Have you ever followed a conference you couldn't attend on Twitter?
YES, eventcamp2010, buzz2009, ideas10, untech10 to name a few

What was your experience like?
I feel connected, I can see who is there and it allows me to look at some descent resources I wouldn't have otherwise known about. Those tweeting usually are smart, resourceful, connected people so it's a good oppty to learn. I also can contribute to the conversation back channel as needed which is also nice.

What was good and what could have been better?
Twitter moves fast. A lot of conversations happen so you need to have your eyes glued to it to really get something out of it real time. Otherwise, you end up scrolling. So what would be nice is if in addition to the RT feature, there was a ranking feature so I could just look at the top ranked content, not just shout outs.

As an event pro, what might you do differently to feed the learning of folks who couldn't attend?
I would take the backchannel, go through the entire thing, flag the good stuff and cut out the chatter. Then, send this to a editor who would rewrite the tweets in a journalistic style, It would be organized, have links, and have good tone. Then share this back to the community and my members. I wouldn't charge for it (never!!!) as it becomes as marketing tool to drive interest into my organization. If it were a multi day event, I would share the content days after the event (on my assn blog) one day at a time... never give it all away at once and by blogging it, it makes it easily findable (google) and sharable (T and FB).

To cover costs, I might ask a sponsor to chip in (give them exposure)... were talking this whole thing could probably be done for under $500 and some internal time. Heck, get a few sponsors and generate some revenue.

Lindy, You should check out Mike McCurry's blog, McCurry's Corner: http://www.michaelmccurry.net/ He has written several posts on the subject.

Carey (my nickname)
(Anne) Carey, CMP
Meeting & Event Planner
Chicago