"Audiences Gone Wild" [read "The Back Channel of Conference Presentations"]

Sitting under the wifi shower of the lobby of Alan November's Building Learning Communities conference in Boston.  Final day. Ready to go home.  And grab something tasty @ Mike's Pastries in the North End on the way to Logan Airport.

My BLC 07 Take Away numero uno: Thinking less and less about the 'content' of the week, the sessions, the speakers.

My BLC 07 Take Away numero dos:  Thinking, instead, of the multi-platform "back channel" conversations taking place "in the audience."

[Image: "Over Jake's Shoulder" by Will Richardson taken at BLC 07.]

And what it means for audience members. And what it means for presenters.  At the same time.  Especially if they are working in concert.  And the power/knowledge fulcrum evolves in real-time.

Case in point: Had the pleasure of co-presenting with Chris Lehmann (founding principal of the Science Leadership Academy, author of the Practical Theory blog, and all around John-Dewey-goes-2.0 guy). 

[Image: shot of Chris Lehmann mid-presentation taken by Dean Shareski.]

In essence, the topic was a case study of the founding of his school and the unique way that he and I collaborated at one moment along the way about the literal re-design of his school/building.   In truth, however, it was about  helping everyone in the room become a successful change agent and sustain a project at their own school that matters to them.  And if this had been all that happened, that would have been fine.  At least in the past.

What was infinitely more compelling than our own presentation was the fact that throughout the room (and well beyond the 4 walls themselves) were a wide range of folks who were "deconstructing" the presentation in real time via Skype | Twitter | you name it. 

Yup, even more interesting than our own voices, our own case study, our own presentation strategy, and even the fact that we created a wiki to let audience members contribute/collaborate upon ideas long after we were done.

[Image:  took this photo today of the back-row of our presentation; each is Skypechatting the session which you can read the entire transcript of THEIR conversation via David Jakes; can you name the edu-bloggers?]

Like live-blogging, but then the twist *(for me, anyway) comes.

We as presenters -- in real time -- were Skypecasting back to them while presenting without Skype being the 'topic' (or any other 2.0 tool, actually).  It was simply an interwoven part of our ability to not only present our topic...but to customize (if possible) our next ideas for the audience/co-producers based on real feedback.

Even better? 

To realize that the presenters (Chris and I) were NOT the point.   And certainly not the center of attention.  In fact, we were not much more than just one-of-many voices in the mix. 

Even better?

Being able to go home and read the transcript via David Jakes of the AUDIENCE itself -- not just the ideas coming from me/Chris -- and begin to imagine the many 'presentations' and conversations that were spinning off in real time. 

Small parts loosely joined.

Presenters deconstructed. 

Conversations in real time back-channel waters.

Expertise building momentum in the back of the room. 

And perhaps sensing that the future of conferences -- and learning/schooling -- is brighter than I had originally thought.

Comments

[DK]

So gonna be there next year - love the end photo of three of the most highly-respected edu-bloggers on the planet...

Classic!

DK

[Kelly Christopherson]

Thanks for keeping those of us who can't be there updated and in the loop. It's great how we can "attend" and be there from the comfort of our own homes. Would love to be able to attend some time.

[Kern Kelley]

Hey, great meeting you there! So now the back channel becomes the 'only' channel for BLC07 or the only 'unedited' channel.

[Carolyn Foote]

I was really pumped up about attending from afar, and starting thinking about how we could do this within a school building using Skype to open up the walls of the classrooms!

I could feel the earth shifting :)

Thanks for sharing your presentation!
Carolyn