Conference organizers invite you to "live Twitter" (or even "pre-Twitter") the 2009 MWCA Regional Conference. By twittering the conference, we hope to 1) build a growing sense of awareness as the conference approaches, 2) provide a means of extending conference conversations, and 3) include in conference activites those who are unable to attend. Our closing plenary session on Saturday afternoon will incorporate "tweets" from throughout the conference--from both those in attendance and those who are absent.
Getting Started
If you are new to Twitter, recognize that its ubiquity is due in part to its ease of use.
In order to contribute to the live twittering of the 2009 MWCA Regional Conference, you will need to obtain a free account with Twitter (http://twitter.com). A free account requires only that you enter your name, a username, a password, and your email. To view an introductory video, visit http://help.twitter.com/portal.
How Does "Live-Twittering" Work?
Live Twittering basically means that one or more individuals are twittering about a particular event as it happens. Those of you familiar with Twitter might be asking, "How does one follow the various tweets connected with a particular event? Does one have to "follow" everyone who might be twittering?" Happily, the answer to that question is, "No."
Instead of navigating the logistical minefield involved in getting all interested parties to be "followers" of one another, those of us live twittering the 2009 MWCA Regional Conference can use what is called a hashtag. A hashtag consists of the pound sign (#) followed by a brief keyword. For the 2009 MWCA Regional Conference, we will be using the following hashtag: #mwca09. If you post a tweet connected to the conference, simply append this hashtag to that tweet. Anyone interested in following the conversation can do so by using the search function on Twitter and searching for the hashtag. We have also set up a page on the conference website that gathers any tweets containing this hashtag.
Individuals new to Twitter might find the following resources helpful.
Remember, all tweets, even those with the hashtag #mwca09, will be picked up by all of your followers. Those of us new to Twitter are likely to have few followers and will, therefore, have few worries about spamming our followers with lots of tweets they may not find interesting.
Veterans of Twitter, however, might consider their regular followers. If your regular followers won't mind receiving a mild flurry of tweets related to the conference, then you can just Twitter using your normal account. If your regular followers might become annoyed with conference-related tweets, then you might consider setting up an alternate account to be used specifically for the conference.
