Midcourse Corrections

One of my favorite bloggers, Valeria Maltoni, has an interesting article on Marketing As Systems Thinking.

Valeria says social media and relationships are contact sports.

If social media and relationships are contact sports, then conferences, meetings and events are the athletic fields, gymnasiums and playgrounds for player-to-player and player-to-object contact.

Wow, that’s a powerful analogy. If social media and relationships are contact sports, then conferences, meetings and events are the athletic fields, gymnasiums and playgrounds for player-to-player and player-to-object contact. Sometimes, the conference organizers define the rules of the game. Sometimes the audience makes its own rules. Sometimes, the rules are up for grab and spectators may view it as a collision sport instead.

Using the contact sports analogy, meetings, events and conferences become the venues for contact and connections. Connections like:

• attendee-to-attendee
• attendee-to-organizer
• attendee-to-exhibitor
• attendee-to-mission (whether the organization’s or meeting’s mission)
• attendee-to-content
• content-to-attendee’s emotions

And as Valeria states, connections and relationships are extremely valuable.

So these contacts can become mediums for rich community and industry connections. They can also become the catalysts for community improvements and change, especially those that impact a profession or industry.

Segue Way to Systems Thinking
Systems thinking is a framework that is based on the belief that parts of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation. Systems thinking attempts to illustrate that events are separated by distance and time. Small catalytic events can cause large changes in complex systems.

Many meeting professionals view the annual conference, or any event for that matter, as a silo, a one-time isolated occurrence. They focus their energy, time and tasks on organizing and implementing details for that one event. Once the event is finished, the organizer moves on to the next event, sometimes the following year, or perhaps another event within that year. Each event is isolated and viewed as an end unto itself.

Rarely is the event seen as connected to other events or experiences. Usually, the events professional only considers contact with attendees as a means to an end: getting the attendee to register, pay, show up onsite or consume an established conference path for the experience. Some savvy organizers consider ways to enhance the attendees’ connections onsite. Yet often, once onsite, the contact sports aren’t structured or facilitated with the exception of a motivational message from a coach (general session speaker), set time for networking and more messages during breakouts.

Now, let’s view the face-to-face annual conference, meeting or event through the lens of systems thinking. Considering the contact sports analogy, the annual conference, or homecoming game, is only one game within the sports season. Instead of viewing that one game out of context of the year’s season, organizers consider the whole season. They would view each contact or connection with the attendee for the whole season. They would view each game’s contacts, as part of a larger system of connected games of relationships. Each game (event) would bring new opportunities to apply previous learnings, experience new ones and work on plays and strategies. Ultimately, the whole season counts, not individual games. Although each game is related and connected. And the players for each game are prepared, focused and ready to make contact.

What would happen if the conference organizers viewed each meeting within a larger eco-system of the attendee’s community experience?

What if meetings professionals considered all the contacts and connections and planned the event with a focus on enhancing those connections?

So what do you think?