I like your point in number 2: By making the content easy to share you can create a powerful “word of mouth” campaign that delivers your secret sauce to thousands of “like-minded” people.
I just attended #buzz2009 http://www.buzz2009.com and tweeting during the panel discussions and speakers presentations was a cool experience. I paid MORE attention than just sitting there.
Seeing the stream of consciousness of the group (via Hashtag blah blah “#conference20″.) was rather insightful. Rather, a SESSION BLOGGER should summarize live or after the session to the conference blog.
The moral of the story is that engagement before, during and after the conference gives legs to the learning and education, and extends the life of the conference. Call it a “living conference” or Conference 2.0.
*What if you could meet your fellow attendees before the conference, and engage the speaker?
*What if you when you showed up you were familiar with the people attending the same sessions as you?
*What if you could easily set appointments with exhibitors or sponsors?
*As a conference organizer, see a level of conference engagement before during and after the conference never seen before?
That’s Conference 2.0! The next step in conferences.
This results are a better experience for the attendee, speaker, exhibitors and conference organizers!
Tony Veroeven
@tony_omnpress
Thanks for this post, and what thoughtful comments! Jeff, when you mentioned to me last week that we were “applying social media concepts to our event” I had a moment of clarity. Maddie and I are always talking about how the concepts of social media aren’t just changing the media space, and we associations need to understand and apply the concepts to our entire culture.
In this case, our goals for the event meant reaching as many people as we possibly could, giving them lots of ways to talk about Buzz2009, and making the people in the room feel like they were an integral part of something much larger. Reading your post, I feel like we succeeded…not because we as organizers made it work, but because we tapped into the association community who made it work. Thanks for being a part of that!
@Tony_Omnpress
Excellent point and some great advice for meeting and event planners to consider. Thanks for sharing those tips for the *Living Conference* or *Conference 2.0.*
@LindyDreyer
Yes, you SociaFish practice what you preach! Your event goals of reaching as many people as possible giving people lots of ways to talk about Buzz2009 are some great examples that other conference organizers should consider. What a great case study your conference will be once all the ripples are felt, recognized and considered.