Don't Tweet the Keynote - A Reflection

Sue Dunlop blogged earlier this year about a conference she attended where the keynote speaker requested that no one tweet or share the content of his address on social media. Aviva Dunsiger replied that she was at a conference where the keynote speaker had made the same request and the internet was blocked in the conference room to prevent online sharing.

Wow!

What a difference from conferences I've attended in the past.  For example, at the Self-Regulation Summer Symposium (SRSS#2018) in July, social media use was in heavy use.

• the keynote addresses were recorded and broadcast on voicEdradio 
• people were tweeting throughout the conference
• in the main conference room, a projector ran a scrolling display of tweets from the conference so those who don't usually use twitter could participate in the online sharing
• at the closing address, Susan Hopkins' final slide was a tweet that a conference attendee had shared on twitter about our resilience in the face of the fire ban in Peterborough

The organizers recognized that not everyone who wants to attend is able, so they ensured that people were able to access the information.  They also recognized that twitter was a way for those in attendance to share their learning with one another. The purpose seemed to be information sharing and online dialogue, not monetization.

Some of the ways I use Twitter at a conference are:

• sharing key learning from sessions with colleagues 
• reading tweets of others to see which ideas they found most salient 
• summarizing my thinking
• sharing highlights of the conference, which may encourage others to attend
• reading tweets of others to get key ideas from sessions I can't attend - like when two great sessions that I want to attend are both scheduled at the exact same time
• reading comments from attendees at sessions that I've presented (instead of waiting for the feedback forms)
• sometimes through twitter I've discovered someone I know or follow on social media is attending the same conference; I can send them a message and meet up with them for a conversation in real life!

I'm trying to imagine what it would be like to be at a professional learning event and being told not to tweet. Both Aviva and Sue said that they felt it impaired their learning. 

There was also some discussion as to why a speaker might make such a request: their ideas are their livelihood so they don't want to give them away for free; they don't want someone else telling their story; they don't want others in the industry 'stealing' their ideas.

In an era where we have made great strides in deprivatizing teacher practice and we encourage educators to share their professional learning and their wonderings, this approach of 'don't tweet the keynote' seems to be taking us backwards.

How do conference organizers deal with such requests? Should they book keynote speakers who don't allow their ideas to be shared? How would you feel if you weren't allowed to tweet at a conference? 

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(Thanks to @dougpete for mentioning Sue's blog post. I find such great inspiration on his blog!)