Twitter as a Conference Communication Tool

Download the Twitter Guide for ACOSS 2011 here [PDF].

It seems that everywhere you look, someone is talking about twitter. The 24-hour news cycle and the public’s hunger for celebrity gossip means that the micro-blogging site is the first point of call for content hungry journalists and producers everywhere.

However, twitter is more than just an endless source of tabloid fodder – it’s an invaluable tool for sharing ideas, increasing transparency in Government and civil society, and promoting activism, advocacy and social inclusion.

Twitter is a particularly useful tool when it comes to communicating around conferences such as the upcoming 2011 ACOSS National Conference, to be held in Melbourne on 29-30 March.

The ACOSS Annual Conference is the premier national event for Not for Profit professionals, policy-makers, researchers and anyone engaged in social services or advocacy.

Pro Bono Australia is the official media partner of the 2011 ACOSS conference, and as part of our involvement we will be driving the twitter conversation around the conference. We will also be reporting live from the conference, with a News desk on site where attendees will be able to send out their own tweets.

At previous conferences including the Volunteering Australia National Conference in 2010 and the Social Enterprise World Forum in 2009, Pro Bono Australia has promoted the use of twitter at the conference to great effect.

A twitter app can be downloaded onto most mobile phones, and the ability for people to tweet from almost anywhere is one of the reasons twitter is useful for conferences.

There are a number of ways that twitter is valuable in the conference
setting:

• Instant feedback mechanism, to either conference organisers or speakers
• Networking tool, connecting delegates with like-minded individuals
• Further discussing the issues and themes brought up at the conference
• Posing questions during the conference, to presenters or conference organisers
• Keeping those unable to attend the conference informed of what is going on
• As a way for organisers to send out important information, such as changes to schedules, cancellations, or links to useful materials.

Flickr Image : Some rights reserved by stevegarfield

Pro Bono Australia has put together a basic guide on how to use twitter at the ACOSS 2011 Conference – click here to download the PDF guide. The Guide includes details on the twitter accounts of conference presenters.

To keep up with the twitter conversation during the conference, just go to twitter and search for the conference hashtag #ACOSS2011, or just click here. 

To download a twitter app for your phone, visit http://twitter.com/#!/download or visit m.twitter.com on your phone.

Registrations for the ACOSS conference are open – click here to register.
For full details, including sessions, speakers, and program visit the ACOSS website: www.acoss.org.au