Connie Bensen

This is a very specific type of writing exercise. It’s much like writing a summary for a resume. You want it to engage the reader’s attention immediately.

Here are the steps that I go through:

1. You need to read the Submission Guidelines carefully & follow them to the letter. They will provide the answers to the who, what, where, when & why. Here’s the Call for Participation at Web 2.0 Expo for next spring.
2. Review additional hints:
• Read about the conference, who hosts it & who usually attends it
• Take a look at the sessions that were presented at the previous one.
• Decide on the tone for your proposal
3. Decide on what your topic will be. You don’t need a title quite yet.
4. Create an outline of your idea for your topic
5. Start to craft the short description by brainstorming. Then create sentences & put them in logical order. Once you get this fairly close then the longer abstract will evolve.
6. Go through your outline & trade out the beginning of each sentence with action verbs. Make your presentation proposal engaging.

This is the short description of a panel proposal that I recently wrote:

This panel offers practical ways & case studies of how to use social media and it’s tools to have conversations in the online space like those on the sales floor. Traditional marketing & advertising efforts are less effective than ever before. By engaging with your community online you can realize: increased brand presence, shorter product development cycle, customer loyalty & satisfaction as well as create positive word of mouth.

For the longer abstract I used the above paragraph, then I asked questions. The goal is to entice potential attendees to start thinking about your topic. Your presentation will be answering those questions.

Customers are discussing your brand online. Are you listening? How are you interacting? It’s a huge opportunity to provide the same personalized service online that you encourage on the sales floor.

I used the following action words to start sentences in the panel description. Be creative!

• enable
• join
• provide
• create
• engage
• celebrate
• participate

Have someone read your proposal & provide constructive criticism. And make sure that you submit it on time!

What suggestions do you have for writing proposals for conferences?

Early yesterday afternoon I put together a compilation of links to information on Gustav that @WayneSutton had started. It was intriguing to watch volunteers come together using social media tools to prepare for the hurricane.

Andy Carvin set up a ning & started coordinating the volunteer efforts. His ning became the Gustav Information Center. There was a discussion as to whether the Katrina wiki should be used. That information would be three years old & it would be lost. So a decision was made to create a new one using the same wiki software to make it easy to port over the structure.

Yesterday I wasn’t connected with Andy Carvin, but ChocoNancy follows both of us put this up on Flickr.

Hosting needs for the wiki were generously provided by Network Solutions (whom I work for). Deanna Zandt is handling the technical aspects of the Hurricane Gustav Wiki. Once the wiki was installed, volunteers went to work copying over the info from the Katrina wiki. Today, less than 24 hours when this initiative started volunteers are checking links & updating them. At this rate, the effort will probably be done before the hurricane makes landfall.

The wiki will serve as an incredible resource for those affected. It’s amazing to watch people using & aggregating information from Twitter, online sources, Craigslist, mainstream news & then offering it to be read in a number of formats.

If you don’t have computer access

I’m wondering if the national emergency organizations should take note & have templates set up ready to use for various natural disasters. What about having their staff trained to utilize the various social media tools & engage the power of volunteers? There have to be lessons that can be learned here. What are your thoughts?

I was doing some things in MyBlogLog.com and saw Wayne Sutton’s collaborative effort towards building community around those preparing for the hurricane. He is using Twitter but it’s being broadcast in his MyBlogLog stream which allows me to read it as a set. (I have 1500 people in Twitter & the noise level is high.)

• There’s a ning for hurricane info – join & share information
• On Twitter they’re using the hash tag #gustav
• Live Twitter tracking by @jazzychad
• And a ref librarian at Jefferson Parrish put up Yahoo pipes tracking tweets.
• And Wayne is using his FriendFeed account to post all links.
• *Update – Margaret Saizan is blogging updates at
  • www.hurricane-katrina.org
  • & has a community at http://beyondkatrina.ning.com/

People are commenting on Twitter that @RedCross is giving out more up-to-date info than the mainstream media. (My question is it really the Red Cross – after the Janet @Exxon deal. But we can worry about that after the hurricane!).

I hope that helps connect people in some small way. It’s great to see these tools utilized quickly to hopefully save lives.

I’m in Minnesota so quite a ways from the storm. I did see a request on Twitter asking for help & to email her at beyondkatrina@gmail.com

I was excited to find my post on Uses of Twitter featured on Social Media Today! When you become a member you can add your blog feed & editors there choose which articles to publish on the site.

It’s great to have my writing recognized & shared. And the members of Social Media Today are amongst the best in Social Media & Web 2.0!

Social Media Today is a great resource that you should definitely check out!