#tdc

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#tdc

Written by Rob Colling Wednesday, 10 June 2009 12:03

Those of us who use Twitter were pretty animated about Thinking Digital, generating a thriving backchannel via the #tdc hashtag which filtered and refined ideas alongside what was happening onstage. Indeed #tdc was a trending topic both days, leading to a few puzzled tweets from people elsewhere in the world who weren’t sure what it was. But it was the most effective use of the medium I’ve seen so far, and I hope the practice continues to spread.

So what does a backchannel involve? Well, invariably it starts as a few isolated people tweeting from their seats in the audience. They might begin by simply commenting on what they’re hearing and seeing, but as others in the audience notice the backchannel emerging on Twitter they’ll inevitably join in and discussions will develop about what’s going on onstage, with questions raised and answered within the backchannel.

This has amazing implications for speakers. When Mike Southon delivered his talk comparing the Beatles to an idealised entrepreneurial team, for example, the backchannel provided a fascinating chronicle of the audience’s reaction.

To begin with there was a degree of dismissiveness at what some saw as a contrived comparison, and some Tweeters started picking holes in Mike’s argument. But as the talk went on and Mike addressed the perceived inconsistencies – naming Brian Epstein as the team’s mentor, for example – the backchannel revealed an increasingly pacified and involved crowd. By the end of the talk the majority of tweets were positive, most people fully appreciating the points of the presentation and some even vowing to head home and renew their acquaintance with their Beatles records.

From a speaker’s point of view this resource is extraordinary. Mike could, if he chose, take a look at his phone or his laptop after he left the stage and be instantly presented with a minute-by-minute mass appraisal of his talk. If he gave the same talk again in future, he could use that appraisal to refine his content and more precisely achieve the reaction he wanted. Maybe he could omit any sections where he wasn't happy with the audience's comments, or clarify any bits the audience didn't fully appreciate. He could try variations of his talk at different conferences, using the direct feedback from Twitter to help him decide which variant was most effective.

This is a level of feedback which two years ago would have demanded massive efforts with questionnaires or some such cumbersome nonsense. Harvesting the information would have decimated the audience’s enjoyment of the event, and the results would have been skewed anyway. Twitter comments are spontanteous, genuine and honest. They arise from involvement rather than coercion or persuasion. That's the sort of information for which market researchers would pickle their grandmothers.

So in truth a conference speaker has nothing to fear from a room full of raised laptop lids, and much to gain from it. But does a Twitter backchannel really benefit the audience? We’ll be looking at that in a future blog post.

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Twitter Backchannel

Herb Kim 2009-06-22 11:20:19

Rob,

Well observed. Our conference in May 2008 was the first where I saw the emergence of the Twitter backchannel although it's role in helping crash Sarah Lacy's interview of Mark Zuckerberg at SXSW is well documented... http://tinyurl.com/yw4tsh

The Tweetfeed is something many, if not most, speakers now check soon after they're done talking. One person I know has his wife track them all and print them out for him to read when he gets home.

Amazing to see Twitter's backchannel role in election politics too!

Herb

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