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Disruptive technologies have impacted the way we communicate and work for years.
The relationship among event organizers, presenters and audiences is undergoing a fundamental change. Attendee 2.0 has embraced social media platforms and frequently engages in the backchannel discussing the event before, during and after the meeting. Attendee 2.0 has no problem reviewing the conference or expo, whether negative or positive and posting online for all to read. Many believe that the interaction that occurs in this new communication method is a threat to traditional conferences and will bring conference presentations to the brink of failure and negative public drama. And indeed that has happened in some instances.
The naysayers, those that try to control Attendee 2.0 and those that want to maintain the status quo, are not new. History has heard their hostile voices before and moved beyond them. Their rancorous rants could not stop many societal shifts. Consider the following.
- People said the first writing wasn’t needed and would distract people from being able to farm, produce and work. It didn’t. It helped merchants keep track of their goods and led to the written alphabet and words.
- The royals and elite said that the printing press would lead to the demise of talking. It didn’t. It led to an increase in adult literacy and the democratization of knowledge. People still talk today.
- The general populace thought the telephone would only be used for social, non-business affairs. It wasn’t. It became one of the primary tools of business as we know it.
- Society cried foul with the advent of the talking box saying it would end productive, quality lives and active communication. It didn’t. Television is one of the key communication tools today.
- The public screamed that the Internet was the work of the devil and would lead to the demise of community, family and intelligence. It didn’t. It has become as common as electricity and water in most people’s homes leading to more access to information and communication than ever.
- People said the birth of mobile phones and texting would speed the downfall of society and lead to family destruction, and the lack of basic social and communication skills. It didn’t. It’s led to a more connected society and the ability to communicate in new ways.
- Today misanthropists bellow that social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter will lead to the destruction of society, less productivity and that people will no longer know how to have face-to-face conversations. It hasn’t and it won’t.
In each of these cases, when there has been a shift in common communication practices, several things happen:
- Our communication capability expands.
- We increase the distance and speed of our communication reach.
- The new way we interact affects the way we organize, shifts the balance of power and influences how we get things done.
Currently, conference and tradeshow organizers are feeling the impact of new media. Web 2.0 disruptive technologies, like the backchannel, have caused a new way for attendees to organize and shifted the balance of power from the organization to the attendee.
Despite the cynics and old school pessimists, the potential for positive outcomes from disruptive technologies like the backchannel are equally attention-worthy as we all deal with shifting presentation tectonic plates. There have been other disruptive technologies that have transformed presentations in a positive way including the introduction of blackboards and whiteboards, microphones, overhead projectors, image magnification, LCD projectors, video and presentation software like PowerPoint.
Today, one thing is sure, the backchannel is rewriting the job description of everyone involved with presentations, including the conference organizers, audiences and speakers.
- Conference organizers have to rethink how they bring audiences and presenters together both face-to-face and virtually.
- Audiences find themselves with the power in their hands and can bring down a presenter in a blink of an eye or help spread the speaker’s messages to the masses.
- Presenters’ jobs are changing the most because their view from the stage is rapidly changing.
As an event professional, you may think “This isn’t going to happen at my meetings. We have doctors, (dentists, executives, construction workers, plumbers…substitute your audience here) who will never use social media like Twitter to communicate with a backchannel.” Yet, the genie is not going back in the bottle and the situation can change as quickly as a click of the mouse.
Ready or not, you may have a backchannel waiting on you at your next conference, event, tradeshow or presentation. All of this raises some great fundamental questions to consider:
- What do audiences, including Attendee 2.0, expect from conferences, events, tradeshows and presentations today?
- What are the ground rules, if any, regarding backchannels and social media platforms at events?
- Who is accountable, the conference organizers, attendees, exhibitors or speakers?
- How can conference and tradeshow organizers seek and integrate real-time attendee feedback?
What do you think? What’s your experience? Share your thoughts.
Do you hear the thunder coming over the mountain?
