PR 2.0 Events
Today, conferences and events take on a PR 2.0 approach by promoting engagement long before the conference begins. Participants are encouraged to get to know the speakers and form relationships with other attendees prior to registration in the physical setting. Rich Teplitsky and I are the co-chairs of the PRSA T3PR Strategic Views on Technology and the Changing PR Landscape Conference in New York City on June 11th. Our approach and goal for this conference is to let everyone engage through social media before the event, and get the conversations going so that we’re all comfortable IRL (in real life). We want this program to be more intimate; when everyone meets in person, it should feel as if we’re old friends.
I’ve been to many conferences with large numbers of people. You shuffle from room to room and barely have a moment to interact. Maybe you see a few faces that you recognize here and there but most are unfamiliar. The information is great, but it’s always better if you feel you have a personal connection to the people speaking and to the people around you. Wouldn’t it be great to walk up to a group of people and jump into the discussion because this was the very topic you were talking about with them on Twitter? Or, approaching the presenter after a session and rather than introducing yourself for the first time, you’re actually adding a few more comments to an ongoing dynamic discussion that was started a few weeks ago.
For this very reason, the T3PR Conference is holding a pre- event chat on May 24th at 3:00 p.m. EDT (using the #techprsa hashtag). Our speakers have graciously agreed to participate to get to know attendees better, for them to interact with one another and to offer an inside look at what’s to come. Thanks to @prsarahevans, @missusP, @jacobm and @eschipul, the conference participants and/or anyone interested in Strategic Views on Technology will dive into conference topics and be able to interact with the speakers one-on-one.
We’ll spend an hour answering questions geared toward the various speakers’ presentations and allow our speakers to provide their insights. We’re hoping to get a very dynamic discussion started. Then, we’ll take these conversations to New York City and continue them beyond 140 characters, in a more personal conference setting. Strategic Views on Technology and the Changing PR Landscape is you and your PR technology challenges. So, bring your questions to the chat session and then talk to us more when we meet you in person.
Hope you join in the chat session on the 24th. I’ll “see” you then!