Conferences that Work

JANUARY 29, 2024

We spend a lot of time talking about problems, effects, and causes. But, sadly, we talk mainly about the effects of problems rather than focus on their causes. If you ask people what are the most pressing problems in the world today they’ll mention things like the climate emergency, multiple wars, and (well, certainly in 2020) pandemics. We all want someone to “solve” these problems.

2020 202

2020 Conference Events 202

Conferences that Work

JANUARY 22, 2024

My January 15, 2024 article “ Concerns about using facial analysis at events ” generated much discussion. (See, e.g., this thread on LinkedIn which has, at the time of writing, four thousand impressions.) Five days later, Panos Moutafis , co-founder & CEO of Zenus , the “ethical facial analysis” company, responded. I find his response inadequate, and this post explains why.

Technology 342

Technology 2023 Events Tech 342

Conferences that Work

JANUARY 15, 2024

Should the event industry embrace facial analysis — a technology that promises to offer new analytic data to event stakeholders? In this post, I’ll explain why I’m concerned. I’ve included: An introduction to facial recognition and facial analysis; A timeline of recent public experiences and responses to the use of facial analysis at events; Why I think the use of this technology is misguided, ethically and legally dubious; and My conclusions.

2023 348

2023 2022 Technology Events 348

Conferences that Work

DECEMBER 25, 2023

Here’s an independent review of my conference design work, published as a case study in Chapter 25—Designing and Developing Content for Collaborative Business Events—of the book The Routledge Handbook of Business Events. (Tip: The hardback version is expensive, the ebook is a quarter of the hardback cost.) The chapter was written by Ruth Dowson , Chantal Dickson , and Simon Bell.

Conference 202

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Conferences that Work

DECEMBER 11, 2023

Long ago, I participated in and later staffed a series of workshops that profoundly affected my life. They led me to create a contract with myself that is still important to me. Creating a contract with oneself is a common way to motivate yourself toward achieving desired goals. There are plenty of resources available for writing such contracts. ( Here’s one that’s slanted toward event professionals. ) The workshop where I created my contract for myself took a deeper perspective.

Contracts 353

Contracts 2005 Conference Meetings 353

Conferences that Work

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

I joined the social media platform Mastodon a year ago. Given recent turbulent social media trends, I’m glad I took the plunge. Having been on Twitter (yes, I know it’s been renamed “X”, sue me) since 2009, I’d describe Mastodon as the old Twitter. What do I mean by that? What Twitter is now Ever since Twitter’s creation in 2006, people have used it in different ways.

2009 208

2009 Social Media 2014 2006 208

Conferences that Work

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

Join me in Rome next week (November 21 – 26)! On November 24 I’m leading a Masterclass at the 2023 Best Event Awards Festival. The topic? Creating and supporting meaningful participation at events. Here’s the entire program for November 24. There’s also an opportunity to meet with me in Studio Room 2 from 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM CET to explore questions and issues arising from the session or that weren’t addressed and tackle questions on how to solve your top-of-m

2023 208

2023 Conference Meetings Events 208

Conferences that Work

NOVEMBER 6, 2023

48 years ago this week I met Celia at the wedding of mutual friends in the heart of the English New Forest. I moved in with her ten days later and we’ve been together ever since. We married in 1977… …and moved to the U.S. the same year. We have been through so much together. Wonderful times and hard times. Along the way our family grew; we now have three (adult) children and three grandkids.

Negotiating 348

Negotiating Conference 348

Conferences that Work

OCTOBER 30, 2023

Meetings and conferences are perhaps one of the most important fundamental ways in which people come together and change happens. Yet this topic is rarely the focus of much academic study. So I’m pleased to discover an academic research article paper about unconference — especially since its title is: The Future Of Conferences Is Unconferences !

Conference 271

Conference 2023 Education Travel 271

Conferences that Work

OCTOBER 23, 2023

Click to vote for The Most Influential People in the Events Industry for 2023! Dear colleagues and friends, I hope this message finds you well and thriving in your event industry endeavors. It’s with pride and gratitude that I share that I’ve been nominated once again for the prestigious Eventex Index as one of The Most Influential People in the Events Industry for 2023.

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Conferences that Work

OCTOBER 9, 2023

A [MARKETING PERSON] has invited me to share my expertise at a meeting industry event. Well, there’s nothing unusual about that; it happens frequently. BUT THIS TIME I GET TO PAY FOR THE PRIVILEGE! Pay me? No, you pay us! I’m regularly asked to speak, present, or run a workshop at meeting industry events. While I love to do this, the requests are often silent about something important.

Meetings 269

Meetings 2023 2021 Marketing 269

Conferences that Work

OCTOBER 2, 2023

OK, maybe the title of this post should have an asterisk next to it. A more accurate statement would be that I’m running faster than ever before— since I started running almost every day at the age of 65, 7 years ago. I didn’t predict this would happen. When I decided in 2016 to start running on the dirt roads by my home , I was terrible at it.

