Tag-Archive for » face-to-face event «
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe
Face-To-Face or Virtual Go
My mother told me
To pick the very best one
And you are [not] it.
Often when meeting professionals consider whether to offer a face-to-face or virtual event, they feel as if the choice is best made by using a children’s counting rhyme.
You know…
Pizza, pizza, pizza pie
Offering virtual will cause our face-to-face to die
Or perhaps this is the rhyme you use. Get your fists ready.
One potato, two potato
Face-to-face galore
Hybrid or virtual
Which offers more?
Face-to-Face? Virtual? Hybrid? Which should I offer? The choice can seem daunting.
And understanding all of the dynamics involved with hybrid (offering both a face-to-face and virtual elements) or virtual events can be overwhelming. Heck, finding a common vernacular for virtual events is a maze itself.
Why? Virtual is a catchall phrase that encompasses a broad variety of terms. To the purists it only means 3D immersive environments like Eve Online, EverQuest, SecondLife, Virtual U or World of Warcraft. To others it means a high tech component that has a steep learning curve and unique software that must be downloaded–something most don’t want to do. Still to others it means something as simple as an online gathering of people.
Kelly A Graham, a Cisco System’s Virtual Events Strategist, says “A virtual event is a gathering of people who meet in online environment at a set time to acquire info, share, network and engage.” Using Kelly’s definition, a virtual event can include 2D and 3D environments, hybrid events, livestreaming, online chats, teleconferencing, telepresence, video conferencing, Webinars or Web streaming. In short, virtual is an umbrella term for any type of an event that is not face-to-face in person.
So figuring out the right mix for your audience can be overwhelming.
But won’t a virtual event cannibalize the face-to-face attendance? That’s the first reaction and fear of many.
And, it was the reaction of Mike Ray, Intel Americas’ North America Channel Sales Manager. Ray spoke recently on the Virtual Edge Summit 2010 panel: Learn How Oracle, Intel and SAP Extend Reach And Build Community With Hybrid Events.
In 2009, Ray decided to offer a hybrid event with both face-to-face and virtual live streaming components to his customers. His number one concern was if he did, would it cannibalize the face-to-face registration, costing more and reducing revenue. He and his team were concerned that the virtual element would deprive the company of vital elements, resources, and funding as less people opted to attend the face-to-face experience.
Ray said he now likens the decision to attend a face-to-face or virtual event similar to attending a baseball game. The choice: to watch a baseball game in person in the stadium or watch it at home on his large screen high definition TV.
His answer: “Depends.”
It “depends” on:
- Who’s playing
- How important the game is
- Where his seats are in the stadium
- How much his tickets would cost
- Who’s going with him
- Where the game is held
- How much is it going to cost to get there
- What the travel time would be
- What the weather is like
- What his schedule is like
Ray’s analogy has rich meaning for understanding how people decide to attend a face-to-face or virtual event. His baseball analogy identifies the criteria many use, often intuitively, when deciding to attend.
The attendee’s registration, whether face-to-face or virtual, “depends” on:
- Who will be at the event in person (both speakers and attendees)
- How important this event is professionally and personally to them as well as how unique the content and experience is
- Where the attendee will sit…is it a large event with more than 10,000 people so good seats are premium and they are going to watch the image magnification anyway or a smaller intimate experience
- How much the registration fee is
- Who in the attendee’s professional and social network is attending too
- Where is the face-to-face event being held…location, location, location…can the attendee do additional business in that location, can they bring the family and make it a mini-vacation, are there other things to do in the conference city, is it easy and quick to travel to
- How much is it going to cost to get there
- How long will it take to get there…especially in this day of long security lines, increased airport delays and constant flight cancellations
- Will weather impact travel, don’t forget 2010’s snowmageddon
- Can the attendee take the time off from work to attend the event
And did Ray’s concern about cannibalization of the face-to-face event ever materialize? No, just the opposite happened. Intel now has more people registered for the 2010 face-to-face event and for the virtual event than in 2009.
Engine, engine number nine,
Going down Chicago line,
Virtual, hybrid, face-to-face,
Which will win the meetings race?
