My answer: Think about radically changing the way that conferences are structured. The rapid adoption of social media by conference attendees is a clear sign that traditional conference structure simply doesn’t supply the thirst for connection that attendees want.

In fact there are wonderful ways to provide face-to-face connection throughout a conference. I’ve been running such conferences for nearly twenty years, and there are thousands of attendees who will attest to how well they work. The tragedy is that conventional pre-planned conference schedules and the lack of support for meaningful interaction during the formal conference program relegate making connections to the breaks between the sessions, i.e. outside the formal conference program.

Ultimately, when you use the right conference structure, everyone becomes a community manager! The conference becomes the event that its attendees want it to be – ergo they’re happy because they shaped the conference into what they wanted.

Jeff, I agree that we need to start developing conferences that are like unpredictable thrillers that capture the mind and emotions then engage the attendees in that process. Every peer conference I’ve run has had a host of popular sessions that were never envisaged by the program committee. How were they chosen? They were crowd sourced by the attendees at the start of the conference. (Except we didn’t call it crowd sourcing when we started doing this 18 years ago.) Yes, the attendees do most of the work of creating the conference that they want.

You can tell I’m passionate about the way I structure conferences. That’s because these kinds of conferences work really well. If you’re interested, my new book Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love goes into much more detail about the why and how.

Adrian Segar – @ASegar

- Community site – This year’s Crowdvine solution was a major upgrade. Previous solutions did not have enough adoption or value creation. I am super high on being able to compare my LinkedIn or MS Outlook contacts against the registration list and reaching out to people I know before the conference. Several speakers took advantage of the online communities to start a discussion in advance, but not near enough in my opinion. PCMA needs to require this of their speakers in Vegas.

- First timers and Chapters – PCMA does a really good job of making first timers feel welcome. I love that they schedule Chapter receptions on the first night. By connecting early with people you are closest to, it helps accelerate networking for the days to follow. The power of connecting at a conference is in the 2nd degree. If I introduce you to someone that trusts me (and say nice things) there is a real good chance for a business card exchange and future relationship. There are lots of students in attendance this year. Be sure to make them feel welcome. They’ll be your client before you know it.

- Education Program – As a past presenter at PCMA, I can tell you that they take education more serious than most. In the past, they’ve worked with me to re-write learner objectives and sat in on conference calls with fellow panelists and even provided coaching. All eyes will be watching to see if the presenters are listening and truly engage with the participants. If they don’t, make your own rules and discuss the content with others during one of the 30 – 45 minute coffee breaks. (another best practice…longer breaks for networking)

How do you think PCMA is scoring? The best practices at PCMA can and should be adapted for your programs. Let us know the good and not so good.

Dave Lutz – @velchain

So many conferences have become predictable where attendees know what’s going to happen next and how they should respond. We need to start developing conferences that are like upredictable thrillers that catpure the mind and emotions then engage the attendees in that process.

Thanks for the great points!

@Kin
Thanks for stopping by. I like what you said about event managers stuck in a cycle! Perhaps attendees need to start holding conference interventions. Wouldn’t that be a surprise and a break from the routine.

I agree that event organizers need to understand the underlying concepts of social media and social networking. They should stop focusing on the tools and instead focus on the goals they want to accomplish. Then let social media stars like yourself help design how to get there for them. I think we will begin to see savvy event professionals who get it and employ it too.

Thanks again Kin.

They see event social media marketing the same way. I get conference managers asking for ideas on social media before they start planning. I submit a proposal of ideas and thoughts for discussion and then usually it gets lost in the shuffle.

They still see it as an external, nice to have if the budget allows.

ALL managers need to start learning, understanding and embracing social media and social networking and making part of their required skillset and thought process.

I enjoy meeting new people at conferences, but I also appreciate knowing in advance whose coming so I can make plans to see people I don’t see very often in real life. Just like with business meetings, much of the important communication happens outside the conference room. I am getting pickier about conferences than I ever have been before. Who has time and money to waste?

This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jeffhurt: Social Conference Strategy Without Human Engagement = Fail http://ow.ly/Upty…