One of the best things for me about social media is the opportunity to meet new people both online and off. And Event Camp Twin Cities was one of those wonderful opportunities.

The Event Camp meetings are an outgrowth from the #eventprofs community on Twitter. This community is made up of event and tradeshow professionals from around the globe. They meet online through regular conversations and scheduled chats that discuss topics of concern for the industry. Recent topics have included green issues for events, mobile technologies, engaging audiences, and crisis management. But the Event Camp meetings take it one step farther by hosting live events where community members can get to know each other better, as well as experiment with progressive meeting formats and technologies.

Event Camp Twin Cities broke new ground by simultaneously holding the event in three physical locations: Minneapolis, Dallas, and Switzerland. All locations had video feed of the other two locations throughout the sessions. As well, over 550 (corrected stat) virtual attendees participated online, viewing the video feed of the presentations in Minneapolis in real time and following along on Twitter. The virtual audience was kept up to date by the talented tradeshow presenter, Emilie Barta (@EmilieBarta).

I had the privilege of being the Twitter moderator for the event. It was so encouraging to see so many engaged attendees in the virtual audience! One of the important takeaways for me was seeing how many of the virtual attendees were expressing how they wish they could have been at the event in person and that they were anxious to attend future Event Camps. A heads up for those who market events and shows!

Here are some great blog posts that review this hybrid event is greater detail (including three from two of my #eventprofs pals!):

• New Ways of Meeting, Teaching and Training at Event Camp Twin Cities by Mike Thimmesch, Skyline Trade Show Tips
• 14 Tips I Learned About Collaboration at Events from ECTC by Jenise Fryatt, Sound n’ Sight
• Top 16 Links on Event Camp Twin Cities and Hybrid Events by Jenise Fryatt, Sound n’ Sight
• See the entire virtual program brought to you by Intefy & Sonic Foundry by clicking here

Kudos to Sam Smith (@samueljsmith) and Ray Hansen (@rayhansen) for putting it all together, both the real and the virtual, for Event Camp Twin Cities! I’d also like to give them a shout out for choosing a greener promotional product for the event. See what they did here:

Click Here to See Event Camp Twin Cities Greener Promotion on YouTube

But as I mentioned earlier, one of the greatest things for me is the chance to meet so many of my online friends in real life. Here’s a quick video of a lunchtime tweetup of my #eventprofs friends during the Twin Cities event. Featured are Lara McCulloch (@ready2spark), Lindsey Rosenthal (@eventsforgood), Jenise Fryatt (@jenisefryatt), Adrian Segar (@asegar), Brandt Krueger (@brandtkrueger), Greg Ruby (@gregruby), and, of course, me.

Want to experience Event Camp for yourself? Plan to join us at Event Camp East Coast, November 12-13, 2010, and Event Camp National Conference in Chicago, February 11-13, 2011.

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