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Connections.
As important as the plug is to the outlet so the electricity can flow.
As important as the computer programming is to the wireless cell tower so our cell phones work. As important as the water faucet is to the plumbing so we can have fresh water. As important as the heart pumping blood to the brain. As important as human touch is to a newborn child.
I’ve been having some fuzzy thinking in the corners of my mind lately about conferences, community and connections. Those thoughts have come to center stage and gained a more compelling clear focus after weeks of reflection of conference attendance.
I am struck by what I remember the most from my past five conference attendance–my connections with others.
- I recall having dinner at the Virtual Edge Summit with Oracle’s Paul Salinger, Cisco’s Digital Strategist extraordinaire Kelly Graham and Lumen Consulting’s delightful and humorous Desiree Lehrbaum as we talked about virtual and hybrid events and the future of the meetings industry.
- I remember a passionate and energetic conversation with the brilliant Michael Westcott and introspective Paul Salinger as we deconstructed Byron Reeves’ keynote presentation, Total Engagement, and how the online gaming industry would impact work, and virtual and face-to-face events.
- I consider the hallway conversations with American Bankers Association’s Director of Professional Development J P Stephenson, introNetwork’s CEO and Co-Founder Mark Sylvester and introNetwork’s President and Co-Founder Kymberlee Weil on the impact of social media and real time feedback for events and conferences.
- I reminisce of a dinner with Dave Lutz and Bonnie Wallsh as we compare notes about association meetings and share experiences about presenting for conferences.
- I recollect when the Godfathers of #eventprofs, Michael McCurry, Mike McAllen, Greg Ruby and J-Lev, Jessica Levin, first got together at the Grand Hyatt at PCMA’s annual conference for drinks and discussion.
- I could name countless other conference connections as well.
Why do I remember these people and our meetings more than the conference’s content or speakers? What did I experience with them that I didn’t experience sitting passively listening to a conference presentation?
I believe it’s because we were able to connect on an intimate level through personal conversations. In most cases we were connecting on a radical, deep-seated and revolutionary level–even while engaging about the conference’s content.
Connections–when people of likeminded communities and tribes regularly intersect and their lives are better because of that association. We need more opportunities in conference to create and grow these valuable connections.
I envision a community of people who intentionally mingle in settings at conferences and events where intangible nutrients are passed back and forth with each other, creating a type of soul force and special intimacy called a connection. Sometimes, these individuals have developed and maintained online connections and come together offline to pour into each other the resources that they each have and share. Sometimes it is the first time they meet.
Scott Gould talks about a similar concept in his post and video “Are We Building Community or Connections?” He further expands on these thoughts and how to move from crowd to community to connected to committed to core.
Imagine what could happen if conference organizers capitalized on these community connections and became the conduit for more of these experiences. Imagine if conference organizers could help attendees move from the crowd to community to connections to committed individuals to a cause. This is not something that can be created in a speed networking session where you try to get as many business cards as possible as fast as you can. These connections cannot be created in a conference luncheon roundtable that is constantly interrupted by sponsor videos, awards and announcements.
Instead, these connections are developed in discussions, where individuals gather in small groups to gain a deeper understanding for extended periods of time–at least sixty-minutes and in many cases ninety-minutes.
Most conferences are full of attendees dutifully going to sessions, sitting besides unknown individuals, participating in a variety of conference experiences and never truly connecting with another individual. Maybe attending a conference or event, more than anything else, means relating to several other attendees differently. Maybe the center of the conference community is connecting with a few.
I suggest that it’s time to take a hard look at what is being passed back and forth in our conference relationships–business cards, handshakes, eye contact, content–and ask ourselves, what is being withheld that, if given, could change our personal and professional lives. It’s time to consider a radical understanding of attending a conference that centers on releasing the power in each other to change lives. It’s time to see each attendee as an individual that has resources to share and give with others. It’s time to understand our conference community connections in a way that excites us with its potential to liberate, strengthen and encourage just a few closest to us and to touch the deepest, deadest, most terrifying part’s of attendee’s souls with life-giving power, direction and encouragement.
