Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 5, 2024

These two quotes are from my posts on the parallels between the evolution of journalism and events (2015) and on the parallel missions of journalism and participant-driven and participation-rich events (2018).] My later books (and many posts on this site) have emphasized the superiority of active over passive learning.

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Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

We talk about all kinds of things, with a focus on my work and thinking about participant-driven and participation-rich meetings and event design. 06:00 On traveling to events, and my passion for what I do. 11:00 What participant-driven and participation-rich meeting design means, and the core components.

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Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

If you do this, using Google Books Ngram Viewer , you’ll notice a curious thing. In 1804, the earliest year included in the Google Books database, the word interaction barely appears. Society, as reflected by books in English, now talks about interaction about twice as often as presentation. That was half a century ago.

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Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

Increasing attendee satisfaction increases the effectiveness of the event for all stakeholders: attendees, sponsors, and event owners. I’d argue that hiring me is the most effective and cost-effective way to improve any event. ” —Excerpts from the Winter 2024 Freeman Syndicated Survey of Event Attendees.

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Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

And yes, I admit it, during the second day of my vacation while enjoying the harmonies I hear, I’m jolted to think about religious meeting design…. Religious services are thought to be around 300,000 years old — by far the oldest form of organized meeting that humans have created. They stand to sing and pray.

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Conferences that Work

MAY 20, 2024

Improving Conferences That Work I designed and facilitated my first peer conference in 1992. I ran them in my spare time for thirteen years before writing my first book. Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love took four years to write. Participants said, “Why don’t you do that this way?”

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Conferences that Work

JUNE 7, 2021

Why am I writing about social learning on a blog that’s (mainly) about meeting design? Which means, to create the best meetings we need to maximize the social learning that takes place. ” Early in the book, is this passage: “What makes human beings unique? What are you waiting for?

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Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 17, 2020

But I’m a consultant who has long subscribed to Jerry Weinberg’s Seventh Law of Marketing : “Give away your best ideas” and Credit Rule : “You’ll never accomplish anything if you care who gets the credit”, from his invaluable book The Secrets of Consulting. ” “Stop. No related posts.

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Conferences that Work

APRIL 1, 2019

This (slightly edited) interview by JT Long appeared in the March 2019 issue of Smart Meetings Magazine. What led to writing the book, Conferences that Work ? I discovered that people love the format, and that led to writing the book 10 years ago. If you had told me then that the.

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Booking Conference Meeting Design Speakers 97

Conferences that Work

MARCH 15, 2021

Recently, I’ve been appearing as a guest at college event planning and hospitality courses to talk about meeting design. (I Rather than lecture for an hour, I’ve been using an Ask Me Anything (aka AMA ) meeting format. A one-sentence distillation: learning is a process not an event.).

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Conferences that Work

OCTOBER 11, 2021

And so it goes with meetings. Daniel Kahneman, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize for Economics, wrote a long book about this. It’s why businesses sponsor meetings. It’s why we judge meeting experiences largely based on how they were perceived at their peak and at their end. Institutions. Technology.

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Conferences that Work

AUGUST 24, 2020

Here are five meeting design books I especially recommend. In an outrageous display of chutzpah , I wrote three of these books. [If Into the Heart of Meetings: Basic Principles of Meeting Design ( ebook or paperback ). Intentional Event Design ( ebook or paperback ).

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Conferences that Work

MARCH 14, 2022

Traditional events relegate conversations to the hallways, to breaks and socials. Given the fundamental human need to tell, meeting stakeholders owe it to participants to create opportunities and environments for rich conversations in the sessions, rather than just the gaps between them. No conversations occur during lectures.

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Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

Events and media consultant Julius Solaris shared at the Unforgettable Experience Design Summit that he was initially very enthusiastic about unconference format events. But Julius didn’t see them catch on and now focuses on other aspects of the meeting industry. Why aren’t unconferences more popular?

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Conferences that Work

MAY 11, 2020

I’ve been designing and facilitating participant-driven and participation-rich in person meetings — aka peer conferences — for almost thirty years. Because participants love these meetings ! Now the covid-19 pandemic has forced meetings online. Zoom has rapidly become the dominant platform for online meetings.

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Conferences that Work

JULY 3, 2023

I’ve used it myself at hundreds of events, and many facilitators and meeting designers have also adopted it as an effective way for attendees to get to learn about each other and uncover what they would like to discuss while they are together. Those who offer it are usually first-time attendees. But not as often as before.

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Conferences that Work

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

” I think it’s reasonable to concentrate on fairness to participants : the majority of those involved with the meeting. In his influential 1971 book A Theory of Justice , John suggested that “the fairest rules are those to which everyone would agree if they did not know how much power they would have.”.

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Meeting Conference Speakers Booking 129

Conferences that Work

JUNE 3, 2019

At the time, I had no idea that what I instinctively put together for a gathering of people who barely knew each other would lead to: a global design and facilitation consulting practice; over 500 posts on this blog, which has now become, to the best of my knowledge, the most-visited website on meeting design and facilitation; three books (almost!)