What other criteria do you think people use when deciding to attend a face-to-face or virtual event? What is your experience with hybrid events? Share your thoughts.
What event professional do you know that takes full responsibility for the entire attendee experience at their face-to-face event or meeting?
What would meetings and events look like if meeting professional’s quit blaming others for the content, programming and experience of the event?
For the past 18 months I’ve consistently heard meetings and event professionals denounce the government and organizations for lack of support of face-to-face meetings and events. I’ve heard them cry and bemoan that their value is not appreciated by their executives, the Board of Directors, the public and even the President. Many have said that our industry associations need to do more to promote the vale of face-to-face meetings.
Typically, when event professionals try to educate their boss, executives or Board members on their value, they talk about the value of logistics they perform. You know, cost savings, cost avoidance, those kind of things. Or they state the past conference’s evaluation smile factor. Or they quote the economic impact of meetings as the primary reason to meet as handed down from our industry associations. Or they start talking about the number of jobs each meeting creates.
So what! The publication industry created thousands of jobs and had a positive impact on the economy. But that didn’t stop that industry from experiencing disruptive innovation.
So tell me, how can you prove your value to the CEO or executives if you can’t prove the value of the content or the programming? How do you know that lessons learned at your conference were applied to your attendees’ business? What were the results six or twelve months after your meeting?
How can meetings and event professionals continue to distance themselves from the real meat and experiences of the conference? Are we seriously kidding ourselves that meetings and events, for meetings sake are more important than the content and programming of that meeting?
If that’s the case, then no wonder the government, elected officials, and executives have doubted the value of meetings. We’ve tried to prove the dollar’s worth of a meeting without proving the value of the content of the meeting. That’s like saying schooling is important because it provides hundreds of thousands of jobs and provides a place for our kids to go during the day. Yet, we hold our public schools to a high standard and expect specific outcomes. We’ve standardized the education process and if the kids don’t meet specific knowledge and skills assessments, they fail and the schools fail. And who wants to send their kids to a failing, poor-rated schools?
With limited professional development dollars per head per company, who wants to send their employees to a conference that doesn’t stimulate the heck out of them from a learning perspective? Oh, but the content and learning opportunities are not the meeting professional’s job, you say.
Can you imagine what would happen if the public started failing meetings and events because the content and programming was below expectations? Oh wait, that did happen and we call it the AIG effect. But instead of increasing the value of the content and programming, meetings professionals have cried foul! Or we’ve screamed, “But my meetings aren’t like AIG’s.”
Guess what, the public doesn’t care. Society has moved the goal posts and imposed new expectations on meetings and events. They want new measures of performance! And attendees want content that is relevant, that pushes them to change things up when they get back to the shop. They don’t want another set of meeting rooms with chairs in a row!
When are meeting and event professionals going to wake up and measure the ROI of the content and programming elements that they put into the meeting from the beginning? That means spending more time crafting the right overarching meeting’s experience and education goals. That means allocating additional resources to securing the right speakers that understand the content and good adult learning techniques. That means focusing on the learner objectives of each workshop and session. That means we must also measure the outputs (months after the meeting) to see if the attendees walked away with the right learnings that we intended.
When are we going to take the bull by the horns and help drive the right speakers, programming elements and content for the meeting? Ultimately, that’s what makes or breaks the meeting. Suppliers (including 3rd parties and consultants) attend primarily for networking. Attendees attend primarily for the content, at least that’s how they justify attendance to their boss–by the content. They don’t justify their attendance based on the meeting’s experience, or networking. If you don’t get the attendees there, the suppliers and consultants don’t have anyone to network with.
When was the last time you said, “I’m going to return to that conference? It was so well organized. I didn’t stand in line for registration. The rooms were set perfectly. The closing party was a blast. The food was great. So I’m going to go back again.”
Ha! Not if you are a true attendee. You grade the value of conferences and events on the experience you had, whether the content met your expectations, whether the speakers delivered, whether you had emotional connections or whether you learned anything that can be applied to your business or position.
