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

Conferences that Work

JULY 24, 2017

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.

Conference 180

Conference 2011 Education Meetings 180

PCMA Convene

AUGUST 1, 2019

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. FLIPPED LEARNING.

Meetings 85

Meetings 2017 Meeting Design Speakers 85

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

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.

Education 125

Education Conference Meeting Design Meetings 125

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