Check out the new YouTube channel the Association Forum of Chicagoland recently launched. This is way cool–at least in concept. I haven’t had time to review the vids yet, but the topics sound good, though the only one that may have direct links to meeting planning is one on disaster planning and business continuity (the others are on things like data mining, ASAE and The Center’s Decision to Join study, and customer service, though the latter also could have some good pointers for planners). I love that they’re doing this.

Boy, talk about timing! I just finished publishing this post and its musings about technology adoption etc., etc., when I ran across this post on A Wider Net about attendees basically hijacking a keynote interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the SXSW media and music conference. Holy cannoli–check out the video.

Here’s the short form: Basically, the audience wasn’t happy with the way the interview was going, and instead of walking out, they took over. Here’s Rob’s description:

Fueled by Twittr, the mobile phone networked community of people constantly twittering (text messaging meets a chat room) about what they’re doing at any given time, the crowd started to build up a hearty amount of disdain over the content on stage. Soon all of Twittr was dominated with conversations about this train wreck of an interview. Then, the worst of social media took over - the crowd simply started shouting out questions and took over the interview.

Frankly, I don’t think this was a bad thing, though I’m sure the journalist doing the interview would disagree. She was asking dumb, self-aggrandizing questions, and that the crowd took her to task for it, well, just think of it as a real-time evaluation, combined with a chance to salvage the keynote and give people what they wanted. (Some people point out that Zucherberg is a notoriously difficult interview and she did the best she could. In that case, perhaps he wasn’t the best choice for an interview-format keynote, eh?).

Was it rude? Oh yeah. Did it hurt the interviewer’s feelings? Probably. But this is just a high-tech version of the tomato-throwing that’s been going on as long as acts have been on a stage, IMHO. It’s just that the reach is longer now that it extends beyond the auditorium and into cyberspace.

All I can say is: The buyers are no longer willing to put up with goods they deem unworthy of their time and attention when it comes to conferences, and they may not be shy about letting the speaker know it. Caveat orator.

Mike Mason from the Farm Credit Council again is posting lessons learned from this year’s meeting. I especially like that he actually tried some of the meeting print program improvements he posted about last year, even if they didn’t always work out quite like he thought they would.

Sadly, two things he learned are 1) that attendees don’t like change, and 2) the tech corollary that those who are on board with technology already still are up on the latest, while those who aren’t, aren’t. This may just be specific to his market, but I don’t think so.

We may be at the point where the digital divide is pretty much set. I mean, social networking has been around long enough now that those who are interested have already given it a shot, and those who aren’t have already marshaled their arguments against it (see Ben’s synoposis of these arguments here). We may be able to nudge a few more holdouts over the fence, but my feeling is that the lines are already drawn.

But, believe it or not, I have been wrong. Maybe there just hasn’t been enough time yet to win over the luddites. With the pace of change in technology, though, those who aren’t on the bus may find themselves too far behind to catch up even if they do have a change of heart. My feeling is that they are missing out, but who knows, maybe they’re right and all this blog/Wiki/LinkedIn/Twitter stuff isn’t ultimately worth paying attention to. Naw.

The South By Southwest media and music conference, aka SXSW, is getting a reputation for using the latest technology to enhance the experience for attendees. This year, according to this Wired article, the technology was Sched.org, a scheduling application that sounds like a godsend for meetings. From the article:

The login is simple — just pick a user name and password and Sched.org sets up your account. Each day’s festival events are laid out in their own tab. Click on a tab to browse the events and pick which panel, film or music show you want to attend. One click adds the item to a personalized page with a unique URL, which can be bookmarked on a mobile device (it looks great on an iPhone) or printed out. You can also see who is attending which event, and sort the events by popularity.

I have got to check this out for myself!

I ran across this on a bulletin board I frequent and thought it was worth sharing:

“Don’t listen to the voice in your head without verifying the identity of the speaker.”

Made me stop and think, anyway.

Check out the Cactus Cuties, a singing group of eight- to 13-year-old girls singing The Star Spangled Banner at the Texas Tech vs Texas basketball game earlier this year. Here’s the video link.

What a way to start off any event! Thanks to Dianne for the link–they are amazing. Imagine how good they’ll be by the time they hit sweet 16…

The list of best geek hotels is in: Here they are. Figures, I haven’t stayed in any of them. Yet.

Here are a couple of good Web sites for planners, courtesy of Jim Spellos of Meeting-U’s Techniques e-newsletter:

The first one is just for those looking for a new job: Indeed, which Spellos calls “a search engine for jobs” where you can browse what sounds like a big assortment of Web-based job listings. And you can subscribe to an RSS feed for your specific job results so you can stay updated.

This one could come in handy for meetings: Walk Score, where you can find out what’s within walking distance of your meeting.

Thanks as always to Jim for collecting a wide variety of interesting tips and sites! If you don’t subscribe to MeetingU Techniques, I highly recommend you do–you can sign up here.

PowerPoint karaoke–where people pick up random presentations from the Web and wing ‘em in front of an audience–is no longer just for geeks, according to this article in the Boston Globe. Here’s how it works, from the article:

In a typical event, a few brave people volunteer to “present” a random deck of slides pulled off the Web, or borrowed from friends or employers. (I first heard about PowerPoint Karaoke when an organizer asked if she could use a deck I had presented on word meanings.) The audience laughs, cheers, and yells out suggestions as the presenters gamely struggle to link one slide to the next, transforming something that probably started life as a tedious corporate monologue into a five-minute flight of creative irony.

I can’t imagine you could use it in any formal way for a conference, but how much fun would it be to incorporate it into a social event? The article does say people have been using this at meetings, but doesn’t explain how. But you all are creative, so I’m sure you can come up with something.