Joe Gerstandt | keynote speaker, freedom fighter, freak-flag flier

I got to have breakfast with Maren Hogan, a friend and occassional collaborator yesterday morning and in the course of our rambling conversation, the topic of conferences came up.  We had some similar perspectives on the state of conferences and had some very similar conversations with other folks that we know.  She went on to write about the topic on her blog and after continuing to think about her comments and our conversation I felt called to do the same.

I think that the larger conferences face a serious challenge.  They find themselves at a time when it is increasingly difficult to justify the time and expense to attend, primarily because of the wealth of information, ideas and programs available online (much of which is available free) and also the tight economic times and shrinking budgets. 

And truth be told, large conferences have for the most part always been much more about what is popular than what is valuable.  I have in the past attended a lot of conferences.  And I would say, that as a general rule, if you have been in an industry for a couple of years and have been paying attention you are not going to hear anything radically new or different at a conference. 

You are going to have the opportunity to network and that is important.  You may be inspired, and that also is valuable.  But if you go to a conference in your industry and hear something radically new or different, you have either been in hibernation or you are attending a very unique conference. 

This is not because people organizing conferences are bad or lazy or misguided in anyway.  Organizations generally want to put on big conference with big crowds, big sponsors, and big speakers.  And if you want to do that, you have to focus on what is popular…and what is popular is not necessarily of any great value.  The real value lies in the perspective, message, research or idea that we have not yet heard.

In her post, Maren has some recommendations for conferences to be more valuable:

1. encourage discussion
2. promote intimacy
3. re-visit the approach to selecting speakers
4. provide more ownership for conference-goers
5. chill out on the celeb speakers

I think that these are some really good recommendations and I think they are things that even the very large conferences could take some simple steps to embrace.

I have a couple of additional thoughts to build on what Maren said.

Real discussion(1) and some intimacy(2) are critical in my opinion, and we simply do not all like the rapid fire hand-shaking, card-trading, small-talking “networking events” that most conferences include.  The free snacks and drinks and swag are all very nice, thank you Big Sponsor Company, but those events tend to be more about networking for the sake of networking and not building relationships around shared interests, experiences, etc. 

I have been at a couple of conferences that actually did this very well, by supporting “learning teams.”  We were assigned to a group in advance and we got together at least once every day of the conference, spending 4-5 hours together total with a facilitator to guide our conversation.  We got to know each other, we got to become familiar with the different types of organizations we worked for, we got to the benefit of chatting with people that had been to breakout sessions other than the ones we attended, etc.  It made the entire conference much more of a shared experience and to some degree a team effort.  That was at least five years ago and I am still connected with some of the people that I met this way.  Conferences could take it a step further and build a Ning network for their conference attendees, providing an easy way for them to continue the conversation, continue sharing information, ideas and resources, and continue building relationships.  That way the conference lasts much longer than 3-4 days and is about much more than the speakers, the hotel, etc.

I also think that providing more ownership for conference goers(4) and changing the approach to speakers(3) are both very important.  Conferences should be, in my opinion, a bit more democratic and meritocratic in nature.  Conference organziers tend to be good at finding people that can speak well, but it is a different thing to bring in speakers that have something new and different (and possibly even harsh and unpopular) to say that may be of great value to attendees.  Those things do not always make sense to industry “experts.”  Conference organizers also are not always on the front lines and sometimes the industry “experts” live in a slightly different world than those on the front lines and are concerned about different issues.

I think that all conferences should find some way to integrate Open Space Technology.  It always feels akward and chaotic at first, but if we want a more valuable experience for all, we need to get a little bit better at turning our events over to all.  OST gives everyone an opportunity to bring an issue, idea or question to the attention of others and it is a powerful tool for tapping into the issues that are currently top of mind for those in attendance.  You also provide an opportunity for new voices to be heard in a very organic way.  Not everyone wants to be a public speaker, not everyone wants to spend money developing branding and promotional tools, not everyone wants to market and promote themselves as a speaker/expert/guru/thought-leader, etc. ad nauseum…but there are still people out there that are deep in their field and have truly valuable insights to share.  This is one way to help find them.

I also think that celeb speakers are horribly over-rated and over-used for conferences, I think powerpoints and panel sessions should be banned, I think that taking conferences to fancy, swanky hotels is irresponsible and that conferences not conducted in an environmentally savvy way show a lack of leadership….but one step at a time!

The bottom line for me is that the conference experience could be made much more valuable with some diffused power, some additional transparency and a more collaborative and participative approach.  I think that conferences should be getting very serious about this issue because I think it is getting harder for them to stay relevant with each passing day.

But I guess all of this is dependant on the answers to these questions…

Do you want to have a really big, popular conference…or do you want to have a really valuable conference that advances the discipline you are a part of?  They could look very different from each other.

-be good to each other