The Conference through the eyes of Flattr
Peter and Linus didn’t give me much time to wrap my head around the wonderful world of Flattr, instead they got me to join them at The Conference in Malmö, Sweden this week. What better place as a community manager to start, than meeting brand new users face to face over two days, nudging them to start using Flattr.
And not just start using it, but start using it in a way that is new and unproven aka offline — flattring presentations, presenters, people they meet at the conference.
Here’s Peter and Linus doing and interview with Martin Bryant from The Next Web.
We’ll do a longer post in the near future with proper learnings, statistics and feedback from the conference goers but for now I wanted to write up some initial thoughts.
Flattr is a good icebreaker
Since everyone at the conference had their own QR codes to make flattring each other simple then it was common to see people strike up a conversation around the Flattr. It instantly gives attendees a common ground.
iPhone app worked well
The freshly released Flattr iPhone app made all the magic happen — it’s a combination of QR code reader, your personal Flattr account and conference presentation list. This allows you to both scan codes from people’s badges but also select the presentation you want to flattr. Side note: Virtually everybody in Sweden has an iPhone. Everybody.
Great interest from other conference organizers
We were literally blown away by how well other conference organizers took to the idea of using Flattr as an integral part of their event. Since The Conference was the first truly flattrable event then we learned a lot and got tons of feedback on how to make Flattr more visible, how to make it even easier to flattr the presentations etc.
Bill Drummond missed out
In the morning of the second day of the conference Bill Drummond (of the KLF fame, one of the keynote speakers) surprised everyone by offering free shoe shines at the entrance. However, his enterprise lacked a big old QR code to collect flattrs. I bet he could have received the record “votes” on Flattr… At least this little performance was the most photographed moment of The Conference.
I’ll wrap up with a bunch of links:
- 23video: Video recordings of the presentations
- The Next Web: Flattr brings micropayments to conferences
- Conference Basics: Using Micropayments to Reward Speakers, Exhibitors and Attendees of a Conference
- Flickr: Our snaps from the event in our photo stream
We’ll definitely be doing this again, watch this space.
