Sparked Blog

We've just wrapped up tracking the 2010 NTC Conference tweets. You can find the results here http://app.beextra.org/tweetnotes/event/id/ntc

There were a few interesting learnings that came out of the experiment. 

1. There is a lot of value in coordinating hashtags for sessions PRIOR to the event.

This allows people (like me) who can't go to track conversations that I'd like to follow at the conference. In addition, it enables companies such as mine (and those that are to come in this space) to create neat tools like the one listed above that will provide ongoing value from all of the tweets generated at the event.

In this instance, Holly Ross from NTEN was so kind as to ask session leaders for their hashtags in a survey and sent me the list ahead of time, which made my job 1000 times easier than it was at SXSW, where I had to monitor trending conversations by the minute. Even so, there were a good number of hashtags that changed and many that were unlisted. So I still had to do a lot of monitoring and I've undoubtedly missed some (please post a comment here if I have). 

2. Hashtags with periods don't work. 

For NTC, the hashtag format chosen was "10ntc.sessionname" … the period threw off a lot of automatic hashtag parsers in Twitter clients. Next time, I suggest using just an intercap such as 10ntcSessionname. Clearly, shorter the better.

3. Allow session leaders to choose their own hashtags – or take a lot of time picking good tags. 

At SXSW, the conference organizers did actually pre-select hashtags, but they were crazy long, like #mythumbsonfirefromtoolongtags,… and, predictably, no one used the long tags. They just chose shorter ones at the outset of the panels, which caused mass hashtag confusion. I know that getting panelists to choose and submit their hashtags ahead of time is going to be difficult, so just taking some time to choose good ones may do the trick in the future. However, I'd make a case to panelists that their panels will get N% more exposure and will generate more value with a good tag chosen in advance. With all of the new twitter tools these days, it's only going to become more of a necessity. 

4. Should we use the same tags at multiple conferences or choose unique ones?

This is kind of an interesting question. Using a hashtag and a tool like the one we created (above), you could track conversations about topics across conferences. At NTC, @kanter and @afine's session called "The Networked Nonprofit" using the tag #networkednp was a big hit. At the next conference, should they use the same tag to continue the conversation? Or should they lock it away and consider that topic closed and wrapped up for that conference, to take another form another day. Should a tool like ours turn off Twitter polling so that the conversation gets sealed up – or leave it open so that people can continue to discuss. 

5. What happens to conversations after the conference? 

This is a big one. I always hear at conferences that people would like to "continue the conversation"… but it never happens. (Not necessarily in answer to my question above), it occurs to me that we could use hashtags to create a sort of ongoing conference session. Of course, people do already follow certain tags, but without being able to visualize the collection of tweets and people tweeting, it feels more fleeting. However, in building out and using our Twitter tool, it started to feel to me more like a *place* — like a location where there was conversation and where you could *see* the people speaking. With some more UI work, I'm thinking that there's a tool here that would enable us to continue these Twitter conversations in such a way gave it more of the vibrancy of the real-life event – and that could actually continue the conversation.

What do you think?