Reinventing PD: A Suggestion for Conference Planners

Here's a suggestion for all you conference program planners out there: Use a Twitter backchannel for dialogue, questions, and suggestions from your audience. Doing so will keep presenters sharp, the audience engaged, and attendance growing. Otherwise, expect attrition to rise as participants raise their expectations for interactive professional development.

Take a step back and ask yourself: How many conference sessions have you sat through in agony of how poorly prepared a speaker was, that the material was weak on substance, or that a panel never left any time for genuine discussion about a topic of interest?

Today, your time is more valuable than ever, and conference presenters need to adapt to the demands of their audience. Until recently, there hasn’t been an easy way for a group of strangers to interact, discuss, share, or ask the speaker a question without interrupting their presentation.

Twitter changes this: now there’s a way to relate to your audience’s interest and questions in real-time during your training session, presentation, workshop, or panel discussion.

Those that do this will see their conference succeed. Want an example? Tune into Twitter on April 6, 2009 at 5pm PDT and follow the hashtag #educhat.