How to live tweet from a technical talk

@eventamplifier

Prepare

Read the session description and research any key terminology

Make sure you prepare any logistical or introductory tweets in advance so you can concentrate on the opening of the talk

Follow the speaker on Twitter to get a feel for their style

Keep the speaker’s website open in your browser

The speaker’s blog or website is the best place to find the correct spelling for jargon terms and links to relevant materials they may mention in their presentation

Exploit the slides

Bullet points and slide headings are particularly useful for tweets

Always sit near the front so you can tweet photos of any complex diagrams or illustrations

Focus on the ‘normal’ language

Focus on the ordinary, everyday language between the jargon.

If you understand how the jargon term behaves as a word within a sentence and how it connects to other ideas, you don’t need to know its meaning in detail to construct a convincing tweet.

Read other people’s tweets

Watch the event hashtag throughout the talk, as other delegates may rephrase a statement or tweet a response in a way that makes the meaning more obvious to you

Listen for key point flags

Listen out for phrases that suggest the speaker is about to make an important point, e.g. “The key thing to remember is…”

Try to capture these points verbatim, then edit down into tweet-sized chunks

Search and share

If the speaker references an article, comic strip or other online resource, search for the link and share it

Provide a narrative for demos

If the speaker is demonstrating software, use photos and explain what they are doing to provide a narrative

If you know in advance that there will be a demo, ask the speaker if you can Periscope it

Talk to other delegates during lunch breaks

Talking to other delegates about their views and the challenges they face in their own work can give you more context and help you to understand the issues that are important to your audience

Don’t try to capture everything

A live Twitter commentary shouldn’t include every single statement uttered by the speaker

Aim for quality over quantity so your tweets are really useful to the audience

Find out more at

eventamplifier.com