"[I]t seems like the perfect time to write about something I've been thinking about since being on an ill-fated panel at SXSW earlier this year," writes Rohit Bhargava in a post at his Influential Marketer blog. "[H]ow to speak at an event where the feedback channel is instant, unfiltered and sometimes brutal." Here's his advice for handling the negative side of Twitter:

Get a Twitter account. "The only thing worse than getting killed on Twitter while you're on stage," he says, "is getting branded as … clueless about it."

Gauge expectations. Increasingly, Bhargava notes, Twitter conversations are tagged as memes that begin with the # symbol (e.g. #mesh08). You can use a tool like Twemes to keep a tab on what people are saying before you hit the stage.

Focus on audience reaction. An indirect benefit of all this wireless "note passing" is that it encourages speakers to think of presentations in terms of the audience—not themselves.

Respond. "Nothing will buy you more credibility than actually being part of the conversation," he says, "especially when it is about you."

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