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

• jeremiah owyang: how to moderate a panel
• david spark: how to ‘web 2.0′-enable your event
• david spark: how to deliver the most ‘talked-about’ session
• barcamp how-to-organize
• other references? (please add in comments)