So when are event professionals going to see themselves as the partner in the attendee’s experience and not just the logistics order taker? When are our meetings industry associations going to step up to the plate and teach meetings professionals how to craft the conference experience appropriately with an emphasis on being attendee-centric and a focus on the education design of the content? [Stop saying that's another department's job. You've just reduced yourself to an administrative assistant to that department!]
I’m tired of watching the meetings and events professionals default to the old way of planning where they distance themselves from the content of the program. If meeting professionals don’t step up to the plate and see themselves as the strategic partner to the program and content, then they will continue to sound like a dripping faucet to the rest of the world.
Just saying…
What say ye?
There seems to be an important theme lately in some bloggers posts.
The topic de jour is the poor quality of conferences.
These bloggers are tired of paying for negative conference experiences. Their posts give conference organizers some insight into what attendees really value at events.
Conference attendees speak out about their experiences.
Olivier Blanchard has some harsh, strong and truthful thoughts about social media conferences. His thoughts apply to all events, not just social media conferences.
Thoughts On The Sorry State Of Social Media Conferences- Comments From Readers
3 Conferences & A Funeral – Part 1: Good Conferences Vs. Pointless Conferences
Don’t miss the 70+ comments from conference attendees too. There’s gold in them there attendee hills.
Nathaniel Whittemore wrote The Conference Is Dead (…Does Anyone Care?). He has more than 20 comments, many from dissatisfied attendees. More than 600 people clicked the link I sent out about this post so a lot of people are reading it)
Angela Rao-Brown wrote Are Conferences Really Necessary? about the 2009 SHRM conference.
What do these posts and comments all have a common?
- Dissatisfied conference attendees
- Average presentations with boring speakers typically chosen from “a call for proposals”
- Monologue presentations with little audience engagement
- Lack of structured peer-to-peer learning and facilitated networking
- $200-$600 registration fees for status-quo conference experiences
I think these writings are a wake-up call to meeting and event professionals. So what can we do differently to provide a better experience for attendees? How can we create more value for our attendee? How can we create raving evangelists of our conferences and events?
Here are eight things meeting and event professionals can do to provide remarkable, purple cow, unique experience with stellar content
1. Focus on the strategic and education design of the conference first.
What are the goals of the event? How do we provide a memorable, unique and remarkable experience? Think strategic first. Then proceed to the logistics and details of the event.
2. Think holistically about the attendee experience.
Put the attendee first. What can we do to upgrade the attendee experience? If it fits with the goal of the event, how can we create a unique, themed experience from the first marketing piece to the post-event reflections? How can attendees help create the experience? Think of Disney, Starbucks and Vegas which all have experiential elements. Stay away from hokey themes. What “Wow factors” can we employ?
3. Find some unexpected and unusual experiences to shake up the traditional conference format.
Do all presentations have to happen at the front of the room? What about using multiple small stages throughout the room? What about in-the-round? Think about the music you’ll use for walk-ins and walkouts. Consider the décor as it affects the experience.
4. Include money in the budget to pay for quality speakers.
It is imperative that conference organizers at a minimum cover conference registration, lodging, travel and expenses when securing speakers. Stop asking professional speakers to present for free. Write incentives into speaker contracts. If the speaker scores 80%-90% favorable from attendees according to your evaluation process, give them a bonus of $xx amount of dollars. If they score 91%-100% favorable, give them a higher bonus. You get the picture. Put the burden of the speaking performance back on the speaker. They’ll either live up to the job or stop asking for fees to speak.
5. Decide what topics should be discussed before choosing speakers.
What trends are impacting attendees? Identify the niche groups in your audience and topics that will attract each. Think about advanced topics too. Choose the topics first, not the speakers. Then find speakers to meet those topics. Don’t depend on the call for proposals to provide you with the best speakers or best topics. Search for the right speakers and current thought leaders. Talk to those thought leaders and ensure that they know how to present using good adragogy (adult learning techniques). Once topics are chosen, think of ways to extend that content by providing basic and foundational content through webinars and blog posts before the event. Then provide advanced content onsite.
