I completely agree that we should have stuck with the polling. It is a lot of work to run a community and the idea generation followed by the polling seems to have gone by the wayside and been replaced by anybody sign-up and moderate whatever topic they like. Not sure what we do about that.

Though I am personally a fan of speakers presenting, I understand to maintain the purity/specialness of #eventprofs chat. I agree that having SME’s on the chat is a good way to accomplish the goal I was envisioning. I have also experienced it on chats and it works out very well.

I will try to keep my 2cents short.

re: audio w/chat is old news -> Though the end tech might be the same, the direction from which you approach it might be different which creates a different experience. Most audio w/chat comes from the direction of audio. We were coming from chat. Thus, I expected the chat to be much richer than one would expect from a normal audio w/chat

re: the speakers. The idea was always just to do occasional speaker presentations. Certainly not shift the normal format of #eventprofs

re: the echo chamber. Due to nature of the format(advanced use of Twitter) and the fact that it is voluntary time out of people’s day, the people who attend #eventprofs are of a certain type. Almost all of us are SM savvy and almost all of us are proactive thinkers. My point is that this leads to some one-sided discussions. In order to be as effective as we can be, I think we should strive to see other viewpoints.

@spkrinteractive

I don’t use the term innovation for just anything new. I see innovation as totally groundbreaking and never been done before by anyone. Just my opinion though.

Hey Swan, while this may not have been an action filled experience (the audio chat) I still appreciate the spirit behind what you proposed.

I have to agree with Jeff that having a professional speaker do a “presentation” to us is not really something I am too interested in within the context of our weekly chats.

I personally am a strong advocate of boucing around ideas and that dynamic has been one of the drawing cards for me to the Eventprofs groupl…. I hope that will continue.

Thanks again for responding to my article and hope the conversation continues

Mike

Jeff thanks so much for taking time to share your thoughts on this subject. I can always count on you for a honest well thought out opinion!

That being said I have a couple of thoughts to share with you in response:

Point # 1: I think you missed the point here… while the concept of an audio conference accompanied by a chat is nothing new in the world it was something new for Eventprofs. As far as I know we have never attempted this with this chat group. Please correct me if I am wrong!

That being said your point that “Next time, vote and crowdsource the idea or you have a split in the group” is a good one. In the past Lara has conducted a twt poll to receive feedback from folks prior to making topic decisions… thanks for calling that out.

Point #2: Jeff, once again I think you are taking this out of context. While this format may not have been innovation for the world, as a whole, it was innovation for Eventprofs, so once again I have to respectfully disagree with you. See above comments.

Point #3: First you misquoted me… I said “common perception emerging in the business world” and made no reference to that being the operating philosophy of Eventprofs, or any other organization or entity.

The only reference I made to Eventprofs specifically is “this group is forward-thinking meetings and events professionals from around the world with a variety of backgrounds and experience. Our common thread is a passion for social media, creativity and collaboration.”

I stand by that statement, and if you feel I am out of line I would love to hear why.

The rest of your comment is your interpretation of what I said… not a problem.

Point #4 & #5 — I Agree, I don’t believe we should morph these chat sessions into presentations given by “professional speakers” as I love the open honest “on the fly” dialogue that takes place.

Point #6 — I really don’t understand Swan’s reference here, so I would like more clarification as to what he is inferring.

I would also love it if other thought leaders in the industry, including pro speakers, would engage with us in our chats. It would make things interesting and enhance the “knowledge/experience sharing” process.

Jeff, thanks again for your comments and I look forward to further discussions on this topic!

@michaelmccurry

I agree with you in theory. Here’s a different spin on things:

1) Experimenting with new business technologies depends entirely on the level of experience of the business’ leaders and whether they’ve tried it in the past.
Did we really think people have never done an audio call with chat engagement? Been there, done that, have a webinar every week for my audience that has visual, audio and chat function. Would we have been willing to do just an audio call for eventprofs? A Webinar? How about just a blog post? Doubtful it would fulfill same needs as a moderated chat that’s networked and social in the terms of Web 2.0 world. Next time, vote and crowdsource the idea or you have a split in the group.

2) I respectfully disagree that it was innovative. Different than usual, yes. Innovative, no.
I think calling it innovative, which means groundbreaking, pioneering, original or new is an incorrect use of the term. Sorry Swan, I know the motives were good, just don’t think the concept was original. Audio conference calls with chat functions have been around for at least seven years, ask any eLearning professional.

3) What is Eventprofs, really?
You started your post saying “…a common practice in business world is,” which is a little misleading that eventprofs is a business endeavor. Eventprofs is a social group; at least I thought it was a social group. It was my assumption, based on what is on the Eventprofs front page wiki, that Eventprofs is a Twitter chat for meeting and event professionals. Not an organization or business for meeting and event professionals to experiment with different things. Not that experimenting is a bad idea just different from my expectations and what is stated.

4) Nowhere else within the meetings and events industry do I have the ability to chat, online, at a set time, with other colleagues in the industry. Eventprofs filled a need for me personally and some others as well.

5) Any time any organization moves into the content delivery system, it’s not going to meet the entire audience’s needs. If Eventprofs chooses to start sharing presentations, then they’ve set themselves up as a content provider and will have to address whether the content is for novice, intermediate or advanced planners. This is where I suggest that evenprofs cross-pollinate with #edchat and #lrnchat to understand the andragogy of presentations, how the brain learns, and the research on new learning strategies. And be prepared for some brutal criticism.

6) To Swan’s point about echo chambers
I disagree. I don’t want another presentation. I had 15 free Webinars and live streaming events offered to me this week alone. ENOUGH! And as a meeting professional, I watch hundreds of speaker presentations every year. I don’t think suppliers such as Swan do that because they don’t plan conferences or events.

However, I would love the chance to pick a content expert’s brain in a chat. I’ve seen other chats do that and they are an interesting experience. Listen to them present-not so much.

Yes, I applaud Swan for wanting to do something different. Selfishly, I wanted something different from what was provided.

As for your questions:
I think that there are several great benefits. Tops for me are 1. getting to know some people with very interesting ideas who are (like me) very future focused. 2. Being able to bounce around ideas.

I personally think that Lara’s idea to mix in a professional speaker every now and then is a great idea. I have found that Twitter Chats can become echo chambers. Injecting in externally validated ideas and discussing around those ideas, would be a great addition.

Lara (@ready2spark) has created a poll so that the community can democratically direct itself. http://twtpoll.com/r/ybk4qk

Swan