Lobbycon.   barcamp.   SXSW.   Foo Camp.

How many of these terms do you know?  If you’re too busy prepping your slide presentation for that conference coming up, you may have a problem.

Web 2.0 has come to the conference circuit, and it’s crazy!  Gone are the days when you sit, they present.  You pay, and sit some more, someone else talks.  You write your grocery list while – you get the picture.  Web 2.0 tools including Meebo, Twitter, Utterz, the reliable old chat room, Flickr and a host of other sites are transforming audiences into event participants – or disrupting events entirely.

Witness the unfortunate, widely-covered case of BusinessWeek’s Sarah Lacy interviewing Mark Zuckerburg at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW) on topics the audience decided were booor-ingggg.  Many began twittering, and the angst in the room built to the point of mutual hostility between Lacy and audience members who began hollering (or worse) once the microphone was opened to the floor.

At a lobbycon, people show up to a conference without paying and mingle with speakers, organizers and fellow enthusiasts in the lobby for free.  That’s how we get the most of these things anyway, right?  And back at SXSW, the line for the Google party became so long that tech bloggers shot video of the line and started twittering they were going to set up a separate party down the street at a bar.  Within 30 minutes, 100 people had arrived.

And then there’s the un-conference, where people show up and determine the agenda on the spot.  A group might determine areas of key interest, vote on them and those able to present do so.  The two most notable un-conferences thus far are Foo Camp and barcamp.

Personally, whether I’m on the dais or sitting there in the dark, I’m excited.  If I’m presenting and can get some (polite?) signals to head in another direction, great.  And if I’m in the audience and can help transform a tedious session, fantastic.  This is just the beginning, but I’d say that the overall effect at tech-savvy conferences will be more value (and entertainment) for your conference dollar.  And presenters had better bring their A game, or be prepared for some virtual tomato throwing.
sxswlobbyconbar campfoo camprobert scobletwittermeeboflickrweb 2.0