Monday, February 14, 2011
Twitter at the 2011 AAHPM Annual Assembly in Vancouver, BC
**Please note #HPM is the OFFICIAL hashtag**
The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine / Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (AAHPM/HPNA) Annual Assembly is this week in Vancouver, BC so expect nearly daily posts and for email subscribers daily emails. After that Pallimed will return to the usual posts of 1-2x/week. Come back and check for comments too as hopefully many people will be talking about what they are learning.
We have been one of the early adopters of using Twitter from a medical conference. In 2009 there were 30 users contributing 224 posts and in 2010 we had 92 people contributing 834 posts. I need to go back and figure out the percentage of people at the conference versus away. I will be tracking that much more closely this week. There are over 2000 people expected to attend so even if we could get 10% of people to whip out their cell phones or computers (with individually purchased wi-fi at the convention center). We could have a great impact. I have primed the social media community online to expect us to tweet, so I hope we can follow through.
Why would Twittering from a conference be a good thing? Just see my post from yesterday on 7 ways to use Twitter at a National Conference.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!If you have a Twitter account and want to participate, make a Tweet using #HPM so we have a running list of potential participants. Post something like: "Hey @ctsinclair, can't wait to tweet/meet you in Vancouver! #hpm" or "Hey @ctsinclair, won't be in Vancouver, but will be watching #hpm from afar"
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 or watch along at night 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 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 highlighted in this post.
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
- Hashtag for the conference is #HPM. 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 #HPM if you are only describing how good your coffee is.
- Consider using phone based Twitter clients like TweetDeck, HootSuite, OpenBeak (for Blackberry), or Tweeter for iPhone.
- 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.
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 NEJMHorizons 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
And as a bonus:
How To Use Social Media to Advance Palliative Care
View more presentations from Christian Sinclair, MD.
