Why You Should Leave Your Laptop At The Hotel During Your Next Conference
Folks have been discussing recently how important it is for speakers to monitor the live chatter during a presentation, in order to make shifts that will help the audience. This is the wrong approach because it makes the speaker/panelist pull their attention from the people who have devoted their time to listening, leading to a much poorer presentation. Ultimately I created a personal principle I would follow when speaking:
Thou shalt not check social networks during a presentation or as a member of a panel!
However, I had started wondering if we all felt forced to be checking our own laptops because the audience wasn’t looking at the speakers any longer, instead their own heads were buried in laptops and smart phones. Having just gotten home from speaking at the DMA’s NCDM show, my hypothesis was seemingly affirmed and I now add a corollary to the list of speaking principles:
Audience, thou shalt put away the laptops and the smart phones and listen to thy speakers!
The best part? The rule became apparent to me because the vast majority of the audience (I was fortunate enough to present with my good friend Aaron Strout, more on that tomorrow) did not have laptops, or at least didn’t take them out during the session. Smart phones, or even dumb phones, were also kept in their pockets for the most part. This lasted the entire session…150 MINUTES!
Part of my brain is dying to say it was due to the riveting content, but I think that was only part of the equation. Instead, I think this audience was trying to learn and engage with us during the session. To get the most out of our time they had committed to listening, asking questions and making comments throughout. Rather than worry about broadcasting their thoughts about our session to social networks, they instead were telling us directly. It, I hope, made for a great session for the audience, but it also created a much more enjoyable experience for Aaron and myself.
The presentation and conversation between speakers and audience was the most important element during our time together. There was a visual commitment from both parties to put away the laptops (and phones) in order to listen and learn from each other. Thank you to everyone who attended the NCDM session, you provided a valuable lesson.
Tomorrow I’m going to post the slides and some additional thoughts on our session, “B2B Social Media Marketing Techniques: Measuring the Impact from Creation to Closed Deal”.
