Alex Williams writes:

Just started using Socialtext. Plan to use it with webcasts to add a bit of intelligent chaos to our events. I like the idea of moving the discussion to other places outside of the event space.

Curious about a few features: What are some succesful methods for getting people to share ideas and network? Encouraging people to add their names to the people list?

I'll sure to have some stories to share once we have some events up and running. Thanks. Alex.

Here are some techniques we've found helpful at events:

Seed the site with relevant headings and links. Start a section for people to self-organize "birds of a feather" groups. Ask a question.

Cultivate a few enthusiastic participants to put in their name, bio, and comment. The adoption process is social -- people will see and mimic what others do.

Integrate it into the conference program. It's helpful for the moderator to give a very quick intro to the workspace and ways to use it to enrich event participation.

Garden the workspace. Have someone from the events group monitor contributions. Organize the material on the fly, so it's easy an attractive to navigate. The PC Forum Wiki is a good example of this done well. Socialtext can provide this as a service, onsite or remotely, if you like.

Adina

Here is some further information on Socialtext Eventspace, ross