I just returned from 2009 Mesh Conference in Toronto.
Mesh does so many things right, it has to inspire you about planning your next conference or event.
Remember, in thinking about your event, the only people who matter are your attendees and potential future attendees.
As Mike Masnick shared at Mesh 2009 – Information and Content is free. Distribute it to as large an audience as possible.
What Mesh Does Really Well:
- Event planning with content capturing in mind. A large number of photographers and videographers using a whole range of cameras, right down to Flip Video made sure content was captured in a variety of settings.
- As an attendee, you often can’t see every session you’d like to. Archived video allows attendees to come back to your site to reconnect with content they enjoyed and discover presentations and panels they missed.
- Interviews with conference attendees provide credibility boost for your event and presenter interviews created NEW content that even attendees will not have seen. This creates a desire for attendees to return to the Web site even after the event is over to see what they missed.
- Distribute Video in HD – immediately. Want to know what was presented at mesh 2009, check out the iTunes link.
- Make your content embeddable. By posting content as quickly as possible on MeshConference TV and making it embeddable, attendees and others could share the great presentations beyond even the Mesh Web site.
- Twitter tags #askmesh were an invitation to ask questions of presenters. Twitter is an open platform, non-attendees could even ask questions of presenters.
- Mesh also had a designated twitter id (@meshconference) that regularly posted content.
- By encouraging audience members to use the conference tags #mesh09 Outside followers could see what was happening (and be very jealous – especially during social time)
Protecting your content? Get over it.
Some conference organizers worry about the distribution of their content beyond the walls. Get over it. Plan for distribution beyond the walls and watch your future conference events grow.
People never come to your event for content, they come for Inspiration, Sharing and Connecting.
The more you share, the more eyeballs see your content, the more your fans will rave about you, link to you and tell others about your event.
The more you share, the more non-attending prospects will wonder what great people and conversations they missed due to the content they experience across the Web at your conference site and others.
See also: Sharing beyond the walls
