Creative Agency Secrets

I have blogged before about good and bad conference experiences .  Well have a read of this summary of SXSW from Jeremiah.

He summarised four 'incidents' when the audience moved against what had been planned by the organisers as a groundswell of opinion in a new direction.  

What I found interesting was the concept of a "backchannel" a place online where participants can exchange comments in real time on what they are hearing and what they think.  This is a new move towards a fluid construct in a conference making an almost 3-D experience of evolving sessions and making a link from a traditional conference towards a BarCamp -type experience. 

The contrast that I experienced this weekend between two conferences couldn’t have been greater.

I actually spent my time at the Amateur Rowing Associations’s annual coaching conference in a third-rate hotel in Coventry. A traditional menu of speakers spread over 2 days with a row-show of vendors alongside plus an awards dinner to celebrate the Coach of the Year.

contrast where Lloyd and Will spent their time - BarCampUKGovWeb. Blimey…

[BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees.]

I decided to liveblog the ARA gig…. posted a couple of notices up on the rowing forums around the world and decided to do it via my client, Rowperfect, who offered their news page for the purpose. (it worked - 3x uplift in site visits over the weekend and today). At the conference the head of coach training came up to ask me specifically not to blog any questions put to the man in charge of the GB international team - saying “in case they are contentious”. Which I agreed…. Clearly they spent the week with their knickers in a twist.

Compare that to the fabulous free-form list of speakers and long list of speaker slots with encouragement for everyone to participate and contribute. plus every attendee and their blogs, a list of who was blogging, flickring, a Google email grouplist, Facebook page…..

I wish I’d been there. Says it all, really!

[afterthought: Should we run a BarcampforOnlineMedia?  Answers on a postcard….]