We all know the value of face-to-face discussions to inspire and engage. but how do you effectively involve people who cannot be there, and how do you capture a multitude of sessions, viewpoints and impressions?
Published on: 10/10/2011
The resulting “social report” is made accessible, usually online, as soon as possible, sometimes as a half-product. This allows others to join in, to extend, to adjust or remix. CGIAR experience has been that involving participants in an event as 'social reporters' will result in them being more actively engaged while at the same time the blogging, tweeting and photos can stimulate your audience to reflect and contribute to the content discussions and engage with other participants.
During the week, there were thousands of twitter tweets (using the tag #sfrome and for the KM4Dev meetings #KM4Dev). Some sessions were webcast live (link to the webcasting programme below). A whole lot of blogposts and short videos were produced ( the aggregated feeds are below) and there was activity on Facebook . Social reporters contributed to over 1000 photos on Flickr and a daily newsletter (both below)highlighted key issues from selected sessions each day.At the sharefare, the integrated Webcast with Facebook and Twitter helped make the sessions more interactive, for example questions from twitter and Facebook were included in the discussion in the room. I talked to Gauri Salokhe, IKM Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and working behind the scenes at the Share Fair. In this video, she explains why and how social reporting has been done during the 2011 ShareFair and the value it brings.
Want to learn more about how to make social reporting a success? CGIAR has compiled useful tips and tricks and developed a handy guide: “Social Reporting from Conferences, Workshops and Other Events – A practical guide for organisers”. In the session on 'social media for development' (session #206) we learned that social media can help us shift from being event-oriented to continuous sharing of information- a conversation that continues after the event. I hope this is true for the Share Fair too and we can continue to share and learn! (by Carmen)
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