You know, the roar of uncertainty and the rumble of disruptive innovation marching towards the association and event world.
What roar you ask? Or perhaps you say, “It’s just not true,” as you listen with deaf ears. Well, consider the following.
Umair Haque, Director of the Havas Media Lab, has an interesting post, The New (New) Mediaconomy, on Harvard Business Publishing recently.
He talks about the clash of traditional media and the Internet and says that asking, “Can media survive the www?” is the wrong question.
Haque compares today’s media to soda pop and wine. He says, “… there are two kinds of goods: wine and soda. Soda is low quality communication: thin information, low-quality information, and just plain disinformation. Wine is high-quality communication: analysis, debate, and knowledge.”
He proceeds to label most blogs as cola: pedestrian, prosaic, humdrum and uninspired. The problem, as he defines it, is that traditional media has done nothing but rehash the same cola, instead of providing higher-quality, thought-provoking, multi-layered fine wines. You see, people are willing to pay more for fine wines with multiple textures, a variety of notes, degrees of intensity and an assortment of tactile sensations from tannin to prickle. Most people aren’t willing to pay much to digest cheap traditional sugary colas.
What are your providing to your customers, members and event attendees: cheap cola or fine wine?
For me, this sounds a lot like today’s associations and conferences.
Many associations have focused on their annual conference, meetings and education as their largest source of non-dues revenue. Association leaders and conference organizers have spent long hours producing status quo programs, services and content to attract members and event attendees. These leaders display an entitlement syndrome that paying-dues members are also expected to pay to attend conference and to receive content. Traditional thinking is that the association is underwriting the costs to provide members with that content and therefore the member should at a minimum pay for those costs. (Event organizers, can you say, “Plus, plus, plus?” For non-event organizers, think of labor, service charges, local taxes and rent added to the delivery fees.)
These associations have relied on making the same money from meeting attendees that they’ve always made and have been happy with less than stellar attendee conference evaluations. A 70% conference smile rate from registrants is perfectly acceptable to them and a good reason to provide the same experience and quality at the next event. The last thing these leaders were interested in was creating authentic value for a member or attendee.
Year after year, these conference organizers have repeated the same conference format, securing the same industry speakers (who are typically now writing their own blogs and sharing content online and through their own webinars), with little thought given to upgrading the attendee’s experience, changing the traditional conference format or providing fresh, fine-wine type content. The content is often generic, bland and can be found on your local mobile phone, free by visiting the speakers’ website or blog.
Some speakers change their presentations regularly yet are they offering attendees an opportunity to analyze and debate that content with them, and with each other? Or is the content just bottle-fed to attendees, a drip at a time, as attendees sit passively in large ballrooms, in a zombie-like states thinking, “This tastes all too familiar like yesterday’s cheap cola? Fizzy, sacchariny sweet, cotton-candy fluff.” Some are even remembering the old Wendy’s commercial, “Where’s the beef?” Some turn to using social media to describe their distaste for the meal being offered.
However, some of those attendees and members are beginning to see associations and conference organizers as yesterday’s monopolists of the only content and experience providers available at that time. These organizations and conference providers are now facing disruptive innovation: online free content, quality unconferences with low registration fees and the ability for people to create their own online tribes (community).
Haque challenges readers to think about it from the opposing view as well. The reason organizations are having trouble making money is because they’ve spent so long producing ordinary, dull, insipid weak cola as well as an undefined cheap experience to go with it too.
Haque ends with this, “Media’s just the canary in the mine. Over the next decade, every industry will undergo a similar transition from locked down and closed to blown wide open.”
Think about it? When was the last time you returned from an annual conference, a three day event or 90-minute webinar where you were drunk with new knowledge, high on the adrenalin of healthy debate and discussion, and wanting to purchase more of that organization’s fine wine.
Association leaders, board members and conference organizers, are you producing bland sugary-sweet cola, or crafting and cultivating fine wines?
So, what say you? Let’s hear your thoughts, questions or comments.
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