Speaking to a Tweeting crowd

This image was posted on Conversion Agent this morning in a great post titled “Twitter Brings Interaction to Events.” In it, Valeria Maltoni offers some great tips to speakers on how to craft presentations that are interactive and sustain audience attention.

This is certainly a must read for anyone on the speaking circuit today, especially if you are addressing large audiences from a stage and may have wondered why half the crowd appears to be asleep during your presentation. You can be assuaged of your self doubt and take comfort in the knowledge that all those bowed heads are probably distributing, commenting and conversing about your subject matter to the world at large via Twitter.

Having spoken from large stages, I can vouch for the energy a speaker derives from eye-to-eye contact with the audience. The increasing number of Tweeters wrapped up in their own broadcasting makes that harder to achieve.

Personally, I wonder if the resolve for speakers is as simple as setting up a Twitter account for each presentation with appropriate hashtags, project it live onto the screen, and seamlessly incorporate the comments that ensue directly into their presentation.

There is no doubt that this would complete the circle of social interaction. But in any event, it is clear that speakers who are used to the “1.0” method of addressing a crowd – you presenting and the crowd listening – need to adopt new communication skills for a new kind of audience.

Kinda like every thing else these days.

— Davison Twitter:1000wattmarc