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.

Conference 375

Conference 2012 Meetings Meeting Design 375

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

Participant-driven and participation-rich peer conference designs improve on traditional events because they don’t treat openings and closings as necessary evils but as critical components of the meeting design. Let’s examine each phase of the peer conference arc in more detail.

Conference 160

Conference Conference Design Meeting Design Education 160

PCMA Convene

JUNE 1, 2017

Attendees who want more from their meetings don’t want to sit and listen passively to a formal presentation. Welcome to the era of disrupted meetings, in good company with other industries and institutions whose established norms are being taken down to the studs. They have expectations of involvement.

Meetings 103

Meetings Meeting Design Speakers Tech 103

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. Stay on time! It seems obvious to do this.

Contracts 175

Contracts 2011 Conference Education 175

Conferences that Work

JULY 30, 2018

Afterwards, we saw many people swapping business cards and making arrangements to meet up again. Such workshops routinely meet the outcomes they’re designed to achieve: creating useful and memorable learning experiences and connections. A participant started crying and his group members rushed to console and support him.

2011 136

2011 Education Consulting Conference 136