6. Consider how to provide the best education design possible for those living in a Web 2.0 world.
Is this conference only about those attending the face-to-face event? Or do you need to engage a larger community including virtual attendees? What social elements can you add to the conference to extend the community experience? Should you provide a genius bar, free Wi-Fi, a bloggers lounge, etc. View the face-to-face conference as one touchpoint within a larger eco-system of the community experience.
7. Choose a variety of presentation delivery methods for the conference experience.
Intentionally structure both vertical, monologue, one-way presentations and then provide facilitated dialogues and polylogues to discuss that content. When choosing panels, choose moderators with experience that can keep the discussion flowing. Create horizontal, networked learning with peer-to-peer facilitated sessions. Provide plenty of adult white space to allow attendees to digest information and connect with each other.
8. Provide opportunities for attendees to learn without walls and customize their experience to their own needs while providing cutting-edge, content in a variety of ways.
What would you add? What have you done that’s been successful for creating a unique, remarkable purple cow event?
I’m tired of well-intentioned adults slamming adults, teens and kids that text. Especially those that text each other while in the same room.
Is texting leading to the decline of relationships?
I’m sick of association and organization leaders knocking online communities, social networks and live chats as inferior to face-to-face experiences.
I’m also fed-up with event producers and face-to-face conference organizers bashing virtual experiences.
You know, you’ve heard and read these comments too. Here are a few examples.
- “I can’t believe my teen was texting his friend who was sitting next to him. Couldn’t they just talk to each other?” (Fess up if you’ve said that about your kids or grandkids!)
- “All this texting and online communication is leading to the decline of real human relationships.”
- “There is more power in live face-to-face events than in virtual experiences.”
- “Online and virtual experiences lead to isolation and people who engage in online experiences don’t know how to communicate in person.”
Why the harsh judgment against people who prefer to do something different from you? I don’t get it. It comes across as condescending, bullying and you just look like an outdated, moth-eaten, dust-covered prom dress stuck in the back of your closet. You show yourself as a crusty curmudgeon unwilling to face, or perhaps scared of, change and the unknown.
Then there’s corporate event producer Shelia Stack who has written three posts denouncing virtual meetings and experiences.
- Can Live Meetings Really Be Replaced By Virtual Meetings
- Virtual Vs. Live Meetings A Tale Of Two Trainings Part I
- Virtual Vs. Live Meetings A Tale Of Two Trainings Part II
Well, of course she disapproves of virtual experiences. She makes her money from producing face-to-face experiences. So, she’s denouncing her own competition.
And in case you think I’m picking on Ms. Stack and she’s a colleague of yours, then substitute the name of any event producer for her name. Or substitute the name of your boss, your parents, your grandparents or any person that denounces internet and mobile interactions. It’s not about Ms. Stack. It’s about the ubiquitous beliefs that she and others possess that online and mobile communications are leading to the decline of society. Ms. Stack is just willing to share them publicly on her blog.
Traditional Teens Texting Each Other Story As Reason Virtual Experiences Flawed
Stack shares the traditional story of two teens texting each other while sitting next to each other in the same room. And of course, adults were present to scream foul at this absurd habit. (Perhaps, just perhaps, these teens were texting each other about the adults present!)
Regarding the two teens texting, she says:
“…As you ponder the question this presents, the concerns it raises about our decreasing ability to relate to each other face-to-face, the increasing predominance of technology into every facet of our lives…also ponder this: Are you considering holding your next corporate meeting in virtual space?”
Whoa, that’s death by association if you’ve ever seen it. Death to the corporate virtual experience because of our increased use of technology and decreased ability to relate in face-to-face.
I posted a comment on her blog but she never approved it. Guess it was too biting for her.
Haven’t we heard these stories before, like those from the music, newspaper and media industries? Sounds familiar, right? Perhaps Ms. Stack should look at the facts and think about restructuring her business to include and embrace virtual experiences as part of the face-to-face experience. (For the record, I’m not an “either, or” kind of guy. I’m a “both, and” person and I believe both virtual and face-to-face experiences have a place! I say, long live the hybrid meeting! I also am a firm believer in using the best strategy and tools to reach your goals.)
