To Be or Not To Be: Virtual or Real?

During the past two weeks, I have participated in two conferences – one virtual and one in person (real). Today, I have been reflecting on the merits of each and trying to decide which I prefer (which is “better”?).

Merits of a face-to-face conference:

1. I like people and people-watching. It is interesting to watch the interactions, the facial expressions, the body language of the presenters and attendees in a conference session. I enjoy sitting in the hotel lobby or the conference break area and watching the variety of people who walk by.

2. I like the immediacy of the interaction. You ask a question and you get an immediate answer. You introduce yourself to the person sitting next to you and immediately a conversation begins.

3. I like picking up the freebies from the vendors and talking with them about their products.

4. I like the sense of community and connection that comes with wearing the conference badge or carrying the conference bag. Strangers on the elevator or even on the street quickly become colleagues because of the immediate recognition of the conference connection.

5. I like being away from my office or away from home so that my attention is not pulled to the regular work/home activities. In the conference session, my email notification does not pop up, my phone does not ring (I’ve turned it off), no one comes to my office to take my attention away from the session.

6. I like nice hotels, great restaurants, and shopping away from home. A great conference site offers the opportunity for all of these.



Merits of the Virtual Conference:

1. I like the fact that I don’t have to miss a session that I really want to attend because it conflicts with another session or with my own presentation. Most virtual conferences have many, many asynchronous sessions and/or they record for later play-back any synchronous sessions. Also, presenters are very willing to leave extra handouts in an open area so that anyone interested may take them. (My complaint about the Innovations Conference: Innovations is using something called iStream to which you must pay a fee to subscribe in order to see the recorded conference sessions. The registration fee for this conference should include access to the achieved conference sessions and presentations.)

2. I like the fact that I have time to reflect before and again after “speaking”. Sometimes my best thoughts come sometime after the session is over. With the Virtual Conference, I can go back into the discussion and post any additional thoughts and reply to others who also might have posted again later.

3. I like the fact that I often get to know a little more about the real person through reading the personal blog or webpage. Surprising to me but much appreciated is the fact that folks tend to share a little more of themselves in the virtual world. (See Skip’s dog and Joyce’s pink house in their conference blogs.)

4. I like the fact that I don’t have to get up early to make that 8:00 a.m. session. Because of the asynchronous presentations/participation, I can drop in and out of the conference at my convenience.

5. I like the fact that I can replay/re-read sessions or parts of sessions. Sometimes tied to the "time to the reflect" merit but other times just because I want to hear it again, I can go back to a session that I really enjoyed or from which I want to get clarification or information.

6. I like the fact that I only have to go as far as my desktop or laptop to be in session. While I like to travel, there are real advantages to no packing (clothes get bigger when you pack to come home), no concern about plane connections or train schedules, no concern about what to wear to the conference banquet (is it really a “banquet” or just dinner with a speaker?), no need to get the receipts for reimbursement or to be concerned about how much of the per diem allowance is left for dinner.

As I think about what I like about the face-to-face conference, I ask myself which of these things can in some way be achieved in a virtual environment for conference or for instruction. There are a number of tools and design strategies that can be added to virtual settings to increase the engagement that I like. As we explore the use of more of the Web 2.0 tools and we look at the judicious use of synchronous connections, I think that we can get closer to feeling “real” in the virtual world.

I have enjoyed sharing my reflections with you this week. Hope to see you around (virtually or in person).