Your ADD Audience of the Future
Monday - November 10, 2008We have seen the the future of conventions and conferences this week – and it was everything we’ve ever wished for. Unfortunately, we learned, it’s not what we wanted.
These past few years we’ve been hanging out at conventions and conferences. We’ve been lucky enough to speak at some of them, paid our way into many more and have even “covered” a few, disguised as reporters.
Here’s what we’ve always wished for – and rarely gotten:
A) Somewhere to Plug in Our Laptops
B) Wireless Hotel Connections
C) A Way to Not Feel Conspicuous Toting a Laptop
D) A Seat Far Enough Away from the Stage so as Not to Distract
This past week at a technology conference called Defrag 2008 we got it all:
A) Somewhere to Plug in Our Laptops - in fact, every bank of tables had two or three power strips.
B) Wireless Hotel Connections - the conference provided it FREE for everyone attending.
C) A Way to Not Feel Conspicuous Using a Laptop – no worry here, I think we saw one laptop-less attendee.
D) A Seat Far Enough Away from the Stage so as Not to Distract – it made no difference whatsoever where we sat. People in the first row, even, were answering emails with the abandon of Scott Friedman at NSA chapter meetings.
The Net Result
Yes, we got what we wanted, but the result was appalling. The constant use of Twitter, text messaging, IPhone doodling and laptop micro-blogging drove us nuts. The audience inattention was shocking. Pardon me, the audience multi-tasking was singularly impressive. Depends on your view.
Don’t get me wrong, Defrag 2008 had great keynote speakers, superb panelists, served Starbucks coffee and gave away tons of high-dollar gifts.
The attendees were some of the best minds in technology – not a bunch of goof-offs. But, they exhibited group ADD symptoms that would allow them to ignore even the most well-crafted keynote.
If you think you’re gonna’ love speaking to the audience of the future – you might want to think again. And, you’d better stop wishing for those wireless connections and power strips, right now.
Editors Note 1: The photo used in this post is from the Defrag 2008 conference and was taken by Micah Baldwin, bigwig at Ligit and publisher of LearnToDuck.com.
Editors Note 2: By the way, if you want to go to a meeting where people still mostly pay attention to the speaker (except for Scott, of course), boogie on over to the Denver Athletic Club this Saturday at 8:30 AM. for November’s National Speakers Association Denver chapter meeting. The featured speakers are David Nour (we’ve written about him before in Give Them 90 Minutes and They’ll Make You a Better…) and Ron Karr, who we don’t know from Adam, but we’re sure will be very good.
Michael,
Yikes! You speak the truth. We do need to be careful what we ask for…we’re getting it! As another speaker, the audience just upped the ante on how great we MUST be to hold their attention. Good. Opportunity for all of us to be more engaging. Thanks for the inspiration
Hi Terri,
It was interesting then to attend the NSA chapter meeting this past Saturday, where Gina Schreck and Brad Montgomery were Twittering, out of about 90 people attending. Most people paid attention to the speakers! But, something tells me it won’t last long!
When I twitter and do anything else, twitter is really taking 80% of my attention. That can be a problem; you’re so busy “sharing” the moment that you miss the moment.
an interesting viewpoint. I’ve never thought of it from the perspective of the speaker and how you need to craft a presentation to cut through noise even in a room full of people who have paid to come hear you speak. I wonder if there’s a way to craft these new (and not so new) communication mediums into the presentation itself… attendees get little nuggets of information throughout the presentation via email or if they’re following you on Twitter… Or spend the 1st few minutes checking your email and tweeting and speaking all at the same time…
Thanks Wendy,
Speakers will definitely need to upgrade their stage presence and content to deal with the ADD audience of the future. What we find most surprising, though, is that the audiences at a tech conferences are now so different from the audiences of a “normal” conference. Whether it’s the Florida Healtcare Association or the Washington State Dept. of Community, Trade and Economic Development or the Women of Coors – it doesn’t matter – maybe 2% of the audience has ever even heard of Twitter and fewer are doing it. The gulf is wide – and I’m not convinced that the Twitter advocates understand that the average person is on a completely different planet. Not sure what’s good – what’s bad – just know that the gulf is wide.
Just as a for instance, many people are now saying “blogging is dead,” well before most people ever had time to wonder if it might be a good thing for them to do. Seems to me that Twitter may well come and go before most of us wonder if we need it.
As I say – not sure – which is why we write and wonder about this stuff.
And, sorry Ellen,
We tried recently to Twitter during Sam Silverstein’s keynote at the last National Speakers Association Denver Chapter meeting. I simply couldn’t do it – and pay attention at the same time. Had to put down my laptop, take a yellow legal pad out, move to the front row and CONCENTRATE on what the speaker was saying.
You are right – when I’m doing something like Twitter – I miss the moments.