7 Rules for Innovative Conferences
Author: Carolyn Koenig
August 2008
Smart Planner
Do you participate in conferences, make notes and never look at them again? Ed Bernacki, a speaker on innovative thinking, asks his audiences this question at every event, and 70 percent always raise their hands affirmatively. “It doesn’t matter what country [I’m speaking in], what the level of participants is or what industry,” he says. “The answer is the same.”
So, how do you as a meeting planner make your conference more effective? Well, how exactly do you define effective? “Effective means finding new ideas and acting on them after the conference; anything short of that isn’t a good conference,” he says.But, in designing more engaging conferences, their structure is only one half of the equation; the other, he says, is getting more-informed attendees—participants who recognize they play a role in the event and the importance of their role in the success of the event.
Bernacki, of The Idea Factory, has compiled seven rules for planners to consider as they go beyond the traditional logistics of meeting planning to designing the conference itself. We’ve condensed them here, but you’ll also find them in more detail in his book Seven Rules for Designing More Innovative Conferences, available through innovativeconferences.com. A companion guide, Wow! That's a Great Idea, combines an idea journal and a guide to innovative thinking at conferences, also available through the website.
RULE 1: The experts at your conference are in the audience, not on the stage. Outside speakers—experts and motivators—offer the long view, but they can be generic; don’t forget that experience, insight and expertise also come from your participants.
RULE 2: Think Return on Investment...even though it is hard to measure. ROI is a hot topic in our industry, and you need to think of it from both perspectives: for the host organization, what’s important to them; for the participants, what’s in it for them, as they’re also investing time and money. They’re measured differently, but are equally important.
RULE 3: Design your conference with logistics and learning. Differentiate between the theme of a meeting and the learning objective—separate but fundamental components. Logistics requires detailed, analytical strategies; learning requires looking at the event’s purpose, what results are crucial and how they’ll be achieved.
RULE 4: Learning objectives drive the design of your content. Don’t limit your event content to what the speakers want to present; remember that you need to address what your attendees need to hear. Determine how you want participants involved in the event, what you want them to achieve and what can be provided in the way of insights, contacts or opportunities that add directly to their bottom line.
RULE 5: Always use the brainpower of an audience to create something. Try a participative brainstorming event, say, instead of one keynote presentation, that involves people in a meaningful way. “I used to think if there are five people in a room, think what they can create or contribute,” he says. “Then it occurred to me, with 500 people in a room, what could 500 come up with?”
RULE 6: Put structure into your networking and mingling opportunities. “Everybody talks about the fact that networking is important,” Bernacki says. “When you look at it, networking is the gap between two things: who needs to meet whom, and how do we make that happen.” Networking opportunities shouldn’t be relegated to coffee breaks and other ad hoc situations, he says; people should meet by design, not by accident.
RULE 7: Assume that your conference participants have weak skills for participating in a conference. There are basic skills needed for attendees to actively participate. Here are a few of them:
- Making notes with meaning
- Listening to speakers in ways that you can determine their main ideas and insights
- Choosing the right workshop: differentiating between good-to-know and need-to-know information
- Networking with a purpose
- Turning their ideas into actions at work
