Launch Event
The brief:
Engage the world in the star-studded launch of the Huffington Post UK.
Poke’s answer:
A live Twitter wall that allowed members of the audience – both inside the venue and beyond its walls – to get involved in the debate.
Nitty gritty
To launch the UK edition of Huffington Post, a panel of all-star pundits, including Alastair Campbell, Kelly Osborne, Shami Chakrabarti, Celia Walden and Richard Bacon – as well as Arianna Huffington post – convened for a special news debate. Our job: make the event happen beyond the walls of the venue, by inviting members of the public to participate, whether or not they were in the audience.
Twitter was the answer: a massive Twitter wall was erected alongside the panel, showing tweets containing the event hashtag. As the discussion picked up, so did the tweeting – with the public both asking questions of the panel and fueling the debate. At first, most tweets were coming from within the venue – but before long, savvy Twitter users outside the event spotted the hashtag and started weighing in, too.
Highlights
- Creating a system that made the audience an equal member of the panel – in defiance to the usual.
- Watching the conversation heat up as people competed to see their tweets in the ‘hero’ position – and hearing the laughter than ensued.
- A fully-featured moderation system, built by our friends at Smesh, which meant our clever human moderators could keep things elegant (and profanity-free).
