10 ways social media transforms events

1. Attendees will not wait for microphones to ask questions. They will text or tweet those questions as they think of them. Attendees will not wait until the end of a session to ask questions that came up in the first five minutes of the presentation. This does not mean that the speaker has to stop his presentation to answer the questions. Rather, there should be a mechanism to send questions to the speaker in real time.

2. Attendees will answer questions for the speaker - while he/she is talking. If the questions for the speaker are streamed through the backchannel, these questions will be available to all attendees. E-learning research tells us that it is very likely that attendees will start answering each other's questions, while the speaker is still talking.

3. Attendees will tell you that the speaker is poor, the ice sculpture is melting and the croissants are stale—in real time. With Social Media, the feedback can be instant and shared with everyone. You should be prepared to adapt your onsite operations to this new reality.

4. Attendees will expect to connect with other delegates before, during and after the event. Time is precious. Rather than nametag surf through the crowd, attendees will setup meetings with like-minded delegates before the event. After the event they will want to keep the conversation going. It will be important that events help them stay connected and translate their face-to-face contacts back into the digital world.

5. Virtual attendees will start using social media to engage with your content and the onsite face-to-face attendees. Social Media and other digital technologies will help virtual attendees join the onsite discussion. They will do this from 3,000 miles away. It will be important to make the experience inclusive and collaborative for all attendees.

6. Attendees will want a voice in the discussion, learning and decision making process. The gap between the experts that are speaking on stage and the amateurs in the audience has never been smaller. Attendees are well educated, informed and have information at their fingertips. As this gap continues to shrink, attendees will expect to be part of the discussion, learning and decision making processes. No more speakers talking and attendees listening!

7. New events will emerge from online communities. It is easier than ever to create an online group, build an audience and start discussions. However, there is still a strong desire for members to meet face-to-face. In 2009, we saw many new events created around Twitter. In the coming years, we will see many more events emerge out of online communities. Equally important, events that do not embrace online communities will be adversely affected and maybe even close.

8. Attendees will register for your event if their contacts are attending. In the future, knowing if friends or business associates are attending an event will become part of the attendee's decision process. Social media tools that check to see if my Linkedin connections, Twitter followers or Facebook friends are attending an event already exist. Over time, I think that we will see more of these tools implemented in events.

9. Events will become communities that last for weeks and months rather than a few short days. Event specific social networks, create a social hub where we can start conversations before events and continue them long after the event finished. Creating a social space where attendees can network and discuss trends, hot topics, industry (or business) challenges and best practices will be extend the life of your event.

10. Shared content will be the way that your event is discovered by new attendees. Your webcasts, webinars, blog posts and whitepapers will need to be interesting, relevant and easy to share. Then, your participants and raving fans will start forwarding, tweeting and facebooking this content to their like minded friends. This will introduce new people to your event and the type of education and thought leadership that you provide. Also, this will make it easier to search and find your event.

Bottom Line: Event professionals need to be prepared for this transformation in behavior and participation