So how as conference organizers and owners do we do that? How do we encourage and facilitate meaningful connections so that we do not live as terrified, demanding, self-absorbed islands, disconnected from community and desperately determined to get by with whatever resources we brought to our island with us?
I have some ideas. I’d like to hear your ideas first. Am I off my rocker for wanting a better way? What do you think?
“And they lived happily ever after.”
It’s the classic ending of many children’s fairy tales. It wraps up the story nicely, alluding to the fact that all the character’s problems have been solved as they ride off on white horses into the sunset.
Some people prefer a happy ending. Sitcoms wrap up problems in less than thirty-minutes and all is well with the world. Yet, we’ve all seen a great movie that was ruined by a poor ending.
When telling stories, a good beginning pulls people in and a great ending leaves a favorable impression.
Most authors agree that a good ending to a story is one that is satisfying to the audience. Those satisfying endings typically reflect upon and connect to something that is present at the beginning of the story.
Do you remember the infamous “Who Shot J.R.?” Dallas season cliffhanger? Or maybe the 1985 Dynasty “Moldavian Massacre?” Or when Pixar’s The Incredibles spoofed the cliffhanger when a new villain, The Underminer, burst into view from underground at the very end of the movie?
So how do you provide a great ending to a full- or multiple-day conference? How do you get people to attend the last session and not leave early? Many of us attendees often leave early because the last session or party is not compelling enough to keep us there.
Do you provide a cliffhanger moment that gets everyone talking? Do you wrap it up nicely with “And they lived happily ever after…is only the beginning?” Do you provide a final night party with big name entertainers and drop the next morning general session? Do you provide a closing general session with a marquee name?
Most conference organizers have faced this dilemma and continue to wrestle with it today.
That’s exactly what Dave Lutz (my boss), Stephen Nold and RD Whitney faced when designing the last session of the March 24-25, Chicago MTO (Meetings Technology Online) Summit at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare. After one and half days of networking and education on social media and technology for events and tradeshows, the presenters were stuck with the typical conference dilemma, “How do we end this conference and get people to the last session?”
Here’s what they (with my help) are trying to keep people around and deliver value.
The Ultimate Not-To-Be Missed All Things To All Attendees Wrap-Up
This is not your Grandmother’s final closing session. Taking a cue from GenX and Millennials digital, horizontal peer-to-peer learning preferences, we’ve designed an unsession, with untraditional, unconventional elements and under-utilized experts: YOU. Bring your open mind to this session and be prepared to do some unlearning in this unconference-styled session.
You’ve sat for several hours today hearing and learning about new things, new ideas, and new ways to do your business. So what? Really, what are you going to do with all of that information now? Forget about it? NOT!
This is the opportunity for you to rehash, recap, revise old thoughts and revolutionize the way you do things in the future. Come prepared to discuss with your peers the most valuable parts of the conference. You’ll be given the opportunity to explore how to apply the concepts you’ve heard and get a deeper understanding into the important take-aways.
And if you act now, by attending this wrap-up, you’ll receive extra, at no charge, this amazing cherry on top addition: a discussion on the Data Standards For Tradeshows and how it will further the industry.
So don’t miss this once-in-a-conference-lifetime opportunity as it will never be replicated again. Seriously!
What do you think? Is this ending conference session compelling enough to keep you until the end of the day? Would you stick it out and take a later flight or sit in traffic for 30 more minutes? What can conference organizers do to keep people until the very end? What have you tried? What was successful for your audience?
Oh, and by the way, please join Dave, RD, Chris Brogan and Stephen at the MTO Summit, March 24-25, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare. Check out the full schedule, speaker lineup and the great registration rate of $125.
Engagement.
When you read that word, what does it mean to you?
