Capturing an audience’s undivided attention is one of the most powerful yet challenging goals for today’s communicators. At Euro RSCG Worldwide PR we often recommend events as a weapon of choice in waging this battle, because they can provide an opportunity to fully engage the audience, taking participants away from everyday distractions and placing them within our clients’ sphere of influence. 

We all understand the disruptions of the daily grind, especially with the expansion of mobile communication technology. In fact, I’m writing this blog post on a plane because of the blissful break from interruption these few hours provide. Let’s face it, the simple act of turning off the BlackBerry is a slightly cathartic experience!

Don’t misunderstand me—mobile communication has its place in the business world. Professionals in many fields are taking advantage of their mobile devices to stay in prompt touch with customers, offering unparalleled responsiveness and the opportunity for quick issue resolution. These professionals also appreciate staying current on industry happenings through news alerts and word-of-tweet from industry bloggers and colleagues. Staying connected through a mobile device will become even more common in the future. Gartner, Inc. predicts that enterprises in North America will be supporting more mobile phones than desktop phones by 2011. 

One side effect of mobile device proliferation is that most business professionals are using them to stay plugged in at conferences and events, where previously popping open a laptop to check e-mail might have been a bit too conspicuous.  Yes, you can ask the audience to turn off their ringers, but just about everyone will still take a peek every so often to make sure no emergency is at hand. 

Keeping this in mind, we recommended “embracing the Berry” for the managed vision care education track at a recent Transitions Optical, Inc. conference. Anticipating more than 150 vision plan representatives and benefits brokers for a day of education on the latest trends in eyecare and eyewear, the team fully expected a bit of “Berry-browsing” during the event. To keep attendees’ focus on the content at hand, plus add a bit of interactivity and fun to the day’s activities, we set up a Twitter account, @TransitionsMVC.  Pre-event e-mails, tweets and word-of-mouth encouraged attendees to post comments during speaker presentations and “tweet” questions for a panel discussion. Key questions posted through Twitter were projected on the big screen during the Q&A part of the discussion.

What was the response? In addition to conference attendees who signed up for the feed, dozens more reported following the discussion by visiting @TransitionsMVC. In addition, several non-attendees joined the conversation as followers, expanding the audience for the sold-out conference. 

Followers included:

• HR and optical media and bloggers
• Industry partners and associations
• Influential individuals within the HR Twitter-space (at least three of them re-tweeted several tweets from the conference, reaching their large bases of between 3,000 and 6,000 followers)

The Twitter experience received positive reviews and reinforced that Transitions was “with the times.” And the real-time search benefits of Twitter ensured that our tweets about online tools unveiled at the event rose to the top of search engines. The Twitter feed remains active post-event as a way to continue to engage the audience.

We’ve all heard the saying “Change is good,” and this includes changing the way we approach the inclusion of communications technology in an educational setting. A common perception is that social media strategies apply primarily to consumer audiences, but today’s business professionals are linked in both personally and professionally. This makes a social media strategy arguably even more important for a business audience.