March 14, 2007 10 Comments

How it Works Around Here

Chris Penn Your audience can do more than your staff. Participation will always beat closed systems. When quality isn’t 100% vital, crowds can be your best friend.

At lunch Monday, we talked about conference coverage. We discussed how one might go about capturing the feel of an event, such that people viewing the footage after the fact would feel the buzz, would see what went on, and would get a sense of the value of coming to the event. Thing is, there are only a few dedicated TV crew on staff, and the event is pretty big. What to do?

Your Audience Has Cameras

Encourage photos, videoblogging, podcasting, liveblogging and other “in media res” experience catchers to bring the moments out to the world at large. How do you control what’s said about your event? You don’t. Control of the message went away around 1994. Sorry. The more people out there covering the event, the more coverage. Thus, trust the crowd.

Your Tags are Your Website

Don’t keep all the content on your site. You can’t anyway. Besides, that means people are only coming back to your site, and that constituency you already have. Get OTHER PEOPLE to share their experiences and bring the awareness out to where you need it: in new audiences. Make tags (the metadata that lets people ID posts and information and aids in search) that match your message and event name. But make them easy. For example, tagging things “podcamptoronto2007″ is pretty lengthy, so I might’ve done something different. HOWEVER, it’s searchable, and Google knows what you mean. Make tags your website.

Let the Audience Own the Experience

Encourage meetup spaces. Build interview nooks into the space. Do what you can to give people participatory tools. Turn your large meals into facilitated games to stretch conversations and relationships even further. Because all of these things will bring you back even more coverage and more buzz and more a sense that the people who were at the event OWNED the event. And we all treat things we own better, don’t we?

Highlight the Crowd’s Creations

The Beastie Boys knew. They created a movie based on their crowd’s output. Why shouldn’t you? Work with the audience, by the way. Get them to the big names they wish they could interview. Help facilitate a photo op when you can. And then make sure the audience’s efforts are just as well distributed and praised (if not much more) than your in-house work.

It’s a New World

This is how it works around here, folks. It’s participation, sharing, experience by tribe. It’s not that the King is dead. The King has knelt before his people.

What would you do to help an audience own the experience more?

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  • http://stevegarfield.com steve garfield

    First of all, stop calling ‘them’ the audience. As you know and say, they are participants.

    Your opening question is:

    “…how one might go about capturing the feel of an event”

    You close with:

    “What would you do to help an audience own the experience more?”

    The solution is to make the event “ours”, like David Weinberger says, and not something you put on and document for “us.”

  • http://stevegarfield.com steve garfield

    First of all, stop calling ‘them’ the audience. As you know and say, they are participants.

    Your opening question is:

    “…how one might go about capturing the feel of an event”

    You close with:

    “What would you do to help an audience own the experience more?”

    The solution is to make the event “ours”, like David Weinberger says, and not something you put on and document for “us.”

  • Anonymous

    Good morning, Chris –

    You suggest, “Turn your large meals into facilitated games to stretch conversations and relationships even further.”

    I have done this one easy way. Put table signs on each table encouraging folks to sit by some category. You could use geography or vertical market. It doesn’t really matter – simply by trying to identify themselves, folks will start talking.

    Another way is to get the speaking participants to eat lunch with the delegate participants. Put their name on the table cards.

    Another way is to pose a question to each table…make them work for their lunch. The task can be fun or funny, or it can be phrased like a debate: Resolved: that DRM sucks. {You could do better, I know!}

    Have fun –
    barbara

  • http://snapshot-blg.blogspot.com/ barbara

    Good morning, Chris –

    You suggest, “Turn your large meals into facilitated games to stretch conversations and relationships even further.”

    I have done this one easy way. Put table signs on each table encouraging folks to sit by some category. You could use geography or vertical market. It doesn’t really matter – simply by trying to identify themselves, folks will start talking.

    Another way is to get the speaking participants to eat lunch with the delegate participants. Put their name on the table cards.

    Another way is to pose a question to each table…make them work for their lunch. The task can be fun or funny, or it can be phrased like a debate: Resolved: that DRM sucks. {You could do better, I know!}

    Have fun –
    barbara

  • http://www.ldpodcast.com Whitney

    What I found fascinating is the “control the message” section. When you relinquish control of the message, it puts a lot more pressure on constructing an event or experience that is truly excellent and valuable.

    If you are the only story, the only message, the only broadcast, then opinion, interaction and feedback are irrelevant. (See most traditional corporations). Those that offer interactivity with the brand or message get the information they need to up their game so to speak, and some people can’t take critique that well, so they refuse to hear any of it (does this ring a bell in the political sphere?)

    So we’re back at the heart of the matter- building an enthusiastic, evangelizing community that will spread your message, bring others into the fold, who will also spread it out further. Take a page from the Mormons.

    New media is a religion, and it’s catching on quick.

  • http://www.ldpodcast.com Whitney

    What I found fascinating is the “control the message” section. When you relinquish control of the message, it puts a lot more pressure on constructing an event or experience that is truly excellent and valuable.

    If you are the only story, the only message, the only broadcast, then opinion, interaction and feedback are irrelevant. (See most traditional corporations). Those that offer interactivity with the brand or message get the information they need to up their game so to speak, and some people can’t take critique that well, so they refuse to hear any of it (does this ring a bell in the political sphere?)

    So we’re back at the heart of the matter- building an enthusiastic, evangelizing community that will spread your message, bring others into the fold, who will also spread it out further. Take a page from the Mormons.

    New media is a religion, and it’s catching on quick.

  • http://inoveryourhead.net julien

    i wonder about what steve is saying. i agree that we WANT participants, not just audience, but in fact, most people are very susceptible to staying in TV mode, sitting back and just absorbing. this is enhanced by the laptop, which tends to get you immersed in whatever’s on your screen instead of what’s happening right in front of you.

    whatever the case, calling them ‘participants’ is certainly a step in the right direction.

  • http://inoveryourhead.net julien

    i wonder about what steve is saying. i agree that we WANT participants, not just audience, but in fact, most people are very susceptible to staying in TV mode, sitting back and just absorbing. this is enhanced by the laptop, which tends to get you immersed in whatever’s on your screen instead of what’s happening right in front of you.

    whatever the case, calling them ‘participants’ is certainly a step in the right direction.

  • http://justinkownacki.blogspot.com Justin Kownacki

    The less you control, the more you have to offer.

  • http://justinkownacki.blogspot.com Justin Kownacki

    The less you control, the more you have to offer.