I have been invited to speak at the Houston Association of REALTORS Digital Media Summer camp as the opening speaker. The event will bring some of the big social media thought leaders including Paul Chaney, Max Pigman, Jeff Turner, Todd Carpenter, Ines Hedgedus Garcia, and Ginger Wilcox. Also special mention to the local social media gurus Amy Smythe Harris, Chris Schilling, Marylin Maxwell, and CRT’s (National Association of REALTORS Center for REALTOR Technology) 2009 Technology Visionary of the Year Taqi Rizvi.
I’m using a new tool called Wiffiti to help share the discussion inside and outside the event. Check out the activity below to listen to the conversation below.
Anytime someone posts to Twitter and includes the hashtags predetermined by the meeting planner a note will appear in the screen above. Hashtags used for this event include:
- #HARdigital
- #HARtweet
- #HAR
Also, there is the ability to upload pictures to Flickr and insert the tag too.
Some people won’t use Twitter or Flickr and that is OK too. You can Text Message @wif18548 + your message to 87884 and it will appear on the screen as a mobile user for this particular event. Other @_____ codes will be automatically assigned to other events when you create new screens like seen above.
So what does this mean?
User generated content
There is often someone in the audience who knows something that the speaker does not (which is perfectly OK, I love hearing new ideas from audience members). This attendee can now post their resource, online tool, or blog post that is relevant to the topic, thus increasing the exchange of information during the session.
Shared meaning with others
Each person will develop their own meaning from an educational meeting which may be specific to their own business model. If they share that message during an interactive Wiffiti session then chances are others will benefit.
Engaging learners
In my opinion, speakers and organizations that put limitations on cell phones are only hurting their audience from exchanging in the two way learning process. There may be moments when someone is checking Facebook, their bank account, or responding to family and their is their own fault to sit there and waste their own time. However proactive learners can use the technology provided by their cell phones to further engage in the material. However if the speaker engages, enlightens, and entertains then the kinesthetic learners will use Wiffiti their benefit.
It is still important that audience members remember to keep their cell phones on ‘silent’ during a presentation.
Speaker facilitation
This is the ultimate test for a presenter to openly look up at message board to hear what everyone is saying about the topic and information shared among the audience. If people are critical of the speaker then everyone will know it. If you go to the image above with all the tweets look at the bottom right hand side of the message for the box. Click on the box and the window will be blown up to full screen. This is very similar to how YouTube videos work within blog posts. Now the speaker can yield questions from the audience and then direct them to the appropriate resource instead of asking live, “Does anyone have any questions?”
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