2016 243

2016 Conference 243

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023

Strive to live in your own imagination, not someone else’s. Having written about the intersection of power and status at meetings , I appreciate what professor of African American studies at Princeton University Ruha Benjamin shares in this 2019 video: “ The New Jim Code? Race, Carceral Technoscience, and Liberatory Imagination “ She delves deeply into nonobvious ways that historic designs encode and perpetuate inequity.

2013 264

2013 2019 Technology Conference 264

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

Why aren’t unconferences more popular? 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. But Julius didn’t see them catch on and now focuses on other aspects of the meeting industry.

Conference 266

Conference Venues 2023 Consulting 266

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 3, 2023

Many who use the popular image software Midjourney have had problems with Midjourney distortion. Human hands, arms, feet, and other body parts are often totally unrealistic. Extra fingers, matchstick arms, and feet disappearing into a blur are common. Yes, there are explanations for why this happens. Regardless, this flaw makes folks waste significant time getting Midjourney to generate images of people that don’t include these artifacts.

Conference 176

Conference Technology 176

Conferences that Work

AUGUST 28, 2023

Keeping a recurring conference going, alive and fresh every time, is hard enough. Successfully starting a conference from scratch is even tougher. But if you are courageous enough to start a conference, you have one big advantage. Read the full article at Conferences That Work The post One big advantage to starting a conference from scratch appeared first on Conferences That Work.

Conference 156

Conference Event Design Meetings Events 156

Conferences that Work

AUGUST 21, 2023

Connect the dots, not collect the dots. How can we maximize the real value of a meeting? By maximizing how participants “connect the dots”—what they actually learn from their experiences at the meeting—rather than documenting what we or they think they should have learned. Seth Godin makes the same point when talking about the future of education and what we can do about it in his 2012 TEDxYouth@BFS talk.

2012 156

2012 Education Conference Meetings 156

Conferences that Work

AUGUST 14, 2023

I freewrote The Batch Fixer contemporaneously on April 10, 2006, in twenty minutes while waiting for a flight at Dallas Fort Worth airport. Enjoy! He’s sitting four chairs to my left. All was quiet when I chose this little island of seats on a ramp away from the C concourse gates. No cell phones in evidence, though I didn’t expect that to continue.

2006 156

2006 Negotiating Conference Meetings 156

Conferences that Work

JULY 24, 2023

Growing up, I was immersed in an environment that worshipped feats of mind , to the almost total exclusion of the body. Apart from compulsory school sports on Thursday after school, I spent 5½ days each week studying, studying, studying. Perhaps that’s why I eventually gravitated toward practicing mind fulness in my 50s. But recently, my mediation teachers have been suggesting a slightly different approach, one they call cultivating embodied awareness.

Sports 156

Sports Conference 156

Conferences that Work

JULY 10, 2023

Sorry folks, but ChatGPT is just a tool, like a hammer, pen, spell checker, or Grammarly. Like any tool, ChatGPT can be useful—and it can also be dangerous when used incorrectly. ChatGPT is a tool called a large language model (LLM). However, marketers love to call ChatGPT and other LLMs artificial intelligence (AI) because this framing ties into our culture’s fascination with understanding who we are, how we’re able to do what we do, and whether we are unique in our abilities or n

Technology 156

Technology 2019 Conference Marketing 156

Conferences that Work

JUNE 26, 2023

A June 2023 conference gave me a perfect opportunity to use one of my facilitation tools: Reminders, Sparks, Questions, Puzzles (RSQP). RSQP can be thought of as a highly interactive debrief after an information dump. It’s an efficient way to get participants to rapidly engage with and explore presented content in a personally meaningful way.

2014 156

2014 2023 Conference Meetings 156

Conferences that Work

MAY 22, 2023

Hey everyone, especially educators who teach courses on meetings and hospitality. My ebooks are now available on VitalSource , the largest global supplier of digital course materials to higher education! I’m confident that this new channel will be a valuable addition to your curriculum. Check to see if your school already makes books available via VitalSource Campus Retailers.

Retail 31

Retail Hospitality Meeting Design Education 31

Conferences that Work

MAY 15, 2023

It’s time for a “sound of silence” roundup of meetings industry pet peeves. “…the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains Within the sound of silence” —Simon & Garfunkel – Sound Of Silence (1965) Read the full article at Conferences That Work The post The meeting industry’s sound of silence appeared first on Conferences That Work.

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Conferences that Work

MAY 8, 2023

The philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once said that life can only be understood by looking backward, but it must be lived looking forward. The musings of Kierkegaard, by @tomgauld , New Scientist November 19, 2022 I agree! Understanding by looking backward In my 7th decade, I think I better understand some of the mysteries of my youth. Feelings Paradoxically, one of the things I now understand better is the importance and influence of my feelings.

Financial 156

Financial 2022 Conference 156

Conferences that Work

MAY 1, 2023

I’m a big fan of the core facilitation technique pair share. After pairing up participants and providing a short time for thinking about a topic or question, each pair member takes a minute or so, in turn, to share their thoughts with their partner. I use pair share regularly to move participants’ brains into active learning, introduce them to someone new, and share relevant ideas and information about what we’re currently exploring together.

