People Talking

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  • Twitter account not used for conference
  • First NOCAC meeting
  • How to spread the word about the conference

(Note – Post originally written July 10, 2013)

Previously, I wrote:

A decision like this could only be considered in the context of EO as a whole – how do we want to use the twitter account as an organization, and how do we each use our own twitter accounts in connection with our work.

Unfortunately, this didn’t actually turn out to be the case. The decision was made in isolation, not in the context of English Online (EO) as a whole. The EO Twitter account strangely won’t be used for conference purposes. But! We can’t wish away restrictions that are out of our control. AND! The EO Twitter account is still a great one to follow.

We’ll use individual Twitter accounts for the conference, from EO members and from Advisory Committee (NOCAC) members. (hashtag coming soon!)

Speaking of NOCAC, we had our first meeting yesterday and it was great. There were some technical issues, but in my opinion, these things are nothing to worry about right now. They provide opportunities for simple problem solving which builds community. Discussion is off to a great start in our NOCAC Tutela group, and people seem generally excited to start spreading the news about the conference.

How to get people talking about the conference was the main topic of our discussion, and I feel confident that this aspect of conference promotion will be very low maintenance. Everyone in NOCAC seems well connected and experienced.

Low maintenance is good, because we won’t be able to dwell on any word-of-mouth campaigns for very long – we have to get registration processes, presentation proposal processes, delivery media, and presentation scheduling sorted out rather soon. We need a basic working structure in place that we can revise and tweak if needed. We also need a Keynote speaker or two decided sooner, rather than later.

We’ve got a long list of ongoing activities that will each need to be kicked into high gear at their appropriate times. Right now, we are sorting through some major decisions about registration.