Tolkien and the Value of a Conference
We’ve just returned from the 12th Annual RPI Conference in Naples, FL and spent a good bit of the morning debriefing and sharing big ideas and takeaways. If you’re not familiar with RPI and you’ve got any stake whatsoever in your organization’s recognition strategy, you owe it to yourself to spend some time on their site.
In short, it was a great trip. We heard and shared ideas, made new connections, and reunited with friendly faces. And like most organizations, RPI was doing exactly what they should be doing: experimenting with how to incorporate social networking in to the event. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook. You know the chorus.
RPI’s leaders have done a great job of giving us all the opportunity to connect before, during, and after the conference. I’ll be very interested to see how the online community evolves over the next year.
But this is what I want to get to: some people have suggested that apps like Twitter, LinkedIn and Ning will replace organizations like RPI and conferences like the one we just attended. That if anyone, anywhere, with any interest, can connect online, for free, with anyone, anywhere, with the same interest, then why should they pay for dues, lodging, and airfare to be a part of a community?
Why? Because the book is usually better than the movie.
Let me state for the record that I am a strong advocate for Twitter and its cousins. I’ve been Twittering since March of ’07 when there were just a few hundred thousand users. There are now fifteen million. It feels a bit like a guy who used to watch Dave Matthews in a bar in Charlottesville with thirty-two other people. Now he’s going to consecutive sold-out shows at the Garden. And there are hecklers! What’s that about?
So yes, I love Twitter, but I love it for what it’s good at, deepening friendships, not creating them. I think online communities are a fantastic invention, but most valuable when they lay the groundwork for conversations that will take place face-to-face, or to continue the ones that were cut short.
A few of us had some free hours one afternoon so we went down to the beach for a swim and came upon two other attendees. One we’d been in touch with for years, the other we’d become closer friends with on this visit. Simply put, Ning does not have an answer to floating in the Gulf of Mexico and sharing funny stories about our kids with one another.
That night at dinner, the topic of Modern Art came up quite organically and our table had a lively discussion about creative expression. Again, as much as I love it and for all it’s @reply and direct message features, nobody was speaking in 140 characters or less.
This is not to say that online communities and social networking will not replace conventional organizations and conventions, just that if they do it will be akin to choosing Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings (which is great) over Tolkien’s (which is unparalleled).
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