When planning for events the event organizers have a few things they want to accomplish:
1. Everyone has a good time
2. They don’t lose too much money
3. The event makes sufficient “impact” on teaching and learning.
#3 on this list has been swimming around in my head over the last few days.. The problem we face is that event places are limited so it tends to be the same decision makers attending. I don’t think this presents equal opportunities so I have been thinking about how this may evolve..
Physical limitations at the event as far as number of people that can fit into a room at any given time. This was proven at Hand Held Learning 2009 which was a great conference but was over subscribed and overpriced.
Can technology provide a fix? All of google tech talks and TED are now published online, not live but that is fine. A few ICT conferences this year have been streamed live successfully.
Is the TED model the right model? It seems that way, TED charge for attendance to a conference and only fit a limited audience in.
So what technology is required to make this happen? Stuff that already exists!!
Twitter hash tags has become the norm now for many conference attendees and provide a great reference point.
Any video conferencing that can support a wide audience, it would be great if you could “Sponsor” your video feed and maybe even a twitter page sponsored by the event.
That way you could get “Micro Sponsors” for say a minute of ad time next to a video stream for say £50
We cannot ignore how important it is to allow our education and ICT conferences to be open and transparent and we MUST NOT exclude anyone from attending, be it physically or digitally.. (with exceptions obviously).