My first reaction to Google Wave was to use it as a Mass Collaboration tool – because I thought about it as a wiki + Twitter on Steroids. As a result, I thought Google Wave would be great for collaborative brainstorming sessions. As part of that solution, I thought it would make it easier for break out groups (or small teams) to take brainstorm ideas from a central group and piece together sharable action plans.

I really like your idea of having Brands use Google Wave, too. I think this could be a very interesting way to get testimonials, feedback, and new ideas from customers or prospects — Like a virtual focus group. Though, I see the brand idea offering the most benefit for small or low budget event marketers. And, I can already see it being sold as a book – “Marketing with Google Wave for Dummies.”

Finally, this comment hits the nail on the head for Google wave adoption at events: “The true measure of success however will be for event producers to learn more about how to engage audiences both on and offline, and use the event as a communications hub where brands, subject matter experts and audiences each have an equal share of voice in the community.”

Thanks for the interesting perspective!

- Sam

Once “invitation only” concludes (which is essentially a beta test), it will be interesting to look at end user adoption, along with the initial set of apps/plug-ins that are created by the community – I’m sure they’ll go hand in hand with one another.

Jeff: while I agree with your listed hurdles, I think all new technologies face them – just like virtual event technology did several years back. I’d expect that many of these hurdles will be overcome over the coming year.

Great points, all. I agree that GW has some work to do. However the potential of an open platform with this functionality (and a stronger user experience) will change the way we interact on on the web. The tsunami has not arrived yet, but there was an earthquake in the sea and we need to be ready for it…

Interesting thoughts. I think we are a couple years away from it having any major impact for events.

Here are some of the big challenges with Google Wave that must be overcome before they can benefit events:

1) Bandwidth issues – I’m on a fast T1 line and it constantly crashes my system. As it is currently, there’s no way Wi-Fi venues could accommodate multiple people on their mobile devices using the same wave at once, or even multiple waves. This is a huge hurdle that will have to be overcome and I don’t see venues accommodating this too fast.

2) Lag times – the more people on the same wave at the same time, the more it slows down the entire process. I’ve seen synching issues that cause major delays as well.

3) The larger the wave with more embedded pictures, videos, etc, the longer it takes to download. Just try reading one of the public waves and you’ll see how long it takes to download and then to read. I can’t imagine a full conference interface with schedules, exhibitors, etc. I’d give up and never attend the conference if I had to visit Google Wave to see it.

4) Many hybrid event models have embedded chat that functions so much faster than Google wave.

5) Google Wave and Microsoft don’t get along.

6) You must use Firefox or Google Chrome to participate in Google Wave. Both are hurdles for events.

7) The learning curve is steep and not intuitive.

That’s just a few of my negatives at the moment. There are others.

I totally agree its great for collaboration and will have a place in the future. I just don’t think the adoption will be that fast.