In today’s high-tech, information-at-your-thumbs world, education models have shifted. Our conference participants now have the capacity and cultural motivation to produce their own knowledge. They experience overwhelmingly support for creating and sharing information and connections in their daily lives. We continue to witness the rise of the participatory culture as Henry Jenkins describes it. These ongoing developments mean that conference organizers must foster and leverage … [Read more...]
Five Super Effervescent Sparkling Fresh Conference Education Ideas
As a conference organizer, do you replicate last year's conference schedule and experience and just change the filling? Or do you mix it up? Constantly looking for new ways to freshen up the attendee's conference experience. The best conference organizers proactively seek fresh, new ideas to implement at their next annual meeting. They work hard at coming up with the next big idea. They are willing to make at least 25% of their annual meeting a new experience for everyone. Changing The … [Read more...]
Are You Designing For The Four Stages Of Conference Experience?
As a conference organizer, are you designing for the four stages of a conference experience? Or are you only designing for attendees to consume information? If you are planning only didactic, one-way, information transfer such as lectures and panels, you are missing some great opportunities to give your attendees a more robust experience. Four Stages Of Conference Experience Most meeting professionals are unaware that there are four stages of an attendee's conference experience. They are only … [Read more...]
Creating Conference Engagement With These Seven Social Spaces
People participate in a variety of behaviors at a typical conference. They enter the conference with specific expectations of what they can do at the event, who they can do it with and what's expected of them. So how often do we plan conferences with a focus on the behaviors and types of spaces that attendees use? Seven Social Spaces The goal of categorizing spaces is to get you to think about what your attendees might be doing in these spaces. And what they might be doing it for. … [Read more...]
A Conference Learning Manifesto With Ten New Principles To Adopt
We participate, therefore we are. This spin on cogito ergo sum (English: “I think, therefore I am”) is a good motto for all conferences and events. It is exactly where I think conference organizers should begin to focus their meeting planning efforts. They need to focus on designing learning experiences where attendees actively participate, not where they passively consume. Designers Of Experiences Not Schedulers Of Speakers Conference organizers need to see themselves as more than logistics … [Read more...]
Old Guard Conferences Vs. Cutting Edge Conferences
When the winds of change blow, some people build walls. Others build windmills. ~Chinese Proverb Conferences are divided today between Old Guard and Cutting Edge Conferences. Old guard conferences build walls when the winds of change blow. Cutting edge conferences build windmills to capture and leverage the winds of change. Old Guard And Cutting Edge Conferences These two types of conferences move at different speeds. They value different things. They measure success differently. They think … [Read more...]
Creating EPIC Conferences For Connected Times
Name two words that describe the web today. Connected and community are two that come to my mind. Conferences Are In The Connexity Business Amazon and eBay say they are in the connexity business-making connections and building communities. Both companies demonstrate that the web is less an information source than a social medium. Conferences need to shift to become more of a connexity business. They need to transition from information channels to being a catalyst for making connections and … [Read more...]
Metaphors, Stories And Images Are Important For Conferences: The I In EPIC Conferences
Try this. Next time you are in the grocery store, ask the seafood clerk for fresh sardines. Guess what most seafood clerks say? "There is not really one fish called a sardine." Most of us are used to seeing sardines in a can. In reality, the name applies to twenty-one species of small fish that, they moment they hit the can, can be labeled sardines. FishBase, an online database of fish, lists 18 fish species that qualify as sardines and many more that are described as sardines. The name, or … [Read more...]
