“Tweeting” my first conference
What is it that I need? It is a question that without thinking about it my mind processes hundreds of times a day. What do I need to eat? What do I need to wear? What do I need to do with the children? What do I need to do for my business? What do I need to do for my friends….and on and on it goes each day. Sometimes however that question is a very specific one. This weekend was one of those times.
As a guest of Bob Burg, author of The Go-Giver and many other best selling titles, I attended the Extreme Business Makeover conference in Orlando, Florida. I thought a lot on my way down from Colorado about how I could give value as a guest of the conference. What did I need to do while I was there? As the conference began we found our seats and I whipped out my computer excited to send out on Twitter the pearls of wisdom I learned from the speakers. This was my first time having the opportunity to “tweet” at a conference like this and after my first session I had a very interesting argument going on in my head. (Yes, things do happen in there!)
As a speaker myself, I know the value and importance of being able to connect with your audience. I can gauge how I am doing by the smiles, the laughter and the occasional tear I can glimpse in an audience members eye. I pride myself on being a very active audience member because of this. I listen intently. I clap loudly. I laugh out loud. I know the speaker feeds on it. How, I wondered at the end of the first speaker, did the speaker feel as I was head down focusing on capturing every gem and good quote and sending it out into the ether? Was I doing my job for the speaker? Was I doing what I needed to do I wondered.
At the same time I was reveling in the response I was receiving to my many tweets. My followers were re-tweeting them out to their followers. I received direct messages thanking me for the content, telling me they were desperately trying to capture the many inspirational words of wisdom. Without even being in the room THEY were engaged, glued to their screen for the next bit. It drove me. All of the sudden I felt like I had purpose and that I could add immense value by sharing the speakers words.
I got pretty good at capturing the thoughts and at the end of day two it appeared that I was leading the conference tweeting having sent an astounding (for me) 419 tweets of valuable content to inspire and educate entrepreneurs and “Go-Givers” the twitterverse over.
I may continue to struggle with the lack of my own personal connection with the speakers in the room but I hope they will forgive me as I continue to play the role of micro blogger and share their wisdom. It seems to be, for now, the answer to what I need to do to add value. It is the best honor I feel I can give to both speaker and audience. The more who learn, the more who grow and I relish in the role of conveyer of passion.
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To read the Tweet stream of inspirational tweets by people who have succeeded not only in building business but also community visit Twitter.com and search #XBM
April 26th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
As a person who has done a lot of speaking before, I really do appreciate seeing people engaged in the message I am presenting. If I knew someone was going to tweet the gems of my message, it would make me want to be even more prepared to deliver something meaningful to tweet about.
From a receiving perspective, you will probably walk away with more of the messages you heard than anyone else as you not only heard it, you wrote things down. You probably received as much if not more than you gave by tweeting.
I know that I really appreciated those tweets as it made me feel like I was able to glean many bits of insight from the conference. So a BIG THANK YOU for sharing the great information with us.
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Dafna Reply:
April 26th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Thanks Greg! You are definitely one who kept me tweeting! I appreciate your comment.
D
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