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 good sense of just how much impact COVID had,” says Jeff Cobb, managing director of Tagoras. The purpose of this survey is to better understand how organizations are … [Read more...]
Monetizing Your Virtual Conference When Competing with Free
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 are very similar to the Freemium movement we experienced way back in 2009. I’ll never forget a blog post, entitled “Malcolm is Wrong," which Seth Godin penned … [Read more...]
Top Tips for Preparing Your Presenters
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 for: Programming thought-provoking and relevant content. Recruiting or selecting industry presenters who will draw a … [Read more...]
Deliver Superior Conference Education Value
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 higher and meet the needs of the experienced and advanced practitioners. Early and mid-career professionals can catch on, and are in … [Read more...]
Education Committee: More Advising and Curating, Less Slotting
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 graders and slotters. Session and abstract submissions are still an important part of the process, but a greater … [Read more...]
Are Your Speakers Speaking to Speakers?
I wonder about the future of peer review for conference abstracts. While it is a critical filter for high-quality journals, it is a very inefficient process for accelerating innovation and discovery at conferences. Many healthcare and STEM conference business models are heavily dependent on participants who are able to justify their attendance in part because their oral or poster abstract has been accepted. We’ve analyzed some conferences in which the percentage of attendees who are on the … [Read more...]
What True Learning Is at Participant-Centered Conferences
Putting the participant at the center of your conference programming by becoming more learner-centric, that is planning and offering education sessions that go beyond surface learning, is one of the biggest challenges facing conference organizers today. You need to enable participants to find meaningful and mentally stimulating experiences. The knowledge gap between the stage and the audience has shrunk substantially over the past decade. Conferences that are able to leverage the intellectual … [Read more...]
The Tension Between Content And Process In Facilitated Conference Learning Experiences
Have you ever attended a conference education session because of the presenter and not the content? (I think most of us have.) Have you ever been surprised when a full day workshop ended? You were so engaged that time flew by without you realizing it. If you’ve had these types of experiences, you’ve witnessed firsthand skilled facilitation. A great facilitator moves back and forth between content and process engaging participants in their own learning journeys. We need more conference … [Read more...]
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