#notatDMAI11: the non-conference

It seemed like everyone in the tourism industry was in NOLA for #DMAI11 last month. Well everyone except for a few lonely people on twitter who felt like they were missing out. What started as a playful conversation became an incredible occasion to connect with other tourism professionals on twitter.

Troy (@travel2dot0) mentioned the #notatDMAI11 hashtag in a tweet and a few of us started to run with it. While the real #DMAI11 conference attendees listened to Dom Sagolla speak, one of the co-creaters of Twitter, we had some random tweets like my “Twitter has 140 characters. #notatDMAI11” tweet. But the non-conference hashtag was quickly evolving into something more than that and within less than an hour, we had a #notatDMAI11 twitter list and a non-conference non-logo logo, courtesy of Beth Conway.

Next came the idea of hosting a #notatDMAI11 twitter chat. It was the perfect opportunity to show the community aspect of hashtags and the learning potential of twitter, with or without a conference. The chat was scheduled for that Friday, the last day of #DMAI11, and focused on using social media at conferences. For more info on the chat, check out the #notatDMAI11 twitter transcript [pdf]. By the end of the chat, only three days after the hashtag was created, there were over 270 #notatDMAI11 tweets by more than 50 twitter accounts.

Social media moves quickly. Twitter moves even faster. You have to be on your feet and ready to run with it.

2 Comments

  1. Good stuff Anne,

    Love the idea of being flexible to adjust with the trends on Twitter. Just like a conversation with friends, it changes constantly.

    For me, something like #notatDMAI11 shows that subjects, topics, tweets with passion behind them will get talked about. Passion is the key. We had a group of tourism peers who were passionate about DMAI, or perhaps more accurately, passionate about still being able to connect with other professionals without DMAI.

    Twitter was simply the link between us.

    – Troy

  2. Pingback: Can I create a Twitter hashtag? | Deb's Answers

Leave Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *