5 Practices for Improving Concurrent Sessions February 22, 2024 by Sarah Michel Conference organizers know that the “main course” of their education offering and value proposition is in the concurrent education sessions. These learning experiences are primarily guided and selected by committee members who have little to no training or experience in adult learning principles. This model can be very risky. What happens in those rooms will … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education
Meeting the Needs of Lifelong Learners November 9, 2023 by Dave Lutz Our friends at Leading Learning/Tagoras are conducting a survey to help guide your association’s future learning strategy. We’re sharing this because Leading Learning has a great track record of doing high-quality research and sharing the insights with those participating in the survey. To contribute and learn about the trends that will have the most impact … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education
Panel Sessions 3.0 for 2023 December 7, 2022 by Dave Lutz For years I’ve been a fan of bringing in more outside voices to make mainstage sessions more valuable and deliver more impact. While keynote speakers can still be a significant attendance driver, I think 2023 is the year to resurrect the industry panel. What you don’t want to do is go back to the same … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education, Experience Design, Speaker Coaching Tagged With: , new panel formats, panel formats, panels 3.0, panels for 2023, trending panel formats
Do’s and Don’ts: Six Tips to Help Justify Attendance at Your Event November 30, 2022 by Dave Lutz As we progress through the event industry’s recovery to 2019 levels, conference organizers must have a laser focus on helping potential attendees make their business case for attending their events. The best path for helping them get approval to attend is to ensure that the majority of your education program is aligned to advance business … [Read more…] Filed Under: Attendance Marketing, Conference Education, Experience Design Tagged With: , attendee marketing, business case, Education, event business case, justification for attendance, workforce challenges
Elevate Your Conference Education November 11, 2021 by Sarah Michel There’s never been a better time than right now to reimagine your education programming for your first in-person conference in some time, for many—in over two years. All those changes you’ve dreamed of trying can now become a reality. Conference education sessions have long been considered the main course of the event, yet typically they … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education, Speaker Coaching
How Much Has Covid Affected the World of Virtual Conferences? August 18, 2021 by Betsy Bair Leading learning firm Tagoras has launched another round of its virtual conferences survey, the results of which will be compared to its last round, conducted near the beginning of the pandemic. The use of online events, by all types of organizations, has grown by leaps and bounds. This current survey’s results “will give us a … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education, Hybrid & Virtual Tagged With: , adult education, growth of online events, online conferences, surveys, virtual conferences
Monetizing Your Virtual Conference When Competing with Free April 30, 2020 by Dave Lutz If you’re inbox is anything like mine, you could spend a good portion of our day consuming webinars, virtual events and networking in Zoom or Facebook Messenger Happy Hours. We’re on content overload and it’s only going to get noisier as the pandemic lingers. The dynamics that we’re seeing impact conferences and their business models … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model, Conference Education, Hybrid & Virtual Tagged With: , emerging models, freemium, monetization, online conference, online event, virtual event
Top Tips for Preparing Your Presenters January 14, 2020 by Dave Lutz Imagine how you might do your job differently if your performance and compensation were evaluated based on overall session attendance and industry presenter ratings at your annual conference. While this notion may seem a bit extreme, conference education systems need increased accountability, which in turn leads to a competitive advantage. We all need improved systems … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education, Speaker Coaching Tagged With: , presenter prep, speaker coaching, speaker preparation, speaker training, spearker prep
Deliver Superior Conference Education Value October 2, 2019 by Dave Lutz Here’s what hasn’t changed: Education continues to be essential to a participant’s experience. Here’s what has changed: I’m convinced that “something for everyone” programming — including basic content for the novice or intermediate practitioner — is no longer the right strategy for positioning your conference as a can’t-miss experience. We need to raise the bar … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult learning, DIKW, learning for life, problem solvers, station rotation
Education Committee: More Advising and Curating, Less Slotting June 24, 2019 by Dave Lutz Most meeting organizers invest a significant amount of time creating the educational programming for their annual conference. Models vary, but most include a 15- to 20-person conference committee (slotters) and army of reviewers (graders). Progressive organizers are shifting to a blended model, where conference committees act more like content curators and advisors and less like … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education, Experience Design Tagged With: , abstracts, curation, Education, education committee, grading, posters, rubric, slotting, submissions
