Using digital tools to make meetings fun

Yesterday the University had a meeting of the Communicators Forum, a group that ranges anywhere in size from 150-300+ people. The topic of the meeting was social media, so it was only appropriate to try some new, cool ideas.

The meeting was broadcast on Spreecast, although we had a bit of a learning lesson: we need to buy an external microphone and place at least one computer much closer to the stage. But people were able to use Spreecast and Twitter to ask questions of the special guest speaker, Scott Monty, head of social media for Ford Motor Company.

When attendees entered the auditorium, there was fun music playing, with a giant projection screen telling them how to download the playlist on Spotify: spoti.fi/M9n37e The projection also included the hashtag #UMSocial, a departure from the past, where attendees used the #commforum hashtag. This was much less insular, and enabled people outside of the meeting follow along and participate.

There were 440 tweets using the #UMSocial tag, with 88,836 impressions and 19,033 accounts reached JUST during that meeting.
Do you have a specific hashtag for social media at your institution? I’d highly recommend it. It’s been nothing but good news for the University of Michigan.