Comments on: Social Networking Sites for Conferences

By: Kevin Dykes

Kevin Dykes — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:47:05 +0000

I do think that event-specific networks can be extremely beneficial for making new connections at conferences, tradeshows, etc. But, I want more than just a dashboard or wiki which makes me click a thousand links to people’s sites/blogs to learn who they are. I find this completely unusable.

Let me say that I think that ANY new social network or community app should be moving toward a standard such as OpenID, OpenSocial, Facebook Connect, etc. I support the portable profile idea – which would allow users to jump in and engage in ad-hoc communities as long as it is relevant, without rebuilding a brand new profile again.

I’m a proponent (no relationship, just like the service) of EventVue.com. It sucks in as much profile info as possible from the event registration service and other SN’s like Facebook and Twitter. Then, it creates a title & company tag cloud to help you find potential network matches. It also aggregates blog posts and tweets in a section called Chatter. It allows me as a user to get an idea of not only who is attending, but a chance to get to know them a bit before the event. And, in my opinion, that is what Social Media is all about – fostering real life connections through online engagement.

By: Jordan Schwartz

Jordan Schwartz — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:47:37 +0000

I agree we, the digerati, are close to reaching social network overload. For the vast majority of conference attendees (non-technology conferences), though, they’re WAAAY behind us, and hoping to use a network that they all already use is going to be tough. How many non-techies are really on Twitter? Facebook is probably your best bet, but do you really want your conference attendees seeing the Wall posts and pictures that foolish friends have posted?

Instead, I think the idea of having a closed social network, where you know that everybody who is on it is someone you will actually have an opportunity to meet in person, is exactly what conferences need. You tailor your persona for that audience, and you scope your interactions to only those people who are relevant. AND, everybody, regardless whether they use Orkut or Facebook or LinkedIn, can play.

That’s what we’ve tried to build at Pathable (www.pathable.com), a social network just for conferences and events. To address the “overload” issue, we allow attendees to add a link to their Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. persona, but also to create one that’s relevant to event itself.

By: Dave Peck

Dave Peck — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:25:09 +0000

Im going to agree with the majority, conferences need to use existing networks and not try to recreate the wheel. Oh and yes, wikis are the way t to share info. Its not fancy or glittery but it gets the job done.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:40:25 +0000

Scott,

Thanks! I’ve seen wikis used successfully as a way for attendees to share links to their blogs, twitter, friendfeed, email, and other ways to keep up with each other. We’ve used them for some BarCamps and similar conferences.

A wiki might not be the right technology for less technical audiences, but the idea is solid. A way for users to update information relevant for them and share with the rest of the conference attendees.

By: Scott Dodds

Scott Dodds — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:03:22 +0000

I haven’t seen a social network on a specific event that was successful, but I’d be willing to change my mind if anyone has some examples to share. But I think that for a network to gain traction the focus needs to be people-based as opposed to event-based. Reaching your members where they already live makes more sense.

Having contact directory is an especially good idea, which I think underscores the need to use different social media tools for different purposes. For example, I remember at the Online Community Unconference this year there was a wiki (http://tinyurl.com/3t934l) that attendees could update with their profile links. Overall that worked very well, but it was also an audience comfortable with using those tools.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:18:59 +0000

Alli,

I’m curious if you think that people who aren’t already all over social media would join and participate in a social network specifically for an event. I tend to think that they wouldn’t, but I’d be curious to learn if people who don’t already use social networks would have a different behavior.

By: Alli Gerkman

Alli Gerkman — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:29:06 +0000

Dawn–great topic. I agree to some extent. We’re getting dangerously close to network overload (I think I might be there already). But I do think a network that essentially acts as a dashboard for the existing networks (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc.) can be useful, especially with a group that is not already all over social media. It acts as a primer. And it might bring them into the fray–even if only for the duration of the conference.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:10:17 +0000

pfctdayelise, great points. organizers should always be publishing the tag to use well before the event and during the event to make it easier for the rest of us to find relevant content, information, and connect with others.

Craig, when they are used, they definitely seem to have a defined life time. I would still rather see a group created on an existing, popular social network (Facebook, for example) where I could interact with existing contacts leading up to an event while also connecting with new people.

Josh, excellent points (as always!) I especially like the reference to social gravity and the idea of not wanted to always start over.

Anna, I actually think it might make sense for you Not a new social network, but a new way for people to engage within your existing NTEN community for your annual event. If you use the existing community somehow (new group, etc.) and make sure you integrate the event portion with the rest of your community, you will be extending something that people already use. I would love to have coffee with you to chat about this (as chair of Legion of Tech, I’d also love to better understand NTEN anyway).

Tim, True. Keeping up with people after an event via Twitter and Facebook has worked really well for me in the past.

By: Tim Jahn

Tim Jahn — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:38:38 +0000

I think it’s easier to connect with people you met afterward with Twitter, email, Facebook, etc. Keeping up with another social network that won’t get much activity post-event has little value.

By: Anna Richter

Anna Richter — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:26:33 +0000

Glad I caught your tweet about this post. It’s an interesting topic to put more thought into as we are looking into creating a social network around our annual conference – Nonprofit Technology Conference. We’ve been looking for a better way to facilitate impromptu social activities around the conference, which is one of the major benefits of our (and perhaps any) conference – personal connections made. We have been excited about the possibilities there. I totally see your point about another social network but recognizing that it will be a limited network for a given time period, do you think it could be beneficial? Less of a pain if we can integrate it with our CRM so that folks will be able to use a login they already have created with us, as well. The hope would be that we would still be linking to Flickr, using Twitter, FriendFeed (for attendees who do this) but still allowing for one central place for folks to connect and message other people that have identified themselves with similar interests, etc.

Of course, we want folks to continue to connect post-conference and recognize that this would go to wherever they are already using.

Curious to know what other opinions are as I have not had the experience of using a social network around a conference.