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Crowdsourcing, it's pretty much everywhere and if you don't know about it yet, and how it can be applied to your world, I encourage you to learn. Jeff Howe, coined the term, "Crowdsourcing", and does a nice job explaining this technique and various applications here: http://crowdsourcing.typepad.com/ - The unintended consequence of Crowdsourcing is the unreal social media proliferation it can create when a buzz-worthy competition is launched.
So let's talk about your world, your event, and your brand. How can YOU apply Crowdsourcing at your next event? Luckily, there's an App. for that, and it's called CrowdCampaign. For the sake of transparency/disclosure, my company (the Social Collective) created this App. I "assisted" our lead dev. in creating and iterating through this creation, and yes, it is stellar, uber easy to use, incredibly effective, and refreshingly inexpensive. ENOUGH SELF PROMO #Agreed
Back to YOU, your event and how you should be implementing Crowdsourcing at your next conference or gathering. We all know attendees and sponsors love to participate and be part of the process, so let them do exactly that, just make sure you are doing it in the social arena where their participation translates into proliferation. Here are some ideas for your next event:
- Crowdsource the best questions your attendees want the keynote(s) to answer ~ furthermore, if your keynote has an impressive social graph to reach out to, talk to him/her during the courting process and let them know your intentions and that their social support of this initiative is part of the gig. This is GREAT for their personal brand too, so get them on board and leverage their massive audience to get new eyes to your content, your contest, your event.
- Crowdsource for proposals and topic suggestions - Ask the crowd what is relevant to their world and what they want to learn about at your event. Take it a step further and offer up some speaking slots and panel positions for best ideas. #SXSW is KING in this arena, their panel picker is an annual event unto itself at this point.
- Ask the crowd who they are most excited to see live and why? If you've got an array of talented speakers, find out who your attendees are pumped to hear and get them sharing this excitement with their peers. If you run an expo, find out what new tech., or gadget, or service, or product the crowd is most excited to learn about. Just ask them, they will voice their opinion.
- Ask the crowd "What's the #1 Take Away or Best Idea learned and how they plan on implementing it?" Your attendees sharing stories on how they intend to apply what they learned at YOUR event, that is SM gold.
- Post-Event, use Crowdsourcing to extend the life of your event and ask the crowd "Who Wow'd YOU at XYZ '09 and Why?" OR "What's the one thing YOU would love to see XYZ Event incorporate for our 2010 Event and Why?" Either is a huge win and will naturally extend the life of your physical event.
Call or Ping me to sched. a demo and learn more about CrowdCampaign. Your event needs more participation. This is the way to do it simply, inexpensively, and in a branded package that gets eyes and ears on YOUR event.
Clinton
the Social Collective
clinton@thesocialcollective.com
860.608.9074
http://twitter.com/clintonbon
