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. He thought conferences would eventually adopt unconference models. So, why aren’t unconferences more popular? Here are my six reasons.

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Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

Traditional conferences focus on a hodgepodge of pre-determined sessions punctuated with socials, surrounded by short welcomes and closings. Such conference designs treat openings and closings as perfunctory traditions, perhaps pumped up with a keynote or two, rather than key components of the conference design.

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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. Keep ’em moving!

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Conferences that Work

APRIL 25, 2022

Today’s attendees are no longer satisfied sitting and listening to people talking at them. If you want to hold meetings where effective learning, connection, and engagement take place, you need to build in authentic and relevant participation. The Conference Arc: Building connection while uncovering wants, needs, and resources.

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Convene by PCMA

NOVEMBER 6, 2023

We’re tapping the talent of PCMA’s staff so they can share the design thinking and process behind the innovative experiences they create for PCMA events. In other words, we’re showcasing the event professionals behind the events for event professionals. The event’s themes were belonging, impact, and future.

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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. They are also far more likely to make valuable connections with their peers during the event. Read the full article at Conferences That Work.

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Conferences that Work

APRIL 11, 2022

By “practitioners” I mean the folks who do what the meeting is about; e.g., doctors at a medical event or scientists at a conservation conference. Often, vendors meet with practitioners at a tradeshow, and sponsors (who are usually vendors too) get opportunities to address practitioners.

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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. In person meetings have vanished overnight.

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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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Conferences that Work

MARCH 14, 2022

Personal meetings like these, whether brief or extended, between good friends or strangers, are fundamental. Someone to tell it to at conferences. Conferences, whether in-person or online, are also potential arenas for conversations. But some conferences offer better opportunities than others. No related posts.

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Brightspot Incentive Events

MARCH 18, 2021

Face-to-face events, conferences, and meetings were postponed or cancelled for the near future. Due to the pandemic, subsequent quarantine, and travel restrictions, our company shifted our mindset and developed new product offerings for our clients in the form of virtual events and hybrid meetings.

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Conferences that Work

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

I think of status at events as the relative levels of proclaimed or perceived social value assigned to or assumed by attendees. And power at events is an individual’s capacity to influence the actions, beliefs, or conduct of attendees. Typically, but not always, higher status implies greater power at meetings.

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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 invented the format by accident 26 years ago when there were no expert speakers to invite for a conference on administrative computing issues in small schools.

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The MICE Blog

MARCH 11, 2021

This new set of values brings significant opportunities for the gaming industry and events. 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.’ Gamifying a conference – ShipCon case study.

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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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Conferences that Work

AUGUST 24, 2020

Here are five meeting design books I especially recommend. Into the Heart of Meetings: Basic Principles of Meeting Design ( ebook or paperback ). 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

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.)

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Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

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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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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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

MARCH 25, 2019

Though it’s clearly sensible to keep a conference running on schedule, we’ve all attended meetings where rambling presenters, avoidable “technical issues”, incompetent facilitation, and inadequate logistics have made a mockery of the published program. Ultimately, the attendees are the losers when this happens.

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Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

I decided to design the wake as a three or more hour event. This timing is not great for potential European attendees. Attendees (~90 right now) are registering on an online platform that’s free for free events. It’s scheduled to be optimum for North American participants (6:00 — 9:00+ pm EDT).

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Travel Daily Media

AUGUST 16, 2020

Marina Bay Sands has launched a state-of-the-art hybrid event broadcast studio at Sands Expo and Convention Centre in a first for the industry, as the award-winning venue paves the way to redefine the future of meetings. The post Marina Bay Sands unveils industry’s first hybrid event broadcast studio appeared first on Travel Daily.

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Conferences that Work

JUNE 18, 2018

CoffeeGate One sunny morning in 2105, two hundred of us arrived for the opening breakfast at a Canadian conference to discover There Was No Coffee. 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.

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Meeting Tomorrow

FEBRUARY 19, 2019

Imagine that each event has a “window” into all the other locations, and that the focus can be shifted from place to place–like a group video chat but with an event in each window. There are a number of meeting design elements that need to be accounted for, but the cost savings and expanded participation seem well worth it.

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Endless Events

JULY 27, 2018

You can also ask the potential attendees to pay a sort of “attendance deposit”, which will be returned when their attendance has been confirmed. Aside from the experience, there are two more major things you expect meeting attendees to take home: knowledge and new opportunities. Tackling the Big “Why” of Your Events.

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Conferences that Work

MARCH 28, 2022

Unfortunately, you wouldn’t know this from looking at meeting planning textbooks. They assume that meetings will consist of sessions with speakers on a stage. They assume that the core purpose of a meeting session is to transmit content to an audience. The meeting industry has redefined novelty as creativity.

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Social Tables

OCTOBER 6, 2018

While the shifts are plentiful, there are five that stand out from the fold when it comes to modern event design. Here’s how the meetings industry is changing the game. With that, they’re also now the largest pool of potential meeting attendees. Control over the meeting agenda is moving to attendees.

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Social Tables

OCTOBER 6, 2018

Today, planners are racing to adapt to trends that make conferences and events more engaging and dynamic than ever before. But when it comes to trends, where should meeting industry professionals put their focus? While the shifts are plentiful, there are five that stand out from the fold when it comes to modern event design.

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Conferences that Work

AUGUST 16, 2021

And it made me think about meeting design. And, me being me, I thought about what Marcy had just said in the context of meeting design. And meetings are no exception. The art and craft of the meeting designer. It’s a meeting designer’s job to create these contextual layers.

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Conferences that Work

JULY 19, 2021

If you want maximum learning, interaction, and connection at a meeting, small meetings are better than large meetings. For example, think about a conference to explore the implications of a medical breakthrough. This is the classic hybrid hub and spoke format that we used 10 years ago at Event Camp Twin Cities (ECTC).

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Conferences that Work

APRIL 18, 2022

The first novel hybrid meeting format was invented by Joel Backon back in 2010. The second is a design I’ll be using in a conference I’ve designed and will be facilitating in June 2022. 1—In-person attendees participate in an online session! Sounds crazy, yes, but stay with me!

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Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

Adding to my reports on new platforms providing online incarnations of traditional conference socials , here’s a review of online social platform Rally. Venue owners can make other attendees co-hosts. The host can broadcast a text announcement to all attendees in all rooms. Two points before we start. next to their name).

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Endless Events

JUNE 15, 2018

Forever gone are the days when event registration meant signing a sheet of paper. Today there are multiple options for attendees to check in to events, whether offline or online. Also, take into account the real-time feedback of your attendees. Just make sure to mind the coherence of the whole event.

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Conferences that Work

JULY 30, 2018

Ironically, in my experience it’s almost always easier to create memorable learning and valuable connection for attendees by employing participatory workshop formats. Sources for additional information. Help Wanted—Venues for my participation techniques workshops! Please help me (and hopefully yourself)! Helping me find a wonderful.

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Conferences that Work

JANUARY 24, 2022

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. Wouldn’t it be great if we could improve the quantity and quality of hallway learning, conversations, and connections throughout an event? Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0).

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