Twitter at the AAHPM Annual Assembly in Austin

The American Academy of Hospice & Palliative Medicine / Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (AAHPM/HPNA) Annual Assembly is right around the corner (March 25-28th) and after that Pallimed will return to the usual posts with maybe some small additions or changes based on your input to the Annual Readers Survey (over 105 so far! only a few days left to take it!)

One growing trend in the Twitterverse and Blogosphere is the live 'reporting' from conferences by the attendees, so with the growing list of Twitter users in Hospice and Palliative Medicine (now including Bob Arnold and Diane Meier!), I wanted to try this at the AAHPM/HPNA Annual Assembly. If you need to know more about the basics for Twitter check out this previous post.Why would Twittering from a conference be a good thing?

1. Social media is the newest and fastest growing influence source on the web.
2. More hospice and palliative medicine content on Twitter raises the profile of the field.
3. Tweets may be passed on in the form of Re-Tweets and reach networks far beyond your own.
4. Highlights of the conference and key themes and memes will be featured and reinforced.
5. Lowlights of the conference will be noted and can be transparent and immediate feedback for the speaker or organizers.
5. Those not attending the conference may get a sense of being there and possibly participate.
6. Finding/Networking with other Hospice & Palliative Medicine professionals.

So before reading further you may want to classify yourself in one of the following categories and follow the directions.

1. I don't know about this Twitter thing, I really I don't care to no more. -> Read no further!

2. This Twitter stuff is interesting but I don't really have time to start something new -> Read no further because I will post highlight Tweets (posts on Twitter) after the conference.

3. Twitter...Hmmm...Kind of interesting, I think I might get an account and try it out for myself. -> Keep reading!

4. I am a Twitterholic and this sounds awesome. -> Read on for the goals and organizing principles.

If you have a Twitter account and want to participate, make a Tweet using #AAHPM so we have a running list of potential participants.

If you do not have a Twitter account, but want to participate, go to twitter.com and signup (it's free). Go to the list of HPM Twitter people and start to follow several of them. Watch what they Tweet about, and post a few of your own so you get a feel of it. Do not feel you HAVE to read every tweet from everyone you follow. That is not the point. It is like a river on a hot day, get in when you want but you don't have to spend the whole day in there.

If you do not plan on getting a Twitter account (now or ever) then you have a few ways of following along.

• Wait until the post conference post in early April on Pallimed to see what the Twitter fuss was all about.
• Use search.twitter.com and enter #AAHPM to see what the day to day Tweets are about.
• Subscribe to the RSS feed (using Google reader or other service) from search.twitter.com
• Follow along at Pallimed using the new right hand column widget "#AAHPM" (limited to the last 5 Tweets)

Goals:

• Widen the conversation about palliative care themes in online social networks
• Collect important facts and key themes from the conference for reference and ongoing discussion
• Network with your peers

Organizing Principles

• Hashtag for the conference is #AAHPM. Include this in any Tweet (post) about the conference.
• Tweet about interesting phrases/facts heard at the conference.
• Give credit for the speaker when possible.
• Do not tag content with #AAHPM if you are only describing how good your coffee is.
• Consider using phone based Twitter clients like Twitterberry, or TwitterforiPhone or Tweetie or TwitterFon.
  
• If you feel clicking away on your phone is too distracting during the conference, Tweet after each session.
• If your phone has a camera, consider posting pictures using a service like TwitPic.

See some of you in Austin! And the rest on Twitter.

For further reference here are a collection of great resources on the power of Twitter and using Twitter at conferences.

• Evan Williams (co-founder of Blogger and Twitter) at TED giving an 8 minute talk on Twitter. (Good info, not a very confident speaker surprisingly.)
• Twitter Glossary find out what these twords tweeple are tweeting mean.
• Comprehensive guide on how to Twitter effectively.
• Presentation Zen coverage of Evan Williams TED talk above.
• Two examples of Twitter at medical conferences from Ves Dimov, MD at the NEJM Horizons Conference and Theresa Chan, MD at the Management of a Hospitalized Patient conference (via Kevin MD)
• Ves Dimov, MD at the AAAAI conference
• And for presenters here are tips on how to present while people are Twittering from Tamar Weinberg of Pistachio Consulting. (via TED Blog)
• Health Affairs live tweets a Health IT conference