I was talking with BeEvents’ Ray Hanson, Event Solutions Publisher Meredith McIlmoyle, Pink, Inc.’s, Deb Roth, and Conference Content Strategist and Emcee Glenn Thayer at Event Solutions Conference this past week. During our conversation, someone dropped the “e-bomb: engagement.” There it was resting on our ears and brains as if we each understood its depth and meaning. The all allusive, slippery 21st Century e-word. Engagement had announced its arrival once again.
I asked the $64 billion question. What does engaging a conference attendee actually mean? What does engagement look and feel like?
During our time together, several others joined and left the conversation. Our discussion was fluid and always changing directions as we deconstructed attendee engagement and others added their input.
To some, it meant that a presenter was engaging. The presenter had good eye contact with the audience, proper presenter body language and adequate inflection in their voice that appealed to the listener and viewer.
To others, it meant the obvious: a promise to marriage and the period of time between proposal and marriage. Ironically, Elizabeth Beskin was in Vegas at the same time at the Wedding Photographers Conference and joined the conversation as well, thus her spin on engagement.
Some said it meant that the presenter had a high energy and so much stage presence that it captured the attendee’s attention and became engaging.
Still to others, it meant that the presentation was hands-on, interactive allowing the attendees to talk with each other, discuss the presentation and maybe even do something. It was more than a panel allowing audience question and answer.
Before “engagement” becomes another overused business cliché done to death, how can conference and event organizers create engaging attendee experiences in a 21st Century digital world?
I believe that the future of conferences and events is about engaging attendees more than corralling them into general sessions and commanding them to sit, be quiet, listen and learn. People want to be engaged in conferences that help them work with a purpose. They want insight into how their conference attendance is linked to their work and ultimately to larger organizational and societal goals. Attendees want to know where they fit into the industry and how to continue to succeed. They want to connect with each other on a higher level than just a passive conversation held in the hallway or tradeshow booth. Engagement requires a level of participation rarely experienced by attendees at most conferences and events. Engagement means active involvement and not passive contributions.
I’ve been reading Stanford Professor Byron Reeves and physician J. Leighton Read’s Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete. It’s about how massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) like Halo, Mafia Wars and World of Warcraft will change careers, companies and competitions…and I believe conferences, events and face-to-face meetings. (If you don’t have any idea what I’m talking about when I mention those games and are more familiar with Pinball Wizard, Pacman and Space Invaders, go ask your kids what multiplayer online games they play.)
More than one hundred million Americans and many more around the world played a computer or video game last week with levels of engagement and focus rarely seen at face-to-face meetings and events. (Online Gaming Report 2008) The hours flew by for people immersed in sophisticated online interactions.
These new MMOGs represent a high level of interactivity and continued refinement. Digital play is already engaging and will continue to improve. Great MMOGs have light-speed pacing, constant feedback, transparent levels and reputations, compelling narratives and interesting methods for self-representation in action.
So why do people play these online games? Why are people willing to spend so much time in these games? Nick Yee’s 2006 study the Demographics, Motivations and Derived Experiences and two subsequent studies by Richard Bartle and Thomas Malone categorized two types of reasons: personal and social. Personal motivations include achievement, immersion and exploration. Social motivations include competition and socialization.
These reasons sound very similar to the reasons people attend conferences, events and face-to-face meetings. Yet these MMOGs have found a way to get people involved in cooperative explorations that afford an opportunity to begin a social relationship.
I think the key to successful future conferences, events and tradeshows are designing experiences that include elements of successful online games: achievement, competition, exploration, immersion and socialization.
What do you think? What experiences have you had with online games that you wish conferences and face-to-face events provided? What lessons can conference and event organizers learn from online games to provide more attendee engagement?
Some of you asked for the slides from today’s PCMA’s Info On The Go Webinar on Engaging Attendees Today: How to Combine Virtual and Face-to-Face Meetings.
Read Michael McCurry’s recap of the Webinar. The full recorded webinar will be available soon at PCMA’s Online Learning Center.
What questions do you have about virtual and hybrid events. What questions do you have about livestreaming? Fire away and we’ll do our best to answer them–and I suspect the community will have answers too. And share your experiences, fears and concerns about livestreaming and hybrid events too.
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