Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 5, 2024

Community versus audience I began my first book with the research finding (and common observation) that people go to conferences to network and learn. My later books (and many posts on this site) have emphasized the superiority of active over passive learning. But, all too often, attendees are not the conference owners.

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Meetings Meeting Design 2015 Conference 208

Conferences that Work

JANUARY 11, 2021

What makes attending conferences worthwhile? As I described in Conferences That Work , the two most common reasons for attending conferences are to learn useful things and make useful connections. But there are numerous other ways that conferences provide value to stakeholders. Complicated problems.

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Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

Software testers do peer conferences right! They even call them a peer conference , rather than unconference , a term I don’t like.) As evidence of software tester conference awesomeness, I offer three examples below. a short history of the peer conference. The 2022 SoCraTes peer conference. But first…. …a

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Conference 2022 2004 Meeting Design 156

Conferences that Work

AUGUST 26, 2019

Here’s a teaser: the introduction to my new book Event Crowdsourcing: Creating Meetings People Actually Want and Need. Then buy the book ! Read the full article at Conferences That Work The post Introduction to my new book Event Crowdsourcing appeared first on Conferences That Work. Interested?

Consulting 168

Consulting Conference Travel Events 168

Conferences that Work

JUNE 3, 2019

The first peer conference I convened and designed was held June 3 – 5, 1992 at Marlboro College, Vermont. So, as of today, the community of practice that eventually became edACCESS has enjoyed 27 years of peer conferences. Twenty-three people came to the inaugural conference. 27 years of peer conferences.

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Conference 2014 Consulting Meeting Design 170

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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Meetings Meeting Design Conference Event Design 300

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.

Meeting Design 293

Meeting Design Negotiating 2010 Technology 293

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

For over thirty years I’ve been making clients’ conferences significantly better, for about the cost of a conference coffee break. I make conferences better by dramatically increasing attendee satisfaction. Since 1992, I’ve designed and facilitated hundreds of conferences and thousands of meetings.

2024 202

2024 Conference Meeting Design Speakers 202

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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Meeting Design Meetings 2014 Speakers 154

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. Collaborative Tools Workshop ” designed by Joel Backon at the 2010 annual edACCESS conference.

2010 411

2010 Meetings Conference Travel 411

Conferences that Work

JULY 24, 2017

So you’re holding a conference. Read the full article at Conferences That Work. The Solution Room—a powerful conference session There’s been a lot of interest in The Solution Room, a session that I co-facilitated last July at Meeting Professionals International World Education Congress in Orlando, Florida.

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Conference 2011 Education Meetings 180

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

07:45 Behind the scenes: How I got into designing and facilitating participant-driven and participation-rich meetings. 11:00 What participant-driven and participation-rich meeting design means, and the core components. 13:45 Creating a conference program on the fly at the event. 03:30 How Anca and I met.

Event Design 156

Event Design Meetings Social Media Meeting Design 156

Conferences that Work

JUNE 7, 2021

Why am I writing about social learning on a blog that’s (mainly) about meeting design? Because social (uncovered) learning is the best learning model for conference sessions. Which means, to create the best meetings we need to maximize the social learning that takes place. Humans’ true superpower.

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Meeting Design Conference Meetings Event Design 284

Conferences that Work

DECEMBER 16, 2019

If you had told me forty years ago, a freshly minted high-energy particle physics postdoc, that I’d go on to have four additional careers (owner of a solar manufacturing business, computer science professor, independent IT consultant, and meeting designer/facilitator) I wouldn’t have believed you. I recommend you hire them!

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Consulting Meeting Design Conference Meetings 345

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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2014 2019 Conference Meeting Design 244

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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Conference 2012 Meetings Meeting Design 375

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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Consulting Meeting Design Conference Meetings 363

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. The solution to this is to design your unconference before choosing the venue.

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Conference Venues 2023 Consulting 266

Hubilo Blog

FEBRUARY 13, 2019

QnA with Event Industry Influencer, Author and Founder of Conferences That Work – Adrian Segar. Amazed by the modern concept of organizing conferences and ideas that change the concept of corporate meetings planning; we approached Adrian Segar to discuss his work! How did you land up with the idea of “Conferences That Work”?

