I would enjoy my job more if it weren’t for people, said the meeting professional. Unfortunately, he wasn’t joking. He didn’t like dealing with people, especially disgruntled conference stakeholders. As conference organizers, we can easily fall into today’s culture of cynicism. It’s difficult to be sincere when we are constantly bombarded with an outrage culture. Any of our attendees can turn to social media to announce their smallest irritation with our event. Kindness Versus … [Read more...]
Conference Cloning: Principles Not Practices
Many of us do it. We seek the next great idea. We read lists of tips and tricks in search of one unique takeaway we can try at our event. We observe what other conferences are doing. We turn to the experts and others who have had success and ask them how they did it. We complain if an expert doesn't tell us how to do something so we can copy them. Conference Impersonators Sure imitation is one of the greatest forms of flattery as the old adage states. Yet too often, conference … [Read more...]