David Spark of the Spark Minute and Spark Media Solutions will sub-hosting for Alec Saunders tomorrow (Friday) on the SquawkBox.
The call is tomorrow, Friday, March 14th at 8am Pacific, 11am Eastern. Call lasts from 30-40 minutes.
Tomorrow's guest: Patrick Kearney of the PJK Podcast and the VP of Technology and Platforms for Participant Productions
Tomorrow's subjects:
1. Twitter is the digital peanut gallery – The Zuckerberg-Lacy fiasco at SXSW showed how Twitter has allowed those people in a room to talk collectively about what they're watching, and let those who are "following" them to listen in as well. It's the equivalent of passing notes back in forth in class, but letting everyone know who's not in class. Will this event put event producers and panelists more on their toes? Will they be more prepared? Or should there be a "no Twitter" policy like in class when teachers wouldn't let us pass notes? It's a great topic for our guest Patrick Kearney, because his show, the PJK Podcast constantly poses the question: "Is technology making our lives easier or more difficult?"
2 . Reinventing conferences and panel sessions – We have all suffered through interminably boring conferences and panel sessions. The conference producers do very little to make sure their panels are interesting. They simply leave it all up to the participants in the session. I'm looking for a roundtable of ideas to give a shot in the arm to the conference industry. What are some new and inventive ideas to make conferences more interesting and engaging? Most of our conference call participants have been moderators, speakers, or panelists at conferences. They should all have some valuable input. In addition, it's a subject near and dear to my heart as I've written a few pieces of this very subject.
- How to deal with rough crowds: A stand-up comic's advice for Sarah Lacy
- How to "Web 2.0-Enable" your Live Event (PDF)
- More Schmooze, Less Snooze: How to Deliver "The Most Talked About" Conference Session (PDF)
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
