Comments on: What Makes A Good [Conference] Ending?

By: document binders

document binders — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 10:40:12 +0000

I got what i was hoping for at the end of this article i.e rehashing,recapping,revising,etc etc.The end portion of conference is mainly to reiterate what you have covered in all the sessions and how you want to link with your future activities and also save sometime for feedback.You are spot on Jeff as usual!!!

(Tim Nielson)

By: Howard Keele

Howard Keele — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 02:20:53 +0000

For a large audience attendance, a carrot such as further education would be a strong motivator. For in house meetings and conferences the wrap up would be more exciting in that we would review our agreements and establish a what next charter. Great article!

By: eric norlin

eric norlin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:36:57 +0000

hey adrian-

agree re: the best possible conference — the closing panel i’m referring to was actually structured as a very open (participatory) discussion w/ the audience, so i guess it had the qualities of a “retrospective” even though it had the “superstars” on stage.

By: Adrian Segar

Adrian Segar — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:31:08 +0000

@Eric

As Jeff says, no question, if you have well-known speakers and dynamite content attendees are going to stick around. (Although they won’t have much, if any, time to discuss amongst themselves what they’ve heard at the last session.)

If your goal is to get people to stay to the end, this is a good strategy.

But if your goal is to give attendees the best possible conference, I’d argue that giving them good closure by offering a well-facilitated opportunity to reflect on what has happened at the event and to explore how to apply what’s been learned is the right way to go.

Maybe some attendees who would have stayed for a big finale won’t “get” the idea of this kind of closure and will leave early. (Though if the session is described as well as Jeff’s, there may not be that many!) But, based on many years of event evaluations, those who attend a well-crafted retrospective/prospective closing session are most appreciative.

By: Jeff Hurt

Jeff Hurt — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:13:42 +0000

@Eric

You bring up a good point and I think it really depends upon the audience. For one of the association’s that I worked for, we tried to put our top marquee names as keynotes on the last day of the conference or at the end of an education day. It worked for a couple years and then attendees got bored with it. It makes perferct sense for Defrag for sure. And something interesting to note is that your closing speakers had two things in common-marquee names known by your attendees and relevant content for your audience.

By: eric norlin

eric norlin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:10:27 +0000

I actually don’t think an unconference session is enough to “get people to stay” and provide the kind of ending you want for a conference. I run unconference sessions in the middle of my shows – but they tend to work best smack dab in on morning one (they’re great ice-breakers).

What I’ve found to work best for getting people to stay is to put 1 of your top 2 keynote sessions dead last. (the only real trick is convincing the keynote speaker). So, for instance, at Defrag last year, we had a panel of the Cluetrain Manifesto Authors — and it was the first time they’d be on stage together in 10 yrs (plus it was the 10yr anniversary of the book’s release). They were the closers. And people stayed. In fact, the room was packed.

By: Dave Lutz

Dave Lutz — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:50:27 +0000

Stephen, thanks for sharing how Roger Rickard crafted an ending session that “had legs” for GMIC. It sounds very similar to what we want to accomplish at MTO Summit in a couple weeks. Let us know when the action steps are posted online.

By: Stephen Cataldo

Stephen Cataldo — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:17:01 +0000

GMIC's Sustainable Meetings Conference ended well: we broke up into small groups, discussed one goal we'd each set for the future -- then the speaker Roger Rickard pressed us all to find a way to define and measure success. And finally the goals were collected and are on their way online. The close combined each level: small group dynamics so everyone could participate, summarizing the conference down to an action step as individuals, and leaving with a sense of a cohesive dynamic community looking at the huge list of next steps.

By: Jeff Hurt

Jeff Hurt — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:49:39 +0000

@Adrian
As always, thanks for the thoughtful comment and for the tips too. It’s been my experience that when you have a large audience the sharing happens at small tables of 10 or less. You can still have each person participating and sharing their takeaway. Add a notekeeper to catch everyone’s ideas and you have a nice collection of high points to share online after the conference.

Yes, I agree that the closing of the conference is often overlooked yet can be one of the most beneficial parts of the event.

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:01:48 +0000

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