Once upon a
time there were two neighboring countries called “Outside” and “Inside”. The
border was marked by big gates and fancy welcome signs, but appeared to be the
most quiet on earth. For no one living in Outside seemed interested to visit Inside,
and Insiders were never seen on the streets….let alone near the border.
King
Content was ruling Inside with a college of writers , his subjects happy to exchange
thoughts online and in blogs. On the other side Queen Experia and her
court-engagers ruled the Outside, with lots of people in the squares engaging
in conversations and laughter.
A happy lot
on each side, but safe to say that tourism rates were slow. Really slow.
Years went
by and even though the countries were aware of their neighboring state, the
borders remained the loneliest place on earth.
That is…until
one fall afternoon. It just so happened that the Outside was having its annual
conference near the border, and only a brick wall separated Outside from Inside. Spirits were high and
people were busy visiting sessions and keynotes, listening and talking, enjoying
networking sessions in the sun with lots of food and entertainment. ( Just too bad that the sessions were not
recorded.)
The joy of meeting
people was so great that the mere sound of the conference drew lots of on-site
registrations. In fact one of the conference rooms was so full that its
breakout session literally turned into a break out: the wall of the room, which
was situated on the border, broke down.
With a huge
turmoil the bricks collapsed and revealed a small room, where one person was
happily tapping on his keyboard and looking at his screen. He was in tweeting with lots of Inside people because they, too,
were having their annual online conference, with chats and webinars connecting lots of people.
And then?
Magic happened! An Outsider almost fell on the Insider and before they knew
what happened, they shook hands. The
touch of that handshake was so powerful that the Insider tweeted about it…instantly
reaching all Inside delegates. And also reaching the Outside delegate, who
looked in awe at the online discussion as it developed. He immediately searched
for his smartphone and joined in the
conversation. And they were not alone…
in the moments that followed, both Inside and Outside people gathered at the
border, engaging in face to face conversations and online talks with the people
that stayed in their homes.
For the
first time both countries truly connected, and in the days that followed both
the physical border and online communities were really busy; all wanted to
learn about their neighbor. They decided
to merge their conferences, and when the face to face event was joined with
year-round online content, it grew to be one of the best events in the world.
With the best of both worlds, really.