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Conference Meeting Design 2009 Consulting 90

Conferences that Work

APRIL 5, 2021

Only about 10% of adult learning involves formal classroom or meeting presentation formats. Unfortunately, traditional conferences are poor places for this kind of learning to occur, since they’re filled with broadcast-style lectures, during which no interpersonal interaction takes place. No related posts.

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Meetings Conference Meeting Design Management 324

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. No related posts.

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Meetings 2009 2002 Technology 289

PCMA Convene

AUGUST 12, 2019

American Society of Hematology asked participants at its annual meeting to share — through art — their answers to the question, “What Keeps Your Heart in Medicine?”. Volunteer program at the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting gives student attendees an option to lower or eliminate registration fees. Art Therapy.

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Meeting Design 2019 Meetings Insurance 92

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.

2006 162

2006 Meeting Design Conference Meetings 162

Hubilo Blog

JULY 23, 2018

Books are Man’s Best Friend. Gaining knowledge and insights by reading up books is to date more effective than reading books or watching videos. Event Industry comprises of many people starting with event designers, event managers to event planners, board members of an organisation. Check out the list – 1.

2018 89

2018 Sustainability Financial Conference 89

Guidebook

APRIL 10, 2015

The best event planning book recommendations as chosen by real event pros. Sure, you can get all your event and meeting planning information from the internet like most of us do these days. (We But what about good, old-fashioned books? Of course, reading books is great too. An event planning book with character!

Event Planning 107

Event Planning Negotiating Fashion Meeting Design 107

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 2023 Meeting Design Meetings 156

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. Related posts: Ask Me Anything About Conference Panels — Thursday, July 21, 4-6 pm EDT Blab!

Hospitality 169

Hospitality Meeting Design Conference Event Planning 169

SmartMeetings

JULY 5, 2016

From books that take an irreverent approach to meeting planning to comprehensive guides on everything from meeting design to green events , this reading list has everything the modern meeting planner needs for a relaxing day of poolside reading. What makes the book unique is its real-world focus.

Meetings 69

Meetings Food and Beverage Sustainability Meeting Design 69

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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Meetings Meeting Design Conference Speakers 196

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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Meetings Conference Negotiating Speakers 323

Conferences that Work

MARCH 13, 2017

This is all very well, but it begs the question: what can meeting designers do to make it easier for attendees to participate more at meetings? Read the full article at Conferences That Work. Here are three things we can do.

2011 200

2011 2012 Education Meeting Design 200

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. There are many different formats you can use for such conversations (described in detail in my books ): pair and trio share, facilitated small group breakouts, fishbowls, etc.

Food and Beverage 360

Food and Beverage Meetings Conference Meeting Design 360

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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2012 Speakers Education 2019 213

Conferences that Work

JUNE 4, 2018

When consulting, one of my biggest meeting design challenges is to get boss buy-in. To improve the relevance and effectiveness of social structures, organizations, and meetings, it’s crucial for leaders to understand and accept the potential and value of decentralized influence.

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Consulting Meeting Design Conference Meetings 165

PCMA Convene

APRIL 4, 2019

The appetite for experiential tours among those who come to Portland for meetings and conventions has grown noticeably in the last two years, Morgan said. So much so, that she predicts that the days when business travelers see only see the inside of their hotels, moving from conference room to hotel room and back again, will soon be history.

Meeting Design 40

Meeting Design Meetings Food and Beverage Hotels 40

Conferences that Work

APRIL 8, 2019

1992: I organize a conference where there are no expert speakers available (it’s a new field, there are no experts). Invent a way to make the conference successful based on the collective needs, wants, and experience of the attendees. The conference has run continually for the last 27 years.) This is something new.

2005 147

2005 2009 Consulting Conference 147

GEVME

DECEMBER 19, 2019

Take a look at the following picture of a trade fair back in 1979: National Tire Dealers and Retreaders Association Conference & Trade Show 1979. Today, we see professionals from the UX & Design field apply design thinking to meetings to explore how to reinvent them. Sure, what people wear has changed.

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Trade Shows 2019 Speakers Meeting Design 156