Conference 156

Conference Event Design Events 156

Conferences that Work

APRIL 24, 2023

ex We prize personal moments of connection, moments when we are moved. But today, broadcast messages bombard us. This leads to the question: Can broadcast be personal ? Occasionally, the answer is “yes” A paragraph in a novel unexpectedly hooks your heart. An inspirational speaker says something that totally resonates with an audience member.

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Conferences that Work

APRIL 16, 2023

Since 2004, social listening —the practice of monitoring and analyzing online conversations and social media mentions related to brands, products, services, events, or industries—has evolved significantly and grown in popularity. Popularity for the search term “social listening” over time, via Google Trends. Initially confined to sentiment analysis , social listening tools can now identify trends, analyze competitors, track influencers, identify crises and potential issues, and moni

2004 156

2004 Social Media Conference Event Design 156

Conferences that Work

MARCH 27, 2023

Reading two recent MeetingsNet articles about the value of trade show appointments reminds me of a story attributed to the wry 13th-century Sufi philosopher Nasreddin. American Sign Language for “You’re right!” Two men who were quarreling came to Nasreddin and asked him to adjudicate their argument. The first man presented his case, and when he was done, Nasreddin exclaimed, “You’re right!

Trade Shows 162

Trade Shows Conference Venues Meetings 162

Conferences that Work

MARCH 6, 2023

After a school board informational meeting the other day, I chatted with the moderator, Steve John. We talked about several aspects of the meeting, including the difficulty of working with both sides of an issue. The Meeting for the Town/Community Center, Marlboro, VT. Photo by David Holzapfel. I’m the guy wearing a checked shirt. It’s rare for groups larger than a few people to agree unanimously on an issue.

Conference 156

Conference Education Meetings 156

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

Philosophers and scientists have long defined cognition as something done by a single mind. But in January 2023, twenty-eight scientists published a letter to the editor of Cognitive Science that challenges this view of cognition. Rather, they say, “ interaction co-constitutes cognition as a process involving interacting minds. In other words, they believe that interaction is at the heart of cognition.

2023 156

2023 Conference Events Meetings 156

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

Sparks sing “How Do I Get to Carnegie Hall?” Click to listen! On March 11, 2022, I watched the last episode of Season 4 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. As Midge Maisel walked alone in the snow outside Carnegie Hall and the credits scrolled, some amazing music began to play with the hypnotic refrain “How Do I Get To Carnegie Hall? Practice, man, practice.” I had to hear it again.

2008 156

2008 2021 2022 Conference 156

Conferences that Work

JANUARY 30, 2023

Most weekdays, my wife and I join a fifteen-minute online meditation offered by teachers at the Insight Meditation Society. The other day, teacher Matthew Hepburn introduced a dharma practice of meditating, not on one’s breath or body sensations, but on another person. As Matthew talked, I realized that I experience good facilitation listening as a meditation.

Conference 156

Conference 156

Conferences that Work

JANUARY 16, 2023

In a typical in-person conference breakout session, participants divide into small groups to discuss one or more topics. Each group records members’ thoughts and ideas on one or more sheets of flipchart paper. At the end of the discussions, groups post their papers on a wall and everyone walks around reading the different ideas. Facilitators call this a gallery walk.

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Conference Education Meetings 156

Conferences that Work

JANUARY 9, 2023

Meeting professionals rarely talk about status and power issues. This is unfortunate because the ways that status and power manifest at meetings matter. Why? Because a majority of those who attend most meetings have little say over what happens at them. Typical meeting formats are rigid, and attendees play largely circumscribed roles. So, let’s explore the roles of status and power at meetings.

Meetings 156

Meetings Conference Event Design Events 156

Conferences that Work

JANUARY 2, 2023

Sadly, resolutions rarely work. In 2016 I wrote about what I call the New Year’s Resolutions Effect. [My example was noticing that thousands of people chose to read my old post about cleaning up email on your iPhone every January.] I shared Tom Stafford ‘s suggestion for maximizing the likelihood that people will make good resolutions and keep them.

2016 156

2016 Conference Events 156

Conferences that Work

DECEMBER 19, 2022

Last week I wrote about alternatives to Twitter , sparked by the rapid changes to the platform under its new billionaire owner. Focusing on our own professional community—the meeting (and hospitality) industry—I’d like to make a modest proposal for a social media platform that might meet our needs better. In other words: an #eventprofs alternative to Twitter.

Social Media 162

Social Media Hospitality Meetings Conference 162

Conferences that Work

DECEMBER 12, 2022

Since Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter on October 27, 2022 , its status as a stable social media platform seems to be rapidly imploding. Reportedly, Twitter has restored thousands of accounts that were previously banned by the company’s own moderation teams , and half of Twitter’s top advertisers have left the platform. In response to these developments, I’ve been looking into alternatives to Twitter.

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