The signs were promising. Ahead of the event, the Twitter hashtag #ECForum started to catch my eye – there were tweets counting down to the event, tweets about and from the speakers, and tweets from attendees and exhibitors who were excited to be attending.

I couldn’t help but create a Social Search in CubeSocial to make sure I didn’t miss any of the conversation:

A couple of clicks later I had found individuals and conversations of interest, safe in the knowledge that when I joined a conversation it would be captured for me. Seconds later I was chatting away and arranging to meet up with speakers and likeminded attendees. Brilliant – the event was still days away and already interactive.

And to top it all off, I was promised donuts!

Arriving at the event, there were more promising signs. Immediately after collecting our name badges, we were given voting pads that we would use throughout the day to contribute views on a range of topical issues. And as I took my seat, I couldn’t help but smile at this tweet on the live Twitter wall:

There was no shortage of virtual interaction throughout the day – between the audience and those presenting, and between those in and outside of the “room”. It was fantastic to see questions on the Twitter wall being asked of the speakers, and to see how advice being shared by the speakers was resonating with other attendees and with people that were unable to physically join.

I was particularly looking forward to Will King’s talk having missed him at The IoD earlier this year, and he didn’t disappoint. Will started his talk by showing his video The King’s Speech – A Parody for King of Shaves and the Twitter wall went mad!

It was a perfect illustration of Will’s message: “Social media is now critical for business… word of mouth has become #WordOfMouse and social media has become the oxygen for a marketing message – instant, global and powerful.”

The interactive nature of the day did create one slightly awkward moment, when these tweets appeared behind one of Entrepreneur Pitches:

… but ‘dragon’ David Scholtz @dordje quickly cleared the air by starting his questioning with “… and breathe!”

Was this Entrepreneur Country’s most interactive event ever? As it was my first EC event I’m not really qualified to answer. Perhaps in the spirit of interaction you could comment on this blog post and let me know?!