Meetings Northwest just finished coordinating the 2014 National Rural ITS Conference in Branson, MO. Between break-out sessions, keynote speakers and a little zip-lining, we decided to fully incorporate Twitter at the event by displaying a Twitter Wall. Below is a summary of what we discovered.
What is a Twitter Wall?
Basically, I like to think of a Twitter Wall as a simple presentation of tweets about a certain event. We used the hashtags #2014NRITS and #NRITS for our conference. We let conference attendees know that if they tweeted using those two hashtags, their tweets would show up on our Twitter Wall which we displayed on a Smart TV near our Rest and Recharge Area. New tweets would show up on top and the older tweets would automatically be replaced.
Why we did it?
Tweeting at live events is nothing new. Why not promote the conversation in hopes that more join? We encouraged attendees to post about speakers, interesting vendors, their presentation, the social event the night before, the food or whatever came to mind. We, as event planners, were able to post the news of the day, any session or speaker changes, shuttle reminders, the conference internet code, even lost and found items.
What did we learn?
First, logistically the Twitter Wall was really easy to set up. We requested a large Smart TV on a stand that also came with a dedicated laptop. We then went to Twitterfall.com, logged into Twitter and added our two conference hashtags. In a few seconds, Twitterfall grabbed our seven most recent Twitter posts and displayed them on the Twitter Wall.
Second, it brought more people into the conversation. We had more people post on Twitter than ever before. I’m not saying everyone was posting or even a majority, but for our first time, with not a whole lot of promotion, we saw quite a few tweets.
Third, as the event planners, we were able to pass on news, announcements and reminders with relative ease. A definite advantage when you are stuck behind a registration desk distributing conference agendas.
A Twitter Wall is definitely a tool we will use again. We will keep posting on our twitter experiences.
Until then, #happytweeting.
Amy Lucke
About the author:
Amy Lucke decided long ago, she would never stray far from the mountains and rivers of Montana. She loves sharing the outdoors with her two kids and spends most summer weekends in a 3-person tent with her four person family. She feels fortunate that she gets to write, create and collaborate with the smart and talented women of Meetings Northwest. Little known fact: She once traveled for 4 months on an around-the-world plane ticket.
