Takeaways from my Live Tweetin’ of TEDxBroadway 2015

It has been over a week since TEDxBroadway 2015, but the inspiring words of the color-outside-the-lines speakers are still whispering in my ears as I tackle my day-to-day tasks in this color-within-the-lines industry (if it even lets you color at all!).

If you were there, or if you’ve been to any of the TEDxs, then you know what I’m talking about.  It’s such an awesome day – 500 people in a room with one common goal – to make Broadway the best it can be.  Sure, we all may have different ways to get there, but if we remember we’re all in it for that one mission statement, then it’s so much easier to work together to find solutions (Congress – are you listening?).

Every year since the very first TEDx (and my talk, which you can see here), I’ve followed up the conference with a blog with some of my favorite takeaways from the talks.

This year, I did something a little different.

I live-tweeted the mo’ fo’.

Yep, I sat in the back, under the glow of a MacBook Air screen, and typed like a Tasmanian devil, tweetin’ out 140 characters like a teenager at a Taylor Swift concert hyped up on Skittles and Red Bull.

And when the Skittle high wore off, I realized all my takeaways had become tweets.

So if you want to read what I took away from the talks by Pulitzer Prize Winner Ayad Akhtar, Learning and Tech Guru Elliott Masie, Pasek & Paul, and more, click here to see a stream of my tweets from that day (and some cool rebuttal from other tweeters).

I know, I know, you expected some takeaways in this blog, didn’t you?  Ok, ok, stop your nagging, I’ll give you what you want . . . with a little twist.

Since the takeaways from TEDx are all in those tweets, I thought I’d give you my THREE takeaways from Live Tweetin’ an event.  Eh?  Whatta ya say?  Wanna go with me on this?

TEDxBroadway was only the second event I have live-tweeted, the first being the Tony Awards last year (which was a blast, and I’m sure I’ll do again this year).  But this was different.  Live Tweetin’ a 7 hour conference?  And a TEDx?  Where the speakers change every ten minutes?  It’s like playing speed golf.

It wasn’t easy, but it was fun, and certainly educational.  Here are three things I learned . . .

1.  LIVE TWEETIN’ MAKES YOU LISTEN

When you know you’re responsible for sending out snippets of great comments, with your own little twist, you listen with your ears so wide open, a mountain lion could crawl in there.  I don’t think I’ve ever, ever listened to speakers with such focus.  I was hanging on their every word, because I was depending on their every word, because I knew my followers were depending on me.  And because of that, I learned more just by listening.  Huh.  Imagine that.

2.  PEOPLE LOVE TO LAUGH ONLINE

I’m sure you know this already because of all those cat videos you watch, but as much as people love inspirational and activist tweets, nothing beats a good ol’ laugh line.  Some of my most popular tweets from the day were jokes.  Or, well, my attempt at jokes anyway.

3.  YOU WON’T KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOR

This is one of the major downsides of Live Tweetin’ an event. During one of the talks, I was supposed to have some good ol’ fashioned face-to-face discussion with the gal sitting next to me (a Columbia student, no less), and I was too buried in my Twitter to chat.  One of the reasons I love conferences is that they force offline interaction in a day and age when we can be soooooooo online.  And here I was, effin’ it up.  (I apologized to the coed during the break, btw.)

 There’s a heck of a lot more to learn from Live Tweetin’ an event, and I strongly recommend that all of you try it.

And who knows, maybe it won’t be long until we’re able to live tweet shows.

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