Author: Jeff Hurt


Too Many Technical Presentations Suffer From POOH!

Sutro Baths: Vertical Poop by Andy Morris Your conference’s technical presentations suffer from POOH*! “Huh?” you ask. “What are you talking about?” Too often, and I mean way too often, our conferences are full of technical presentations that offer nothing more than POOH! For some reason, we falsely believe that technical presentations don’t have to … [Read more…]

Your Conference Renewal Begins With Wondering

Where does true conference improvement begin? The conference revitalization process is probably very different than many of your past experiences. It’s so different that we have to view it through new lenses. By taking charge of your own understanding of conference improvement and transformation, you begin a new journey. You are exploring uncharted territory. You … [Read more…]

Rebalancing Conference Vertigo By Starting With Design-Less Strategies

Leaping to action without a solid comprehension of your conference target market and their needs causes all sorts of mayhem. Some conference organizers and their planning team members don’t even realize they are in the eye of a storm. That mayhem is their blind spot. Planning a conference without a deep understanding of what makes … [Read more…]

Constrained Collaboration Can Derail Conference Improvement

Collaboration – it’s one of the buzzwords of business today. Collaboration is when people work together to achieve a goal. Multiple individuals from different departments work together to accomplish a task or project. Evan Rosen in his book The Culture of Collaboration says “[Collaboration is] working together to create value while sharing virtual and physical … [Read more…]

Pivoting Away From Past Procedures To New Conference Horizon Returns

Your current conference planning and improvement procedures have its roots in industrial revolution models. We are still designing our conference in the exact same way that companies designed their manufacturing production process, to paraphrase Dave Gray author of The Connected Company. We are trying to imitate the industrial age to make our conference networking, programming … [Read more…]

Triple Loop Learning, The Loop Of Doom And Conference Transformation

Are you really, really good at what you do? Sure you are. You’ve probably mastered your discipline and expertise. You may even be one of the best conference organizers in the world. Meetings And Conference Success Those meeting professionals that are almost always successful at their work rarely experience failure. And those that have rarely … [Read more…]

Implementing Double Loop Learning For Conference Improvement

Most professionals, like you, are really good at single loop learning. We have a mental map that we use for conference improvement. We follow standard, prescribed routines to solve typical conference problems. That’s single loop learning. (BTW, single and double loop learning applies to any type of organizational improvement. I’m applying it to conference improvements.) … [Read more…]

Helping Smart Planning Teams Learn So That Their Conferences Prosper

As conference organizers aspire to succeed in tougher and progressively more complex environments, they’ve got to resolve one basic and major quandary: Success today depends upon learning. We can’t continue to do what we’ve always done and expect different results. We’ve got to learn new ways “to conference,” so to speak. Success today depends upon … [Read more…]

Quantitative Or Qualitative Conference Measures. Which Matters Most?

Many conference organizers and their organizations tend to focus only on linear, incremental improvements. Most of those improvements are transactional in nature. Improving online registration, ecommerce, confirmations, lodging, CEU tracking, etc. Or they tend to copy what another conference is doing. Rarely do they explore the actual reasons behind number trends. Instead, they just twist … [Read more…]