Christopher Brown’s Blog

Last week I attended the successful and hugely popular JISC Conference (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/2009/03/jiscconference09.aspx). Yes I know I work for JISC so I would say that, but even before I joined JISC I was always impressed by the quality of their conferences, stands and their whole approach to marketing and communications. What I particular like about the JISC conference is the way the live feed opens up the event to everyone. Wouldn’t it be great if more conferences could do this? I am all for enablers and open access and this event was a perfect example. The JISC Events Blog (http://events.jiscinvolve.org/category/jisc09/) also allowed people to participate and give feedback to each part of the event.

The thing that struck me most about this year was how Twitter can be used as an efficient communication tool. This was particularly evident in James Farnhill and Lawrie Phipps’ “As You Like Identity” session (http://events.jiscinvolve.org/session-as-you-like-identity/) where not only were the audience Tweeting during the session but people who weren’t there were answering these Tweets. This session broke from the traditional format of having a number of presenters and was more of an interactive session which encouraged audience participation. With the live feed of keynotes and some sessions anyone tagging their Tweets with the tag JISC09 could get involved interactively even if they weren’t physically at the event. It didn’t just end when the event closed as people are still Tweeting and even if you don’t use Twitter you can read these on the main conference page (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/2009/03/jiscconference09.aspx).

As well as the sessions, the exhibition and the opportunity to network both the opening and closing sessions were excellent and thought provoking. I would recommend listening (or watching once the videos are online) to both of these if you get the chance. And to continue my Twitter theme, as Ewan McIntosh said in his closing keynote to the audience, if you’re not Twittering you are just watching, you are not involved. That might have alienated 95% of the audience but hopefully it has encouraged more people to get involved. A comment made to me at the end of the event was that the conference was great for coming up with ideas, but what happens after the event to move these forward. I would suggest that the Blog and the Twittering are key enablers in making this happen.