Conference 2.0 dinner & discussion @ OATV, SF

Posted on April 7, 2008 by Dave McClure

what are the goals?

  • produce good content, be knowledgeable, don’t suck
  • meet audience expectations, handle dissatisfaction
  • gather feedback pre-event
  • manage content during event
  • learn / adjust post-event

who is the audience/customers?

  • conference organizers
  • speakers/moderators/panelists
  • audience (paid vs free?)
  • press/bloggers
  • blogosphere / tweet-o-sphere / online chat / backchannel
  • (people who weren’t there… but still participate ;)

what is the problem / issue to address?

  • conf speakers / content don’t meet expectations of audience
  • sometimes speakers / organizers don’t know / don’t survey what audience wants to hear
  • audience has an opinion, sometimes vocalizes it loudly (lately, via Twitter / Chat / Blogs)
  • online tools may magnify negative opinion — does this create “witchburning” effect?
  • however, online tools can also be part of better feedback loop / problem solving
  • problem ISN’T just the Lacy-Zuck intvw — what issues are more common/regular?

open discussion

  • were expectations set before (Lacy-Zuck SXSW intvw)?
  • sometimes you have to run the show & can’t always pay attention to the backchannel
  • how are we soliciting feedback on conf content / sessions BEFORE the event?
  • come up with ideas / process / goals that are “tool-agnostic” (but don’t tools matter?)
  • prefer feedback from non-anonymous participants (”authentified”)
  • summarize ideas (before / during / after) for participants (organizer, speaker, attendee)

ideas / solutions? (BEFORE, DURING, AFTER)

  • pre-event: check speaker bkgrd — google search? sample content published / available? video?
  • pre-event: solicit questions via blog/survey/twitter — how to filter? (use Reddit to vote up/down)
  • pre-event: use video to help filter submissions
  • pre-event: collect attendee comments (publish), survey, or email direct
  • pre-event/during: collect / publish audience demographics for speakers/moderator
  • pre-event: encourage the audience to “proactively participate” (but then you have to deal with it!)
  • during: wifi isn’t always dependable — alternate soltns? SMS / mobile? local server for surveys?
  • during: “behind-the curtain” person to help assess audience reaction / filter questions
  • during: “publish” the back-channel? make IRC / twitter-feed public / visible?
  • during: can we handle/scale extra person to help speaker/moderator?
  • during: ask audience real-time: “who are you?” / “what do you want to hear?” / “how’s it going?”
  • post-event: get *immediate* post-event feedback (comments? surveys?) to assess
  • post-event: evaluate speakers/content — publish or not?

references

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2 Responses to “Conference 2.0 dinner & discussion @ OATV, SF”

  1. Digerati discuss future of tech conferences « IT Spot, on April 7th, 2008 at 4:30 am Said:

    [...] according to a blog post by Web 2.0 Expo co-chair Dave McClure, these topics were very much on his mind and the minds of several others at a dinner held Sunday [...]

  2. Tony Stubblebine, on April 7th, 2008 at 5:48 am Said:

    Nice post. I’d add that conferences should be looking very hard at the value they can add outside of the main conference track. These days any topic of broad interest that’s planned months in advance is going to have loads of information published online.

    The two ways that I’ve seen conferences add value outside of the main track are to add unconference sections that allow for nichier or more current information that isn’t well documented or put a focus on professional networking.

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