using social technologies
TO RUN BETTER EVENTS
Teemu Arina
Dicole Ltd.
tarina.blogging.fi
February 2009

WHAT’S WRONG WITH EVENTS?

STRUCTURE METHOD CONTENT
TOP DOWN – ONE WAY PASSIVE – STATIC INEFFICIENTLY SHARED
BOTTOM UP – TWO WAY PARTICIPATIVE - DYNAMIC EFFECTIVELY SHARED

T O MO RR OW
YE ST E R D AY
Top down, one way Bottom up, two way
events organized by a events. Participants
committee. contribute to planning.
Visitors sit, listen and Participants engage
comment. Event has a themselves throughout
static website. the event – also online.
Results get Results are effectively
ineffectively shared. shared online.

Various Types of Events
CONFERENCE
• Heavy planning of tasks
• Fixed agenda
• Hired presenters
• Services and booths
FORM nt
• Presentation-centric
e
m
st
e
v
In
UNCONFERENCE
• Crowdsourced planning
• Self-organizing agenda
• Presenters voted on
• DIY service
• Interaction-centric
SCALE
LARGE EVENT
SMALL EVENT
• •
Strong network formation Popular topics
• •
Distributing specific expertise Wide interest groups
• •
Peer-to-peer organization Expert organizers
• •
Cheap and low labour Budget decisions
• •
Resources often loaned Professional venue

TED
Online Educa
AMD Virtual
Typical presentation Experience
Typical online presentation
H I G H LY D E F I N E D
Panel discussion
Le Web Typical virtual conference
Typical Second Life
Lightning talks
presentation
STRUCTURE
Connectivism
Fish Bowl Code camp Online Conference
FACE-TO-FACE TECH-HEAVY
Grasping the Future
Speed Geeking
SELF-ORGANIZING
Pecha-Kucha
Assembly
World Café Reboot
MashPit
SuperHappyDevHouse
Barcamp
Unconference
Campfire conversation Method
VIRTUALITY Event

ASSEMBLY

REBOOT

SECOND LIFE
Howard Rheingold @ NMC Campus Henry Jenkins @ Alexander Hall

Events go online or become
x-events, because...

BUSINESSES
REDUCE COSTS
Tr
av
el
Ac
co
mm
Co
od
nfe
ati
ren
Lo on
st ce
tim fee
Fin e s
an
cia
lc
ris
is

Businesses reduce
GREEN IT

New tools become available

TIME TO THROW
SOME TOMATOES
Q&A

Various Approaches
Hosted Conference
Social Networks
White Label
Social Networks
Event Organization
Sites
Do It Yourself Advertising Agencies
Software Development Companies
In-house mashups (e.g. Google Groups + Google Pages)
Open Source applications

Networking
Wikis
Blogs
Tags
Media Feeds
Forums

Various Supportive Tools
Event Registration
Services Streamline
Processes
Promotion Services Let
Others Know About
Your Event
Community Services
Draw People Together
Event Related
Interaction Services
Create a Backchannel
Many of these services are already used by event participants.

Before During After
Iterative Planning Extended Events Online Sharing
Reflection
Experience
Planners Online Face-to-face
Participants
‣ Presentations
‣ Schedule
‣ Checklists ‣ Conference wiki ‣ Profiles ‣ Notes and recordings
‣ Presenters
‣ Dates ‣ Backchannel chat ‣ Media ‣ User-generated content
‣ Methods
‣ RSVPs ‣ Social networking ‣ Blogs ‣ Lessons learned
‣ Venue
‣ Topics ‣ Live streaming ‣ APIs ‣ Content dissemination

PEER-FUNDING YOUR EVENT

FINDING MOST SUITABLE DATES

DISTRIBUTING ONLINE VIDEO CONTENT

EXTENDED EVENTS
Hosted Conference
Social Networks
TOP-DOWN BOTTOM-UP
Event Organization
White Label
Sites
Social Networks
FREE FORM
Do It Yourself

Long Tail of Events
Event Popularity
Head: 20% Tail: 80%
Possible Events

Successful Event DNA
Digital Analog
■ Digital is primary: ■ When more “bandwidth”
everything starts and is needed, synchronicity
ends in digital of interaction and
interaction goes
■ Mainly asynchronic or
face-to-face
semi-synchronic
■ Always linking back to
interaction
digital at every point of
interaction

Contact Email teemu@dicole.com
Teemu Arina
Blog tarina.blogging.fi
CEO, Dicole Ltd.
Company www.dicole.com
“Imagination is more important than knowledge”
– Albert Einstein