Posts Tagged ‘social media’

Last month I had the fortune of attending  MPI‘s MeetDifferent.  Like many, I had curtailed my travels in the last year, and had not participated in any international association meetings since 2007.  I am very glad I decided to attend this event; the lessons were well worth my investment.

Insight #1

MPI has been working hard over the last few years to integrate social media in its communication to engage its members.  Their site offered blogging features early in the game.  MPI has also fostered communities outside their virtual borders with LinkedIn, where I belong to two MPI Groups, the global one and my Chapter’s.  For MeetDifferent MPI introduced an event social media site called Pathable, and even had a MeetDifferent iPhone app.

Most impressive, and pervasive, was the use of Twitter prior to, during and after the event.  The first workshop I took at the conference was Jim Spellos’ Tweet-Different session, who taught us the five basic things I needed to know to tweet.  Using the hashtag #md10 (for “MeetDifferent10″) dozens of us connected virtually with each other as well as with colleagues who could not be there.

This was my first Ah-ha moment.  I knew social media was altering the landscape, but I had dismissed Twitter as more of a fringe medium.  I realized it has serious business applications and I had some catching up to do.

I wasn’t the only one feeling overwhelmed.  One senior meeting planner from a large Toronto-based consulting firm said, “OMG, with everything else I have to do, when am I going to have the time to tweet too?”  Then she realized she herself didn’t have to become part of the “twitterati.” She needed to understand how the medium works so she could formulate the appropriate communication strategies for her meetings.  Twitter isn’t popular with her firm partners (who tend to be an older audience), but for their recruits and younger managers it was definitely relevant.

Insight #2

On the last day of the conference, the keynote speaker was a dud.  That’s my opinion.  Other people called him a “little flat”  and said his material was OK.  Still, he started his address by reading from his laptop at the podium.  Yes, reading in front of 1100 meeting professionals.

For a few minutes there was an uncomfortable energy in the room.  Then people started tweeting… and leaving. I was one of them.

While I was not in the room to see it, I was told that show host Glenn Thayer was able to work with some of the Twitter feedback and help the meeting “recover”.

The lesson?  Love it or hate it, Twitter is the ultimate audience responder system.  It may help raise the bar for professional speakers, requiring them to be more spontaneous and responsive during the keynote delivery.

Insight #3

My third insight crystallized  after I returned from the event.  I had been so focused on learning about Twitter that I returned home and continued tweeting with my new-found MPI friends about the Olympics.  Watching the Canadian men’s gold hockey game and the Closing Ceremonies while monitoring Twitter was a very different — and rewarding — experience.

As I watched the news reports that night of the giant parties in Vancouver, Toronto and almost everywhere in Canada, I realized:

Younger generations are used to learning online and getting their information from virtual sources.  They don’t feel the need to be present at a seminar or to touch and feel a newspaper the way boomers like me do.  So what compels them to pour into the streets, wave flags and sing the national anthem?  I think it’s making them feel connected to something BIGGER.

My third Ah-ha moment: successful associations will be those who make younger members feel connected to the BIGGER CAUSE, whether at a meeting or between meetings.

It’s still soon after what has now been dubbed “the first Digital Olympics” but I bet that we have just created a new generation of patriotic  Canadians like this country has never seen before.  Now if we could only figure out how to get more people to vote…