The Modern Meetings Mixologist: What Our Conferences Need Most

Have you used a mixologist recently?

Most people think the term mixologist is a fancy term for a bartender. That’s partially true. Many of today’s mixologist start out as bartenders and transition into the art and craft of creating new drink recipes.

A mixologist is a bartender that specializes in the creation of cocktail recipes. The term implies expertise and professionalism, beyond the normal tavern bartender.

Today’s mixologists are more like chefs, creating and concocting new beverages. They consider seasonal fruits, juices, vegetables, spices and other flavors when fashioning their drinks. They apply the same skills and precision used in cooking. Sometimes they create specialty drinks commissioned for events and themes.

Defining The Modern Meetings Mixologist

Today’s conferences need a modern meetings mixologist. We need a person that focuses on mixing the best blend of education experiences for ultimate learning. These meeting mixologists understand the dynamics of the right learning ingredients combination.

But isn’t a modern meetings mixologist just a fancy term for a meeting planner or event professional? Well, sort of? These are actually those meetings professionals that think strategically about their meetings and events. They have developed an expertise and professionalism for the attendee’s experience and learning.

The Educational Experience Ingredients

The modern meetings mixologist handpicks the best interactive and learning ingredients from speaker proposals, volunteer suggestions, crowdsourced topics and professional speakers and blends them together for a diverse audience.  The educational ingredients include:

• Audience Type – from novice to mature to experienced professionals
• Control – from top-down, authoritative lectures to bottom-up, peer-to-peer strategies
• Content – controlled curriculum (what the organization or conference leadership find important) to subject matter and topics crowdsourced from the attendees
• Delivery – push, broadcast of information to pull of education and learning from conversations and group activities
• Duration – forty-five minutes to 3 hours depending upon whether the session is a deep dive or an overview
• Emotions – from inspiration, motivation and high-energy to reflective, deep thought and introspective
• Engagement – from passive listening to active engagement and activity
• Focus – from focus on the speakers or panelists as experts to a focus on the attendees as experts and industry experienced professionals
• Formality – from pushed formal information dumps from experts to informal peer-to-peer conversations and dialogue from industry experienced
• Price/Value – from fee-based experiences that are exclusive for those that pay to free inclusive content that will help propel an entire industry or profession forward
• Subject Matter/Topics – from a broad variety of topics to a select few overarching umbrella topics

Today’s meeting and event professionals that favor controlled, formal education from industry experts deny their attendees a full-flavor blend of educational experiences. Modern meetings mixologists provide an assorted blend of education experiences that meet a diverse audience’s needs.  The ideal combination provides a unique, memorable learning experience.

What new recipes are you concocting? What the best mix of education experiences that you’ve encountered at a conference?