Face-to-face meetings play catch up

One of the great benefits of using web conferencing as a conference presentation tool is the way that the text chat panel can be used as a back channel to allow participants to share comments, queries, links and so on, while the presentation is taking place. Rather than acting as a distraction, the back channel provides added value to participants.

Increasingly we’re seeing facilities provided to allow participants at face-t0-face conferences to enjoy the same benefits. There’s Twitter of course, but for those without Twitter accounts, or who get tired of entering hash tags to identify the meeting they’re attending, there are new forms of instant chat rooms which allow a back channel to be set up within seconds. I’ve just tried two:

• TodaysMeet
• tinychat

For maximum benefit, as a presenter you should have equal access to the channel, which takes some organising. See Olivia Mitchell’s How to Present While People Are Twittering.

About Clive Shepherd

Clive Shepherd has written 206 post in this blog.

Clive is a consultant specialising in the application of technology to learning and business communications. He was previously Director of Training and Creative Services for a multinational corporation and co-founder of a major multimedia development company. For four years he was chair of the eLearning Network.

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