mitch is right, we can’t really ‘fix’ this because there will always be channels. but it’s about the conference taking ownership of the channel to ensure it all works smoothly. possibly even get a guy who will monitor and take care of it.

We need to embrace the new tools, but leverage the fact that this is the only time in the year where a lot of us are physically in the same area. I’ve got some ideas on this, as I’m sure you do…

Also, I’ll do my best to have A/C at more tables, to make sure no one is left out..

Most of what I want to say has been said, so let me just highlight some of the key threads in this discussion:

1) Julien kicked off the conference with the suggestion that people close their laptops and open their minds

2) The new reality is a social network that extends beyond physical limits, and people invest heavily in keeping those networks alive and the discussion alive

3) There is a certain amount of respect/decorum that is expected when people are presenting and others listening

4) IMing that assists people and adds value to the community has a place in extending the reach of the conference and its participants

5) Treat others in an online world they way you would treat them in person

Did I capture it all?

Both Bob and Mark made a comment on the fact that people had moved to the front tables on Sunday morning, and I was one of the people who did so. It wasn’t because I felt sorry for these poor tables, all set up and not used, but because I was tired of feeling outcasted by sitting near the back without a laptop.

On Saturday, there were multiple times I wanted to introduce myself, or simply say hello, to people nearby, or even at the same table, but because they were participating in the chat, I felt as though I would be interrupting them. I wouldn’t interrupt Bob talking to Mark, and I wouldn’t interrupt him if he was that active in a text-based conversation to him, either. I ended up having to wait until the conference was done for the day to simply say hello to the other person at my table.

And while I said I would avoid discussing the interruption side, the decision to move to the front was based on this: If I’m not going to to be able to meet and network with the people around me, I might as well sit at the front, alone, to take in the speaker’s presentations.

Now, all of that said, I am on Mitch’s side. Things like this chat room and Twitter conversations, and IMs and Facebook discussions and forum threads are going to happen. It’s a reality of the world we’re in these days. I can see the value in having them around (Though, unofficial of course) and can see the value in not. I guess I just, personally, wasn’t expecting it to be so obvious and clustered together.

I’ll be back next year, likely laptop-less again, and with or without a back channel of sorts.

Thanks for the great times.

Thanks!

Yeah, the positive surely outweigh any negative from PAB which was small to begin with.

I will use lan anecdote from teaching intro psych a few years back. So there were maybe oh 100 or so students in the class. They were a fairly unruly group (the 2003 first year at Memorial was an odd bucnh, dunno why….) and they talked a lot. Now one expects that in a large group.

One day I was doing my thing and I heard a conversation, rather clearly, about a girl a guy picked up in the bar the night before. I stopped the class and asked him what she was wearing….

OK, another anecdote, same class. I actually was teaching about divided attention. When we listen to two conversations at once we usually cannot get the content from the unattended one. We cannot even tell if the language changes (cool result, replicated a number of times). So I was actually teaching about that. I am (functionally) bilingual, so I switched into French. Now NF is not noted as a province of French speakers… Most of them had no idea I had switched.

When they talked about what I was talking about I never got distracted.

I also once told them the human eye was filled with a rich caramel centre, but that is, alas, another story….

Thanks for this post and discussion Bob.

Dave

Public apology for anyone taking I said “seriously” as I was using the chat room to goof around… not to hurt anyone. I know I did not type one single line of “serious” – ever.

Let’s focus on the POSITIVE! We raised some great money, donated tons of books and we all connected, learned and networked.

We can’t moderate or control this. If it wasn’t the chatroom, it would have been Facebook, twitter or a Blog posting. This is the new reality – I’m used to it as a speaker and an attendee.

People should be sensitive to those presenting, and as a presenter, I am comfortable knowing that some (sadly, sometimes more) are just going to tune out and do their thing.

So again, apologies to anyone who took the chat room seriously. I think those involved (like me) just saw it as a way to muck around.

Do you really think “orange” is my safety word

Let’s move this conversation on to what we did get done: personal growth, great new friendships, lifelong learnings and making a difference in the local community.

Way to go Bob, Mark, Cat and Andrea!!!