Let’s separate reality from fiction regarding personalized conference experiences and personalized learning. Fact: Meeting professionals and conference vendors frequently confuse personalization with configurable conference experiences. They are not the same thing. Fact: Conference planners and association leaders are easily persuaded by the puffery of conference personalization. Those that want to pursue personalization need to be savvy consumers. “They have to ask the tough questions … [Read more...]
A Cautionary Word From Research About Personalization
Personalization—it seems to be the 2017 buzzword for nonprofit associations and conferences. Everyone seems to be talking about it like here and here. Yet, personalization is more than technology. It means more than our past purchases or posts in social media. We have likes, dislikes, preferences, strengths, weakness, emotions, experiences and knowledge that do not show up in organization data systems. We are much more than recorded data when it comes to personalization! Data and … [Read more...]
Flourishing Conference Professionals Lead With Purpose
As a conference organizer, how purpose-driven are you? Successful conference organizers are purpose-driven! They grow into purpose leaders that influence others with a shared vision and purpose. They evolve into meaning-machines. They design conference experiences that become meaning-making opportunities for their participants. And they make their planning teams’ work important. Not clichéd or trivial. Critically important to their customers’ needs. (Hat tips Dr. Henry Cloud’s … [Read more...]
What Type Of Learning Experiences—Shallow, Advancement Or Deep–Are You Serving Customers?
The world has drastically changed in the past several decades. But most conference experiences have changed very little, if at all. They compete with the Internet to distribute content and deliver information. So what type of conference education are you serving your customers—shallow learning, advancement learning or deep learning? Do you even know the difference between the three? Do you know which would lead to authentic, transformative learning experiences? The Initial Research On … [Read more...]
Successful Conference Professionals Understand, Design And Offer Deep Learning Experiences To Attendees
Most conferences offer some type of learning opportunities for their participants. From informal peer networking to roundtable discussions to formal expert lectures and panel discussions. The education opportunities abound. Traditionally, the goal of conference education is to deliver as much information as possible as fast as possible to as many people as possible. Today, many meeting professionals focus on distributing content through traditional and unusual formats—TED style, Ignite, … [Read more...]
Designing 21st Century Conference Learning Experiences And Spaces
Our conference learning spaces affect our audience. We must learn to think like designers. Then we can focus on changing our conference participants’ learning spaces with the right goal in mind—nurturing their learning. Be forewarned! We are not decorating learning spaces. We are designing them to foster, nurture and amplify our participants’ learning. (Hat tips Rebecca Louise Hare and Dr. Robert Dillon authors of The Space: A Guide for Educators.) Are You Putting Lipstick On Outdated … [Read more...]
Are We Creating The Wrong Type Of Conference Experiences?
Everyone’s talking about the need to create customer experiences. (Yes, including us, the Velvet Chainsaw team.) It’s as if Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore’s Experience Economy is just now hitting its stride—for conferences at least. The word is out: we’ve got to create conference experiences, not just conferences that feel like a patchwork quilt of our great grandmother’s dresses. However, what we really need are transformative conference experiences! We need to create conference opportunities … [Read more...]
Configurable and Personalized Conference Experiences
The mass-personalization wave that is dramatically changing what and how we buy as consumers has application to conferences. I’ve been doing a lot of research and have learned that personalization can be achieved in a number of ways: Individualized — The customer gets exactly what meets their preferences or needs. In other words, they can order a tailor-made shirt to fit their body measurements perfectly in the style, fabric and color of their choice. Configurable — The customer can make … [Read more...]
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