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Making an Online Community Click
Supernova conferees connect using the latest Web-based tools, extending an elite networking event into the blogosphere where virtually anyone can participate.
By Cathy Chatfield-Taylor
Supernova exploded onto the technology event scene in 2002 through the sheer force of one man’s personal network. Now in its fifth year, Supernova 2006, June 21–23 in San Francisco, is connecting thought leaders in emerging technologies from around the world — though not all in person.
“It’s an extended social network. There are only two to three degrees of separation between the people at Supernova,” says technology analyst Kevin Werbach, Founder of Supernova Group LLC and Assistant Professor of Legal Studies and Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in Philadelphia.
Werbach’s close-knit network has stayed connected even as it quadrupled from 100 to 400 attendees — plus immeasurable thousands who participate virtually — through Supernova’s Community Connection, a collection of online tools hand-picked to push, pull and publish information in every way imaginable.
“We think about the conference as a connecting point for lots of people. Content gets generated by us, the conference organizers, and by our attendees,” Werbach says. “We provide different tools to take advantage of that content and redirect it to the worldwide audience. The idea is that people can select any piece they want.”
Excerpt from "Making an Online Community Click," EXPO, June 2006. Copyright 2006 EXPO Magazine, Overland Park, Kan. |
