That Lego person, alone in a crowd, was me last week. I was at a conference, with four objectives. To deliver a talk; to hear about other people’s work; to share what I was hearing with others on Twitter (virtual participants) and to network. I had no intention of networking in person, or not much, my hearing loss making that pretty much a non-starter; but I was anticipating talking on Twitter with people at the conference or participating virtually, exchanging comments, observations, expertise and links to relevant resources. The conference hashtag would be the means by which we would connect.

I hope this sounds familiar. For many of us, this is our experience and expectation of conferences in 2015. This now works so well that many of us are rethinking how many conferences we feel the need to attend in person; maybe none, unless we are speaking. But I found myself at a conference where social media use was almost absent and it took me, as efficiently as if I’d stepped into a TARDIS, back to the last century. I hated it!

Now, I should quickly add that there will have been people there for whom it was just what they anticipated and wanted. For me, it felt like such a missed opportunity for the conference organizers, participants (actually ‘attendees’ fits better here) and those who would have joined in via social media. It felt, altogether, less than it should have been.

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