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Conferences that Work

AUGUST 29, 2016

The first time I met him—at the premier EventCamp in 2010 —he immediately purchased my just-published book, sight unseen. The following year, David was kind enough to honor me in his flagship publication BizBash as one of the most innovative event professionals. Whenever I’ve had the pleasure of meeting David (not often enough!)

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Conferences that Work

JULY 31, 2017

Although I have good reasons to champion meeting designs where the participants get to choose what they want and need to discuss and learn rather than a program committee , there is invariably a place for some predetermined presentations at conferences. Read the full article at Conferences That Work.

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Conferences that Work

MARCH 13, 2017

They are also far more likely to make valuable connections with their peers during the event. Seth Godin describes a desirable meeting mindset: What would happen… if we chose to: …Sit in the front row. Ask a hard question every time we go to a meeting…. Read the full article at Conferences That Work.

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Conferences that Work

JULY 1, 2024

All the conferences I design and facilitate have a time and place for participants to share their experiences. But most clients don’t give me post-event feedback about my work or the event. PSFG has a deep appreciation for the importance of meeting design. And that’s okay.

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Conferences that Work

MARCH 29, 2021

The essential characteristics of meeting professionals. If there is a heaven on earth in the event industry, there are four essential characteristics of successful meeting professionals you’ll meet there. Every successful meeting involves thinking about, planning for and executing countless details.

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Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

After I talked about my meeting design work with pioneer tester James Bach at the 2004 Amplifying Your Effectiveness conference, the testing community somehow adopted the term peer conference for their get-togethers. I miss hanging out with the folks I got to know at these events. That’s the way to improve meetings!

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Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

For a full explanation of why active learning modalities are superior, see Chapter 4 of my book The Power of Participation.). Let’s look at these three conclusions in the context of meeting design. Most meeting presenters still lecture. So why do we continue to use broadcast-style formats?

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Conferences that Work

MARCH 21, 2022

Earlier this month, the folks at Gatherly kindly invited me to host an event of my choosing for their clients and potential users. This coming June will mark my 30th year of designing and facilitating participant-driven and participation-rich meetings. Designing an online workshop in Gatherly. I’ve shared the why?

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Conferences that Work

JUNE 26, 2017

The meetings industry is far more aware of the importance of treating and supporting attendees as active participants rather than passive consumers of education. I also moderated the #eventprofs Twitter chats for several years, and until recently, ran the weekly #Eventprofs Happy Hour Hangout for meeting professionals. What’s Next.

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Conferences that Work

APRIL 8, 2019

Organizations hear about these conferences and ask me to design and facilitate them. I decide to write a book about it, and in… 2009: I self-publish Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love. I quickly discover the size and interest of the meetings industry. Yet another career that had not existed before.

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Conferences that Work

APRIL 9, 2018

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. In the first quarter of 2018, I’ve booked more business than all of 2017.)

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Conferences that Work

MAY 22, 2023

Check to see if your school already makes books available via VitalSource Campus Retailers. It is critical to understand how to design conferences and events effectively. Now, you and your students can easily access my books from anywhere in the world, at any time, both online and offline.

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Conferences that Work

JUNE 13, 2016

Why mention this on an event design blog? Well, the most effective aspect of China’s online censorship regime illustrates what happens when you don’t incorporate covenants into your meetings. Read the full article at Conferences That Work. The Chinese government runs a massive online censorship program.

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Social Tables

OCTOBER 28, 2016

In events and hospitality, knowledge is power. Thankfully these thought leaders are quick to share their tips and tricks on how to get ahead in the world of events and hospitality. Meetings & Events. Tahira Endean tweets about the intersection of experiential, immersive meeting design and technology.

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Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 7, 2022

So here’s my review of Butter, a meeting platform for facilitators to shine. In this review of Butter, I’ll share a big picture overview, what I think is Butter’s finest feature, an example of how to implement a meeting design in Butter, and my closing thoughts. Meeting design case.

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Conferences that Work

APRIL 16, 2018

Fun fact: the testing community often uses my term “peer conferences” for their get-togethers, due to a chat about meeting design I had with tester James Bach at the 2004 Amplifying Your Effectiveness conference.) Did the #testbash #unexpo work? The first Conferences That Work peer conference held in Japan begins today!

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Conferences that Work

APRIL 3, 2023

Furthermore, I have consistently produced high-quality books on meeting design that have received critical acclaim and have helped thousands of meeting professionals to significantly improve their conferences. Now, I need to adjust my prices to ensure that my business remains viable. Thank you for your continued support!

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Conferences that Work

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

Ten years ago today, I started this website and published my first book: Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love. (A I’m proud to have written three books ( the latest was published this week) and over six hundred blog posts in the last ten years. A decade later it’s still selling.).

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Conferences that Work

JULY 17, 2023

I am resigned to the fact that OpenAI ‘s Large Language Model ChatGPT has scraped every blog post I’ve written here (over 750 posts in the last 13 years—around half a million words) so it can parrot my thoughts about meeting design, facilitation, and other topics. I don’t think so.

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