How to Present While People are Twittering

This is a guest post from esteemed presentations and speaking expert Olivia Mitchell. People used to whisper to each other or pass hand-scribbled notes during presentations. Now these notes are going digital on Twitter or via conference-provided chat rooms. Up until now, this back-channel has been mainly confined to the Internet industry and technology conferences. However, a survey of leadership conferences from Weber Shandwick shows that there is a significant increase in blogging and twittering at conferences. So the next time you present at a conference, instead of being confronted by a sea of faces looking at you, you may be phased by a sea of heads looking down at their laptops. Photo credit : Pete Lambert Benefits of the back channel to the audience As a presenter, the idea of presenting while people are talking about you is disconcerting. 1. As a presenter, you might be worried that the back-channel will be distracting. Rachel Happe adds: 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. What about the speaker? Related: