post-conference thoughts
well, it’s all over folks! months and months of planning paid off and it was all over in a flash! The JISC Conference 2008 seems to have been a real success. I know we always say that every year, but this year seems to have been a success on many different levels. There was a real ‘buzz’ this year in the atmosphere and from reading the various twitter posts and blogs from the day, the conference seems to have got lots of people thinking and talking. I have just read a blog post from someone who attended the conference and was still up at 11pm at night unable to sleep due to all the stuff he was thinking about from the day…so he just had to blog it all. seems the buzz has really got to some people! Got them thinking and asking questions and wanting to continue with the conversations and discussions they had on the day. This for me is the greatest achievement of the day.
The day is about informing the Community of all the cool stuff JISC are doing and funding at the moment but its also about providing a forum (be that a physical or online) for people to network, meet, catchup, discuss, chat etc…that is the most important issue for most of the delegates and we need to keep building on this and making sure that this is fostered for future years. Its not so much the excellent line up of sessions and the great keynotes, that make it a success, although they are of course a large factor contributing to it, its more I think the other stuff that happens around that - the buzz, the talking, the networking over a coffee that provides a true indication on how successful it has been.
This year we introduced a new online element which allowed people to start networking before the event online and hopefully continue to do so after. It also provided a platform for twitter, blogs and photos posted about the conference to be aggregated. It very much a soft launch, to see how it went and if it launched. All in all I think it did. As I wrote a few days ago, it provided perfect ‘background noise’ to the day - which is what as I said before this amplification is all about. Some might say that does it really add value/any meaning? I say yes, it does, it creates a buzz and shows that people are engaging with whats going on and provides a window into an individuals day at the conference. It means that we could plug into what people were thinking as they stroll around, how they see stuff, what they are talking about..and it was great!
Even more of a success was livestreaming the keynotes. 80 people tuned in to the opening keynote which was fantastic. I think we have really set the standard now and next year we can announce with confidence what we are doing and make a much bigger splash of it - get everyone blogging, twittering and snapping!
Benefits of Edinburgh are that the venue has excellent wifi and throughout the building..so should be great. I’m looking forward to reading the feedback report from delegate feedback - particularly about the new online stuff. We can improve lots of stuff around the online activity but its a really great step in the right direction and there’s no going back now!!!
The ‘tremors’ of conference amplification
Since the JISC Comms teams launched Crowdvine as the social networking site for the JISC Conference 2008 last Friday, interest amongst delegates has been slowing picking up and now beginning to gather pace. People are joining up, having a look around, putting up their blog and twitter feeds and making the odd comment or two. So it seems to be working..!
Discussions have been flying around our office about how effective Crowdvine will be, what delegates will use it for, how it will be used etc… There are various camps of opinions on this one, but on the whole everyone agrees that it is definitely adding to the buzz around the conference and it certainly helps us lot in JISC towers tap into what delegates are discussing in the run up to the JISC Conference, what they are planning and who they are interested in hooking up with. It can all surely be a good thing?
I recently read on Lorcan Dempsey’s (OCLC) blog about the ‘tremors’ that conference amplification causes and how having something like Crowdvine for a conference allows you to keep track of what is going on if you are not there, without going to a huge amount of effort….”it happened in the background. it was like weather”. this I think hits the spot with what Crowdvine is for, and what we hope to achieve with this first step into ‘conference amplification’ for the JISC Conference. It provides background online noise for the physical conference.
Now I am fully aware of the varying opinions on Facebook but we figured that we might as well create a Facebook event for the conference anyway but not really to make too much of it, but at least it was there. No-one was really invited, just a couple of JISC Comms people that I was friends with. People slowly came out of the woodwork though and signed up to the Facebook group (those tremors again). A commenter on Lorcan’s post about ‘tremors’ questioned the effectiveness of having so many different channels (Facebook, Crowdvine) and suggested it ‘dilutes the buzz or creates virtual cliques’. Probably true I guess, but I have noticed that since we launched Crowdvine last week, the Facebook event group has slightly increased in numbers after having stayed at a certain number for a while….so those tremors must still be doing their thing…?! I actually think that perhaps it enhances the buzz..as the more channels there are, the more people know about what is going on, even if they are not going..? Perhaps I am completely wrong, but it just struck me as quite funny that the Facebook event group has increased in numbers since the Crowdvine network was launched and there is a definite link. I think if anything it has helped enhance the buzz around the conference, rather than dilute it. but I am probably wrong about this…and I’m not sure what I think about the ‘virtual cliques’ issue yet either…surely being online it’s impossible to create a ‘virtual clique’ as a physical clique is something that is difficult to penetrate and become part of? but being virtual or online - surely anyone can access,view, read, comment if they want to or go to the effort of looking for it…? again I am probably wrong about this too!
interesting things to ponder though…! maybe next year we should have a debate session in the programme about this kind of stuff!!
JISC Conference 2008 - fully subscribed!
well, it seems that everyone is mad for it this year and we have had to close registrations for the annual conference already and still a month to go…numbers well over 750! we have also had no problem selling exhibition stands this year and again..we have a full house already. lots of new faces in the exhibition hall this year which is great and quite a few publishers have come back out of the woodwork! work on enabling the live social networking platform underway, enabling attendees to network before, during and after and also non-attendees to see whats happening live including live video-streaming of keynotes, twitter streams and it goes on! it also seems that more and more non-academics are interested in coming along to JISC, traditionally we have kept them at arms length but when you have the likes of Cicso, Coutts and Unilever knocking on the door asking to come, then that only has to be a good thing? Decision taken this year to let them come, to use as an opportunity to inform them about JISC and the sector as they may well become involved in information solutions in the future….