Technology Use Does Not Lead To Isolation Or Poor Relationships
People said the same thing about other disruptive innovations such as CBs, the phone, television and email as they say today about mobile devices, social networks and texting. People cried foul that it was the end of live experiences, real communication and relationships. These new tools would end life, as we know it. However…
According to a new, November 2009 study from Pew Internet and American Life Project, technology does not lead to social isolation. Researchers found that online participation and mobile phone leads to larger and more diverse discussion networks. (Did you get that naysayers?)
“And, when we examine people’s full personal network – their strong and weak ties – internet use in general and use of social networking services such as Facebook in particular are associated with more diverse social networks,” the report overview says.
That’s right, mobile phones and online communities led to more diverse networks. Not a decline of relationships.
Regarding Face-To-Face Meetings Being Better Than Virtual
Ms. Stack chose some interesting words to describe face-to-face meetings versus virtual. She says, “Without live interactions the relationship goes cold.”
Whoa. No she didn’t just write that, did she? She is saying that without face-to-face meetings, the relationships go cold.
Is she saying virtual experiences are not live? Is texting not a live human interaction with another human? Are virtual experiences part of non-life, the living dead? (Yes, if you’re a parent of a teen, you think of your texting child as zombie like. They seem to be in the text-zone!) Is she saying that the only type of communication that sustains a relationship is a face-to-face experience?
What about families that communicate virtually with their loved ones in the military across the seas? What about spouses that communicate via text, email and phone during a day? Is she saying those aren’t valid, that they are lifeless and dead?
It’s still live interaction whether it’s face-to-face or virtual. It’s still “in real life.” Stop saying it’s not.
From the Pew Internet & American Life Project, “Our findings also suggest that there is little to the argument that new information and communication technologies decrease participation in traditional, local social settings associated with having a diverse social network.”
Regarding Online Social Networks And Communities
I’ve developed some amazing rich relationships with like-minded professionals though virtual experiences. I actually have a vibrant community of people online in eCommunites, FaceBook, Linked and Twitter that I turn to for real life interaction, advice and insight.
I would have never met these people at a face-to-face event because of sheer limitations of time and space. Now I want to go to face-to-face events to continue those relationships and be within the other’s presence. That’s driving me to attend the face-to-face event more than the content, or the speaker, or the tradeshow. Interesting how virtual is pushing me to face-to-face. These people I’ve met and communicate with online have become my core discussion networks.
According the Pew Internet and American Life Project,
“…Contrary to the considerable concern that people’s use of the internet and cell phones could be tied to the trend towards smaller networks, we find that ownership of a mobile phone and participation in a variety of internet activities are associated with larger and more diverse core discussion networks.”
H-m-m-m, ownership of a mobile phone and participation in internet activies leads to larger and more diverse networks. (If you’re a teen reading this and don’t have a mobile phone, there’s the leverage you need with your parents!)
Regarding Online Learning and Face-To-Face Trainings
By the way, there’s been plenty of research that shows online learning in virtual experience trumps face-to-face learning. Just read here and here and here to see for yourself.
So let’s stop the faulty thinking that virtual does not sustain a relationship or that it is not live interaction with another human. Let’s stop denouncing virtual experiences, admit that it’s here to stay and move to discussing how to integrate them for the best for everyone.
Whether it’s virtual or face-to-face, it’s still valid for today with valid communication models. And both have their place in today’s world.
What if your professional association offered an open source meeting?
What if association leaders redesigned the organization so that the focus was on social systems and morphing into Association 2.0? What if conference planners decided to adopt underlying principles of Web 2.0 to create Conference 2.0? What if your professional association embraced the following concept: “We serve our members best by serving our industry first.”
The Living Conference: Connecting people all year long both virtually and face-to-face.
How would you feel about that? Would you still pay membership dues?
So what is open source? Wikipedia says, “In technology, open source is an approach to the design, development, and distribution of software, offering practical accessibility to software’s source code. The open source model of operation and decision making allows concurrent input of different agendas, approaches and priorities, and differs from the more closed, centralized models of development. The principles and practices are commonly applied to the peer production development of source code for software that is made available for public collaboration.”
