Ban Twitter: How To Stop Free Speech At Conferences – Engage365

When should Twitter be banned at conferences?  That’s like asking when does your right to free speech stop.  There seems to be some controversy over whether Twitter use is appropriate at live events and conferences with strong stances from both sides of the camp.  Some see Twitter as a tool and others as a distraction.

via engage365.org

You cannot "ban" Twitter at conferences. You can simply not have an "official" twitter hashtag or other. You have now lost the opportunity to connect with attendees and address their negative comments (which you should be listening too).

By being an ostrich and burying your head in the sand, the lion is not going away, you will just not know he is there until he bites you.

If you are afraid of negative comments, you should look first at your event and the speakers.

The attendee is the most important person in the room, listen to them.

Comments

[KareAnderson]

Oh so true and well-stated: meeting organizers cannot ban Twitter (or texting,etc.) yet they can reach out to their attendees to ask if they want to crowdsource or otherwise seek feedback on suggested etiquette in the use of these "live" tools so there is at least a semblance of a collective agreement on what the "crowd" feels best serves them - and others who cannot be in attendance yet want to participate.

These are exciting, changing times in a complex, connected world so we might as well capture every opportunity in the events/meetings world to ask would-be attendees what they most want on meeting formats, topics, speakers, opportunities to collaborate, cross-consult and otherwise network and continue the threads of conversations that got started at the meeting.

As a speaker and co-creator of two annual gatherings I have been gratified to see innovations in some meetings finally happening - not an easy or smooth process.

I also think that attendees would be well-served if planners took and Exposures Audit of their program and site and then, like a movie director, storyboarded the moment-by-moment, multisensory experiences that attendees (and others) might have at the event