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Three ways to make it easier for attendees to participate

Conferences that Work

How do we get people to participate at meetings? We know that participants — people who are active learners — learn more, retain more, and retain more accurately than passive attendees. Seth Godin describes a desirable meeting mindset: What would happen… if we chose to: …Sit in the front row. Seth Godin, What Would Happen.

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How to implement participant-driven breakouts in Zoom

Conferences that Work

I started using Zoom in 2012, but since the pandemic began I’ve facilitated more Zoom meetings than the last seven years. And I’ve become intrigued with the possibilities of incorporating the peer processes developed for successful face-to-face meetings into online events. In person meetings have vanished overnight.

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MICE professionals

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Why switching to active learning is hard — and worth it

Conferences that Work

Let’s look at these three conclusions in the context of meeting design. Most meeting presenters still lecture. And most meeting session presenters resort to lecturing as their dominant session modality. Attendees learn more when presenters use active learning modalities.

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Something is rotten in the state of meeting industry education

Conferences that Work

In a nutshell, I think that our industry associations have become too focused on justifying their continued existence financially, and are neglecting their core mission of supporting and representing their members and association meeting attendees. But their inclusion looks good on the promotional materials.

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Three ways to create truly surprising meetings

Conferences that Work

I’ll bet that even today, if you asked attendees what they remembered about the event, most would immediately recall the There Was No Coffee moment. Experienced meeting planners know that every meeting has its share of unexpected surprises. Surprising Meetings But not all meeting surprises are bad.

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Reduce Chinese-style self-censorship at your meetings

Conferences that Work

As I’ve explained elsewhere , good covenants publicly clarify the freedoms that attendees have at an event, like the freedoms to speak one’s mind , ask questions , and share feelings. When such freedoms are agreed to individually and as a group at the start of a meeting, ambiguity about meeting behavior dissipates.

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Save $100 on Adrian Segar’s first 1½ day participation techniques workshop!

Conferences that Work

For over 25 years, I’ve been designing and facilitating Conferences That Work : successful, innovative, highly interactive, participant-driven events that leverage attendees’ expertise and experience to create just the conference that participants want and need. The attendees are still here talking to each other!