PCMA Monday
By tony | No Comments
Inspirational speakers
Monday started with a show by the City of Dallas and then an great inspirational speech from Nancy Brinker on the power of one person in social causes. My favorite speakers are information-dense, but I’m observing that the best conferences make sure to bring plenty of inspiration. I was at a session later in the day on engaging educational experiences that touched on the need to hit people at multiple levels. Having a mix of speakers, some who can touch you emotionally, and some who touch you intellectually, definitely seems like something program committees should be consciously aware of.
Freeman Experiential Meeting Design
One of my rules of thumb for conferences is to avoid vocational sessions. If the topic is something I’m already doing, then the session is almost definitely going to feel to slow. Instead, I like to go to sessions that are completely outside of my expertise. On Monday, Freeman, the leading show production company, was giving tours of the setup they used for that morning’s general session. They had three 18′ tall HD screens, touch screens for the speakers, and individual staff for sound, lighting, set design, teleprompting, video cameras, video camera switching, video, graphics, and speaker prep. There are more details than you can imagine, and we got a nice explanation from the set designer of how little things like the color of the carpet on stage effect the overall experience.
Law of Two Feet
I found myself wondering what the etiquette was for leaving sessions. Unconferences and open space have a clear rule, The Law of Two Feet, which I love:
If at any time during our time together you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet. Go to some other place where you may learn and contribute.
Without a clear guideline, it feels like people would perceive you as rude for walking out in the middle of a session.
Meeting people
The CrowdVine find-people-via-your-address-book feature came in handy for me today. It turns out two of my favorite customers were at the meeting and I wouldn’t have noticed except that they popped up in my search. Monday was the first time we’d ever met face-to-face.
Tweetup
PCMA has come on strong with Twitter usage. They launched their Twitter account in June and now are big into it. We had a Tweetup with sixty or so people, including plenty of the PCMA staff. It’s nice to see the staff come out because they’re so busy and hidden during most of the conference.
Here are the official news highlights from PCMA TV: http://brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid60972845001