Conferences that Work

MARCH 25, 2024

Since 2005, I’ve written three successful books on meeting design and facilitation and over 800 weekly blog posts on a wide range of topics. My books continue to sell, and this blog is the world’s most popular website on meeting design and facilitation. Write a book? Attendees loved my events!

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Booking Meeting Design Consulting Conference 80

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. Include lots of communal activities.

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Meeting Design Meeting Speakers Conference 61

Conferences that Work

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

What are the fairest rules to use when running meetings? ” I think it’s reasonable to concentrate on fairness to participants : the majority of those involved with the meeting. All meetings have rules, whether overt or covert, conscious or unconscious, that influence how they proceed. Status and power at meetings.

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Meeting Conference Speakers Booking 129

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

I make conferences better by dramatically increasing attendee satisfaction. Increasing attendee satisfaction increases the effectiveness of the event for all stakeholders: attendees, sponsors, and event owners. Since 1992, I’ve designed and facilitated hundreds of conferences and thousands of meetings.

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Sponsors Registration Conference Attendee 80

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. Details matter.

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Meeting Communications Communications Logistics 121

Endless Events

JANUARY 12, 2018

Get Ready for the Top Meeting Trends in 2018. Meetings have always been more intimate affairs compared to events. But with recent trends focusing more towards personalization and customization, meetings are definitely getting a big tech upgrade this year. Meetings are definitely getting a big tech upgrade this year.

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Venue Booking Event Apps Events 287

Conferences that Work

MARCH 13, 2017

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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Attendee Education Booking Meeting Design 80

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

But Julius didn’t see them catch on and now focuses on other aspects of the meeting industry. I’ve been a facilitator, designer, and proponent of unconferences (aka peer conferences ) since 1992. For example, figuring out what attendees actually want and need to talk about doesn’t happen at the drop of a hat.

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Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 7, 2022

Companies bombard me with offers to check out online meeting platforms. Butter is an online meeting platform that is designed to support the facilitation of great interactive meetings. So here’s my review of Butter, a meeting platform for facilitators to shine. The usual caveats. Butter — the big picture.

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Platform Meeting Online Production 62

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

APRIL 9, 2018

Over the last five years I’ve heard increasing concern from the meeting professionals community about the deterioration of the quality of our national industry conferences. I’ll illustrate with the area where I have most experience: providing education at these meetings.

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Conferences that Work

JULY 3, 2023

Back in 1992 , I developed The Three Questions as a fundamental opening process for participant-driven meetings and conferences. Answering it gives every person present, in turn, an opportunity to share what they would like the ensuing meeting to be about. Those who offer it are usually first-time attendees.

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Conference Attendee Meeting Design Booking 62

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 ? At traditional conferences with fixed programs set in advance, at best half of sessions offered are what attendees want.

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Booking Conference Meeting Design Speakers 97

Conferences that Work

JANUARY 24, 2022

Have you attended in-person meetings where your hallway conversations were the highlight of the event? But I see meetings where hallway learning trumps a majority of, if not all, conference sessions as failures of design, rather than a fact of life. Give your attendees plenty of breaks. Don’t get me wrong.

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Conference Attendee Meeting Booking 144

Conferences that Work

MARCH 14, 2022

Meetings of every kind offer these opportunities. Personal meetings like these, whether brief or extended, between good friends or strangers, are fundamental. Read any of my books to learn specific techniques and designs that create meaningful and valuable conversations during meeting sessions.).

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Meeting Design Conference Online Audience 65

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. 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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Meeting Conference Online Government 63

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. Attendees learn more when presenters use active learning modalities.

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Publishing Speakers Education Booking 85

Social Tables

OCTOBER 14, 2016

You have all your ducks in a row: awesome venue booked, killer catering secured and tickets to your event are sold out. But you’ve forgotten one important piece of the puzzle: how do you plan on engaging your attendees? Attendee engagement is an oft-overlooked component that is just as important as the venue or food and beverage.

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Audience Social Media B2C Networking 68

The MICE Blog

MARCH 11, 2021

Now, after one year of hosting and attending virtual events, the events industry is facing the challenge of how to engage attendees and combat ‘zoom fatigue.’ A common example is booking websites. The gamification strategies on these websites endeavour to make us book as soon as possible. Why use gamification?

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Contracts Contracts Virtual Events Online 130

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. Want to create a peer conference, but don’t want to buy any of my excellent books on this topic?

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Conference Meeting Design Proposal Retreat 62

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.) Most meeting conveners concentrate on feedback about meeting content (“great speakers!”)

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Logistics Conference Trade Show Attendee 58

Conferences that Work

APRIL 8, 2019

Invent a way to make the conference successful based on the collective needs, wants, and experience of the attendees. 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.

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Publishing Consulting Manufacturing Conference 58

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. Whenever I’ve had the pleasure of meeting David (not often enough!) There is nothing in the 2016 BizBash Design Issue that explores the heart of event design: what will happen at the event?

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Logistics Event Design Conference Design Conference 54

Conferences that Work

JUNE 26, 2017

I’ve spent 25 years working on changing outmoded mindsets about what we should be doing in meetings. Historically, topics had to be determined in advance, the meeting format was mainly lecture and did not encourage interaction, and content was king. Adapt to the reality that we primarily learn from our peers rather than experts.

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Booking Conference Education Meeting Design 50

Motivation Excellence

FEBRUARY 20, 2020

Incentive travel is an important subset of the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) industry. Although there is not a single standard for how incentive travel programs work, the basic structure involves employees meeting a pre-defined goal to qualify for a group trip. What is Incentive Travel? Collaboration.

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Incentives Travel Travel Social Media 130

Conferences that Work

DECEMBER 12, 2016

significantly increase owner and attendee satisfaction and participation at your sessions and events. The POPWORKS format focuses on active learning through direct experience of a multitude of participatory meeting techniques. Learn more about Adrian and his books. The attendees are still here talking to each other!

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Registration Conference Venue Education 25

Social Tables

APRIL 17, 2019

56% of event professionals believe health and wellness programs impact the overall success of meetings. Leading events such as IMEX, Dreamforce, and C2 Montréal are integrating opportunities for attendees to focus on their mental and physical health, as well as recharge.

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Proposal Communications Communications Planner 149

Social Tables

DECEMBER 27, 2018

Meetings are growing and evolving rapidly, and each is an experiment in applying new methods to find a perfect formula. To succeed, you have to be dynamic, you have to be flexible, and, above all, you have to be in tune with attendee desires. If there’s a mantra for this year, it might just be “book now!” So will live events.).

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Trends Meeting Planner Venue 167