Here’s a nifty little tool for your next conference or workshop.   It’s called TweetWally.

I liked the name. Wally – hence I thought it was worth 15 minutes of my time playing around on it.  Okay 5.

With Australian vernacular, a “wally” is someone who keeps making mistakes but it’s said in a friendly, endearing way. You’re basically telling someone they’re an idiot – but in a nice way.  It’s usually accompanied by a ruffle of the hair, a pat on the back or friendly punch on the arm.

So for those who feel like a wally when it comes to Twitter, TweetWally is your answer!

What’s it for?

There are many applications out there that can filter and collate your tweets, hashtags and keywords and then project these onto a wall at your next conference or workshop to amuse your attendees.

(I say amuse because I haven’t actually seen anyone standing and READING these walls.  I’ve seen plenty of people stand with their back to the wall with plate in hand munching on sandwiches during the break hoping someone would come talk to them.  So it begs the question, what active use do these walls have except for create a moving art form on an otherwise blank wall? Have you used twitter walls effectively? How?)

Create an account simply linking to your Twitter account and within minutes you have a wall set up.

Enter some basic information of your keywords, tweets and hashtags and it filters the tweets according to your search as well as providing you with an embed code you can put into any webpage as you can see below.

Tweet Wally creates your own URL which I now can use for any workshop or event I undertake.

I saw these walls a few years back at a conference and I recall tweeting something stupid just so I could see it appear on the wall.

Obviously, my enthusiasm for it was short lived because none of my fellow workshop participants were paying attention so it failed to even make a comment or a remark.  Not even, “ooh look Helen, you’re tweet is up on the wall!”  Nothing.  So I went back to listening to the presenter.

Of course, the irony was not lost on me that that the whole world had actually seen my stupid tweet and probably thought what a wally I was!