This week I enjoyed a sensational two days at a conference – and it got me thinking about the evolving use of conference hashtags.

Many conference organisers are becoming quite professional at how they approach Twitter.  In this case, during #PRIA2013, there was a volunteer social media team tweeting coverage for the entire event.

I used to be motivated to share conference coverage to help “the folk who couldn’t make it” keep up with proceedings. Now if the role is already capably filled, I can relax and look for different ways to tweet because:

• I don’t want to add to the hashtag noise.
• My efforts are redundant if I’m just repeating the same phrases that the conference team (and other attendees) are sharing. And believe me, people seem to pluck out the same points. It’s remarkable.
• It frees me up to listen more effectively.

What I prefer to do at conferences like this is:

• Connect with people using the hashtag. I check their bios and Follow a selection.
• Interact with the tweetstream. I ask people questions, I ratify what they’ve said, I try to create a conversation.
• Add my own thoughts rather than just broadcasting the speakers’. I might agree and add another point, I might disagree.
• Share observations and jokes about the day – usually these are relevant only to the  people physically at the conference. And I want to say IT’S OKAY TO DO THIS. It feels like too many conference hashtags have become about those “folks at home” and not about connecting the people who are in the room. I’d like to think that a tweet from the seminar room can mean meeting someone IRL and continuing the conversation when we’re queuing up for coffee! It does happen.

I’ve shared a bit of my Twitter activity below:

@Prakky Thanks Michelle. Some of @Crescenzo‘s creativity must have rubbed off on me during a handshake #PRIA2013

— Tom Worsley (@tjworsley) November 18, 2013

I like this session because it helps us think about our own biz rather than client. For a little while 🙂 #PRIA2013

@Prakky Thanks Michelle. Some of @Crescenzo‘s creativity must have rubbed off on me during a handshake #PRIA2013

— Tom Worsley (@tjworsley) November 18, 2013

— Michelle Prak (@Prakky) November 19, 2013

I wonder how many here have their client Wikipedia pages saved to a watch list? #PRIA2013

— Michelle Prak (@Prakky) November 18, 2013

@DustinOfWilson Nope. I’m the customer who is checking her emails. #PRIA2013

— Michelle Prak (@Prakky) November 19, 2013

How about you? Have you tried abandoning strict coverage and using Twitter like this at a conference?

Related reading: Twitter 101 series, conference hashtags