One of my pet peeves is the lost opportunity at many conference to connect with people who are interested but couldn't attend. Some conference planners think of this lack of connection as an air of exclusivity, when really it is just a missed chance to build buzz and fill more seats next year. James Walker at Brazen Careerist talks about this lost opportunity at the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference: From James: If you were out and about in the DC area over the past weekend, I would expect you to know that the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) just hosted their 2009 Annual Legislative Conference, but I wouldn’t expect you to know what happened there.

Why? I don’t think the CBC used social media as much as they could have to promote the conference, the people in attendance, the issues being discussed and the solutions created.

Only a small group of people can attend conferences like these, but to create the change that needs to occur, many more people need to be informed and engaged. Social media can help achieve that goal.

Though I could not attend, I tried my best to catch up on what was discussed, but it was not particularly easy. Honestly, if I wanted to party, I would have had no problem gathering that info on Twitter, but for some reason, the pure content or true substance of the meeting was hard to find.

Okay, so I’ve pointed out the social media #FAIL. Now I’d like to give a quick list of my PR Prescriptions on how the CBC could have better utilized social media to connect with people to provide more real time coverage.

* Official Tweeters

* Official Bloggers

* Media Partnerships

* Create a site to Build on the Discussion

Read the rest of the details of how social media could be better harnessed here.