Lessons learned from microblogging talk
Posted on February 8th, 2010 by Sacha Chua
I gave a talk on microblogging to approximately 150 people at IBM. It was fantastic! There was so much energy and engagement, it was all I could do to keep up with the free-wheeling discussion.
What worked well:
- My entire presentation (excluding the title slide) consisted of a single-slide summary. That was really useful, as it meant that people knew the structure and what I was going to talk about right away.
- The chat conversation was lively. Really lively. =)
- Having someone else watch the conversation definitely helped. Also, treating it as a river of thoughts, or a jumping-off point for further discussions… It’s like a big brainstorming session!
What I’d like to improve further:
- My quick overview (plan: 5 minutes) ended up taking 20 minutes because I responded to people on the fly. Totally okay. I wonder if I can make the set-up presentation shorter so that I can open it up for Q&A even earlier.
- I’d planned to switch to screen sharing and go through things dynamically, but I went with the static image because I didn’t want to interrupt the conversation with more moving parts. ;) Maybe if I can get to the point of quickly doing visual notetaking in real life (like Minna does!), then I’ll be able to keep up with doing it virtually too.
- This presentation/interaction pattern is new and powerful. It can feel like a chaotic bazaar sometimes, though! I wonder how we can manage this better. I’d love to use a tool with a bigger chat box, for example. That would make the backchannel easier to see and read.
That was exhilarating!
Short URL: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/7020-
http://coevolving.com David Ing
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