MAKE IT VALUABLE: For planners who worry about their social-media efforts overloading atten- dees, Klososky had this to say: “The problem with people being over- whelmed is as much that we’re being slammed with so much crap as that we’re being overwhelmed with really good stuff. But my answer to that is, if you’re providing a stream of infor- mation that you’re filtering down to just the valuable pieces, people won’t feel that you’re contributing to the overwhelm.”
I would really like them to go away much more motivated and inspired to make radical changes. In other words, instead of them just taking small evolutionary steps and then complaining about what progress they’re making, I would like them to start tak- ing revolutionary steps—to get the confidence that you can make a few revolutionary steps and it’s not going to hurt you. I really want to pick out a few things where it becomes very
clear to people, and they look at it and they go,“Well, you know what? He’s right, and we ought to put a lot more energy into doing that aspect of things better.” If I asked you, “When does TEDhappen?,” probably neither one of us knows when it hap- pens, because TED’s all year long. I’d like to focus on a couple of things like that and get people to understand, okay, part of the way to make people [want] to be at your face-to-face event is that you make it not perceived as [taking place] three days [out] of the year. Get your event to be perceived as a concept or a gathering or something that’s annual, and there are really simple ways to do that [using technology].
When you talkabout evolutionary change vs. revolutionary change, is that simply a question of size or scale? Anevolutionary change is, we’renowgoing to pass out the Pow- erPoints on a USB drive.Arevolutionary change is, we’re going to engage the speakers in a completely different way, where for 30 days before the event, you’re going to be able to access a speaker’s content and connect to a speaker this way. During the event, here are things you can do to connect with speakers the entire timeyou’re at the event. And then, for three months after the event, here’s a way that you can get what I like to call a “con- tent echo.” Let’s completely rebuild the model of how we engage and
view what a speaker does for us. Speakers, all of us, have all kinds of digital content, and you never ask us for it. The only thing you ask is, “Oh, you have a book? Bring some of your
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books and sign your book.” I’ve got thousands and thousands of pages of electronic content, and no one ever asks me for it.
What else as a speaker would you be prepared to do that you’re not being asked to do? I would wear a Speedo on stage.Noone’s ever asked. [Laughs.] A speaker should be helping you to promote what’s coming at the event. There are lots of different forms that could take, but if I’m going to pay speakers a decent amount of money to show up at something, they should help in some ways besides just sending me a one-minute video clip. I think speakers should be helping to build some excitement
before the event. For instance, I would love for a meeting plan- ner before the event to say to everybody, “Hey, we have one of the world’s leading social-technology speakers coming. If there is anybody who would like a meeting with this guy, anybody that would like 15 minutes to talk to him and ask him questions or ask for advice? Just let us know.We’ve set aside a few hours for him to visit with people.” How many speakers would say no to that? Because, basically, you’re lining up clients for me. On the other side, I’m providing value for all these people. But meeting planners rarely ever think, “Let’s provide a way to let people have more of a personal relationship with the speaker outside of just giving the speech.” And then certainly after the event—I blog, I’m on Twitter,
I have all kinds of digital assets, you’ve taken a video of me at the event. If nothing else, cut up your speakers’ videos that you’ve taken at the event into two- and three-minute [segments], post them onYouTube, and send out links every two weeks for about sixmonths after your event, and say,“Here are a couple ofmin- utes of Scott talking on such-and-such.” Carve that up so that after the event I’m getting these little blurbs, these little pieces, so there’s this echo of content coming.
Christopher Durso is executive editor of Convene. www.pcma.org