FeedMagnet

Conferences are social

Most people go to conferences for a combination of learning and networking. The social nature of conferences can be clearly seen in the high usage of social media at most of them. People tweet like crazy at conferences. They post photos to Flickr and videos they shot on their flip cams to YouTube. They tweet about people they've met, sessions they are attending, and things they are learning. Twitter was even launched at a conference (SXSW) and initially gained in popularity because of its usefulness to conference attendees.

Conferences that can provide a way to integrate more closely with social media and help people join in to the social media conversations will provide a much more engaging experience for attendees.

The silent "back channel"

If you haven't experienced a large conference session with Twitter or a conference-provided chat room open, you've missed out on an interesting experience. With hundreds or people all watching the same presentation live, in the same room, social media provides a way for people to silently interact with others in the audience and discuss the content of the presentation.

At more tech-savvy conferences like SXSW, the conversation can be overwhelming - with new posts of reactions and commentary scrolling by faster than they can be read. This silent, real-time discussion is sometimes call the conference "back channel" - and it's a lot of fun to follow and participate in.

Even smaller events can have an active back-channel. The updates shown to the left are from a local gathering for social media professionals in Austin that had new updates every few seconds while a presentator was giving their talk.

Showcase and encourage social interactions

While the back channel is great for those that are participating, many others are completely oblivious to its existence. And while many conference attendees are interacting with others via social media, they may not be aware of the full scale of conversations going on related to the conference.

FeedMagnet can bring the backchannel and all the other social chatter related to a conference to the forefront. By showcasing social media interactions, you can help people to feel more a part of a community of attendees, increasing the sharing of ideas, and help the conference to feel more alive.

Live feeds on screens at the event

Most conference venues are loaded with flat-panel displays. They line the halls outside the session rooms. They're in the lobby of the hotel where the conference is being held. All of these screens can be used as a promotional platform for the conferences social chatter.

If you were at SXSW 2009, you may have seen some of those screens around the Austin Convention Center showing content that looked like this:

The screens were showing live updates of people tweeting about SXSW - and they got a lot of attention from conference attendees. Pepsi sponsored the screens, and you could hear people talking about the "Pepsi screens" throughout the event. The idea behind this is great - but it took custom development cost and time to build it - and Pepsi to underwrite it. FeedMagnet lets you do something very similar, without having to re-invent the wheel.

FeedMagnet does all the hard work for you

FeedMagnet pulls in content from Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, TwitPic, and a bunch of other sources. All you have to do is set up your feeds to grab all or most of the social content being posted related to the conference. This can include searches for hash tags, key words and phrases related to the event, the names and titles of guest speakers and presentations, and official conference feeds from the blog or Twitter account. Once pulled in, FeedMagnet can filter everything to make sure nothing troublesome or unrelated to the event is displayed.

Once pulled in, all you need is a computer connected to the Internet to be able to display the feed on a screen at your event. Running an auto-scrolling stream of new tweets, photos, and other content on screens in the conference halls is a great way for people to stay connected, get feedback from their peers, and even see which sessions going on right now might be interesting to join.

Make the in-between times an experience of their own

Another big opportunity for showcasing the FeedMagnet stream for your event is on the projector screens in the session rooms that are usually huge and prominently displayed right behind the speaker's platform. Most speakers will use slides during their presentations, but between sessions, while people are filing in and out of the room, nothing exciting is happening up there.

Instead of a static screen, you can scroll through live updates from people in the audience. As soon as someone punches out a Tweet on their iPhone or laptop, they can look up to see it on the big screen. This turns what is typically dead time at a conference into a fun experience and the content on the screens can even serve as a conversation starter to help folks get to know those sitting near them.

Put your website to good use during the event

Often a conference's website is only used before and after the event, to promote registration and provide materials and photos after the event. Why not show off the buzz of the event by putting it right on the home page while the event is going on? People at the event can follow along on their laptops or mobile devices (assuming they aren't near one of the big screens you have the feed on already) and folks who couldn't make it will see what they are missing.