Incorporating Social Media into the Conference Experience

Encouraging conference participants and even an industry as a whole to communicate can be challenging. NurseryWorks, a conference for commercial nursery growers and retail garden centers (15–16 June 2011), made use of new social media tools to foster conversation before, during, and after the event. Participants from 13 states convened both online (7) and in person (87) to learn cutting-edge techniques for nursery crop production. Technology tools employed for this conference included Twitter (@Nursery_Works), Facebook (www.facebook.com/NurseryWorks), Google Moderator, Adobe Connect, YouTube and a conference website (www.ksu.edu/NurseryWorks). While participants on-site had opportunities to interact face to face, participants from around the country were able to interact both among themselves and with on-site participants. This was achieved primarily through Twitter (a search for the conference hashtag, #NurseryWorks, revealed the entire conversation, even if participants did not have a Twitter account). In addition to projection screens for speaker content, two screens at the sides of the room displayed the discussions happening on Twitter and Google Moderator (both discussed content from speaker presentations). Google Moderator was less effective than Twitter, most likely due to a lack of user familiarity and the ability for online participants to use the chat window in Adobe Connect to ask questions. YouTube was used to share videos created for the conference which profiled local growers, shared content from speakers as well as an audio slide story created after the event. The Facebook and Twitter sites continue to share information pertinent to nursery crop production and retail garden center operation with “fans” (about 60 for Facebook and 110 on Twitter). Use of these tools continues to be an effective way to connect with stakeholders, while also building an audience for future conferences.