Traditional association conferences convey knowledge via overwhelmingly controlled face-to-face experiences for paid registrants only. Members who cannot attend the event due to costs, schedule conflicts or other reasons are not able to engage with the conference’s content, knowledge or experiences. Often associations even go as far as saying that the presentations offered at their event are copyright-protected and cannot be shared or viewed unless one wants to pay an additional fee.
I believe that associations and conference planners must consider new ways of providing services, meetings and event experiences or risk becoming obsolete. So what if an association took the open source method and applied it to the design and implementation of a meeting? What if a new breed of association leaders and conference planners decided to embrace open source meetings, the “Living Conference” and Conference 2.0? What would it look like?
Here are ten principles to consider when planning Living Conferences and open source meetings.
1. Move to an open source sharing of knowledge and content.
Today, networked, social or informal learning, contrastingly, is an “open source” culture that seeks to share openly and freely in both creating and distributing knowledge and content. Meeting organizers could intentionally create experiences that distribute knowledge and content to face-to-face and virtual attendees. The public at large could also be invited to collaborate.
2. Put people and community first, programs and services second.
Start with the end in mind and design your experiences around the organization’s year end goals. When choosing goals, begin with what will affect the community at large and how to sustain year-long community engagement efforts. Continually ask yourself, “Is this in the best interest of our broader community, the industry, and our members or is this in the best interest of our organization and a few that are willing to pay additional fees?”
3. Design conference and association learning experiences that are part of a year-long effort and not a one-time shot in the arm.
When designing experiences, think strategically about how meetings, events and learning meet association yearly goals. Intentionally plan to have these experiences impact the industry community at large and not just face-to-face attendees or only at one time of year. Engage attendees, members and non-members with discussion of the specific content and issues all year long. Design ways to extend the content before, during and after conferences.
4. Create conference learning experiences that are collective, democratic and egalitarian.
ABL: Always Be Learning as David Armano calls it. Individuals learn anywhere, anytime, and with greater ease than ever before. Learning today blurs lines of expertise and tears down barriers to conference registration or face-to-face experiences only. Conference organizers should plan experiences that allow for collective collaboration around issues and topics.
5. Include both knowledge authority experts and collective collaborative facilitated presentations.
There is a growing complexity of collaborative and interdisciplinary learning taking place via the social web and informal learning. Reliance on certified experts presenting content is no longer the only acceptable practice at a conference. Conference planners face an audience used to a variety of ways of learning from traditional lectures to collaborative networked learning. Finding people skilled at facilitating discussions and not controlling the conversation is a must.
6. Create horizontal structures and formats.
Traditional association learning and conference presentations require top-down teaching. Today’s learning is collaborative, and attendees and association members work on sharing experiences and knowledge together. They multi-task and provide solutions with each other. Often attendees want to spend more time talking with others about their own issues and learnings than sitting passively listening to a presenter.
7. Using participatory learning and digital delivery provides new ways to engage new audiences.
Traditional conference’s model of attendee experience and learning rely on a hierarchy of expertise, restricted content to those who can afford to attend the face-to-face event, and disciplinary silos. Open source meetings would break down these authoritative models.
8. Design conferences and events for lifelong learners and move from knowledge sharing to helping people identify new ways to learn and judge information.
Association members face rapid change in today’s digital world. They are constantly confronting new findings and must adapt at record paces. Learning never ends. Equipping people to learn how to judge reliable information and sources, and shift from memorizing content to discovering how to learn, is critical.
9. Change conference room layouts to enable attendees to communicate virtually with those outside the conference walls.
This means providing tables for laptops, adequate electricity, free WiFi, proper lighting and encouraging others to share the information they are learning. It also means scheduling times for onsite attendees to intentionally communicate with virtual audience.
10. Conference planners should recruit known bloggers to attend the event and ask them tweet or blog during the meeting.
These people are experienced at tweeting during a conference and engaging virtual attendees. They’ve developed a skill engaging in virtual dialog with others. They can help associations extend the reach of the conference’s content to new audiences.
These are a few new principles for redesigning events and conferences and creating open source meetings and events.
What other principles do you think should be added?
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