One of the best parts of working on TWTRCON is how much feedback we get from the community. We love it, not just because it helps us produce a better event, but also because we want you to think of TWTRCON as your event.
We are asking for your feedback again today as we are diving right into planning for TWTRCON SF 10. (We are also planning some changes to the TWTRCON site to make it a more extensive content resource for you, but will cover that in a separate blog post.) Below we will outline some of the key take-aways we got from the attendee survey that attendees filled out after the TWTRCON NY 10 event, along with some feedback we have heard in conversations we’ve had with participants .
Whether you attended TWTRCON NY 10 in person, participated online, or just found out about the event, we would love to hear any comments, ideas and suggestions that would help us in the planning process. Program ideas? Speaker suggestions? Networking events? Let us know if you agree or disagree with the comments below, and add in anything we missed!
We are numbering the list so you can reference a specific point in your comments:
1. Reasons for attending: the top reason for attending TWTRCON NY was “developing business strategies,” followed by “learning social media best practices.” What makes a conference like TWTRCON valuable to you?
2. Overall reviews: Overall, people felt TWTRCON was a great experience. People said they “loved it,” that it was a “very constructive use of a single day,” a “must-attend for any organization involved in the world of social media.”
3. Stand-out sessions: Most of the sessions received very high marks, too. The highest rankings went to the closing keynote by JetBlue’s Marty St. George (“lively” and “very specific steps described how a brand went viral”) and to the Martha Stewart interview (“she’s very authentic and David Pogue is excellent” and “she’s interesting and really embraces what Twitter is all about”). But many other sessions received very high ratings and comments, including:
- Steve Rubel’s Bottom Line on Real Time panel – “Asked pointed questions. Got direct answers” and “provided the most actionable information, KPIs.”
- Laura Fitton’s morning keynote – “Funny, informative, and she knows her stuff.”
- Phil Terry’s Customer Service panel – “because that is a main driver for our social engagement”
- The Dell and TurboTax presentations – because they provided tangible insights into what brands are doing
- BPTerry got a lot of attention — but it was not all good. While some people felt he “kept it real,” other thought it was “in poor taste, not funny and generally uncomfortable.”
4. It’s a lot for one day – maybe too much? For the most part, people liked that they were able to get a ton of information in one day. Several people did say the day was very long, and suggested more breaks or shortening the event. This is one reason we’re working hard to get all of the videos for every session up online, so you can review content you may have missed.
5. Time to go even deeper. “More actionable takeaways, tips, specific strategies.” A lot of people commented that it’s time to go beyond the strategy stuff, and focus even more on specific how-to’s, instructions and real-world examples. Several people suggested we add tracks or breakout sessions. We are definitely building this take-away into our planning for the SF event, where we plan to add some workshop-style sessions throughout the day. We would love more input here:
- what specific topics would you like to see covered in more depth in a workshop-style session?
- do you have suggestions on how to structure the workshops so that you would get a lot out of them?
- what types of instructors should run the workshops? Tech vendors? Social media experts/consultants? Brand social media managers?
- can you suggest specific speakers we should consider?
6. Love the big brands, but don’t forget small businesses. A number of people commented that they’d like to see more case studies of how small companies are using the real-time web and social media – and don’t forget about those who are “ghost-tweeting for small business clients.” Do you know any small companies doing a great job with Twitter? Let us know!
7. Missing topics? Integrating Twitter into the overall social media marketing strategy, more on what’s coming next, more real-world examples. What else?
8. The attendee experience. We got kudos for the power strips (thanks, AT&T!), the onsite check-in (thanks, Colleen, Carolyn, Alex & all of our great volunteers!) and the on-screen Twitter feed. People also loved the TweetUp at RubyFoo’s and the wireless access. Not so good? The food (yes, we know, we are working on how to stage a take-over of the Hilton’s kitchen next year!) and some problems with the sound system. What else?
As you may already have heard, the next TWTRCON will be returning to the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco on November 18. Because we’re going back to where we started, we think it’s a great opportunity to re-imagine certain aspects of the event and kick it up a notch. Your feedback and ideas at this stage are super important and helpful — thanks for taking the time to share them, either via the comments below, or by email to me at tonia <at> modernmediapartners <dot> com. Thanks!!
