Twitter Saves A Speaker and Presentation
As I indicated earlier I was in Seattle for a conference that is one of the top tech conferences with many geeky types in attendance. As we geek types do on a regular basis, we spend time on Twitter. We not only spend time on Twitter we speak to each other often times not only in the same room but sitting at the same table. In this case, Twitter was going at its usual pace and people were talking between each other in the conference area. That will set the stage for what was happening.
While the presentation went forward, the speaker, I believe one of the first times he had ever been on stage, began to speed up and then began to lose the crowd. He was speaking of a topic that was very technical and something that many could not grasp. He was getting some momentum and began to get passionate and speak faster. Then Twitter exploded, and even my own statement about this speaker needing to be the guy that does my homework.
The organizer at the time saw immediately the comments coming across on Twitter and slowly walked to the stage and refocused the speaker, asked a question and made him slow down. He told the speaker to breathe and to throttle it back. The crowd became refocused and we all settled in to learn some really cool stuff the speaker had to say. Twitter had saved the day without making a scene or embarrassing the speaker or all of the negative that could have come out of the situation.
Tags: Twitter, Speakers, Conference, Conventions, Presentations
I saw a similar thing here in New York at conference and think this will have an impact on many speakers as twitter becomes more wide spread. It’s almost like the person on stage can finally get a grip on the collective consciousness of the crowd and adjust in real time to positive or negative impressions. A little intimidating if you’re a speaker but a permanent reality these days! Thanks for the article!