Online Conference - an IDeA Breakthrough?
In my first blog (first ever) I talked about the transparency of Web 2 - how the silence can be deafening. So while the registrations to the IDeA communities of practice look really great with over 12,500 registered users, the amount of communication actually happening through those communities is not always as impressive. Given this relative silence, the online conference on customer insight, currently taking place on the IDeA CoP platform feels like a real breakthrough.
Ingrid Koehler, and the others responsible, will no doubt reveal all when it’s finished but from where I’m sitting it seems like they did a number of things right. Firstly the topic is something specific and something which is being grappled with now - its really interesting. Secondly interesting content was lined up both in form of presentations and with the active involvement of the presenters throughout the process. Thirdly, it was promoted upfront to an audience known to be interested - the growing registration list provides information on that audience. Fourthly, Ingrid kept the buzz going throughout the event.
No doubt there will be lessons learnt for the next one and Ingrid will share them - for me the small bit of video worked really well - seeing Mary Tetlow bought the whole presentation to life. It also raised the more general question as to whether we should be using more video on the rest of the web site (only one answer really!).
So massive progress, particularly given that its only the second effort. The concept has really been proved. The challenge now is to both develop the technique and to exploit in the huge range of areas where it has obvious application. I’m particularly keen to see how it could be used to promote the practice emerging from the Beacons scheme - getting the authorities acknowledged as experts to both talk to each other and everyone else online seems such an obvious application.
Looking back on my first blog - well only 4 comments so far - not exactly a ringing endorsement. However a lot of people did send me emails. Hopefully people will share their comments with everyone else next time on the blog.
I am the Director of Services at the 
John - absolutely agree. It’s good to see people making use of the CoP facilities.
Hi John - I was one of the lurkers who enjoyed your first post but didn’t comment - so thought I’d post this time just to reassure you that you have an audience! Please do keep blogging.
I was interested to see your reference to the use of video. I’ve done some work with Rose Doran to create some videos for the Community Cohesion CoP (and we’ve used some other social media tools within the CoP as well). Once you’re in the CoP, you can see more at http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/c/559625/forum/thread.do?backlink=ref&id=608535
Best wishes,
Stuart Reid
[...] Online Conference - an IDeA Breakthrough? | John’s Idea IDeA’s John Hayes blogs again - good to see he is sticking at it. (tags: john+hayes johnsidea idea) [...]
[...] will be sharing our lessons about the event more broadly. The IDeA’s Director of Services John Hayes hints in his blog that it might be a breakthrough for online activity. I hope so. We’re going to be looking at how we run online events and what kind we’ll run [...]