Please turn phones ON while in session

There is currently a lot of debate out there about audience Twittering in session rooms. (Senators and Representatives made big news of this during Obama's recent address). However, we see Tweets as a fantastic method to engage with an audience during a session, if managed properly by the speaker. See the Langwitch blog post about conference Twitters to see how speakers and participants are using this technology to provide input and categorize information from sessions. We're even seeing some speakers project the Twitter commentary from a session adjacent to the projected slide presentation.

Are participants who are eager to contribute and comment during a session via Twitter absorbing the information in a way that solo notetaking lacks? Is a presentation that is displaying running audience commentary enhancing or detracting from its content? We feel that busy hands can free the mind, and that greater collaboration and interaction is better between the speaker and the participants. We look forward to incorporating mobile technology into all session rooms- from Twitter to Smartphone Session Surveys (by AMS, of course)!