Why you should never listen to conference delegates

This isn’t one of those ironic or sarcastic titles; this is how I feel. And no doubt this will surprise many of you. But I also know that a few of you will agree adn echo my calls! "NEVER LISTEN TO DELEGATES"

So, how can an events professional who has run over 700 odd events say this I hear you ask? Well, the truth be told, it is because I am an events professional who has run over 700 odd events. Let me explain.

I’ve given several presentations over the last year trying to install in event organisers some fortitude. To have the confidence to say ‘no’ to clients, managers or stakeholders, when you think they are making daft suggestions. Stay strong, adopt a solid event managment process like this and have confidence in your experience I say. And it’s fair that this message gets through. But when I suggest that event organisers ignore the ‘customer’ the resistance barriers shoot up immediately.

Delegates haven’t seen such riches so they can live with being poor

I sat in on a session recently which was almost exclusively attended by CEOs. It was a wonderfully planned session and had huge potential. Unfortunately a few things went awry. The IT broke down; the facilitator didn’t facilitate or engage people: he spoke at them. The excellent brief wasn’t followed and none of the questions were answered; well apart from the Facilitators pet questions of course. There weren’t any take homes for delegates and I felt like I had sat in on a bitching session about their organisations. A truly awful session. Later that day I asked a few delegates what they thought of the session, and (I would love to say to my surprise) some of them thought it was ‘quite good / good’.

Their response wasn’t necessary a reflection of the session: it was a demonstration of how low people’s expectations are of conferences in general. If the speaker is reasonable, and you aren’t poked in the eye with a sharp stick people don’t tend to complain. If they cover something that is relevant and perhaps allow you to think about things that you don’t normally worry about in your day to day working life, you are happy. But delegates do not know what riches these sessions can deliver, if they are structured beautifully and executed with precision. Delegates are happy with being poor. You shouldn't be.

Lead don’t follow

I knew the session above was rubbish simply because I have attended hundreds of better sessions. But I know this because it’s my job to know it. I keep up to date with the new innovations in meetings and I go to as many events run by other organisers (and I unashamedly act as a magpie) and borrow best practice. And this is what all organisers should do. This is our job.

We can not only listen to what delegates think of our conferences and I believe we’ve been doing this too long. We are too scared to stand up for our profession and say “I am the events expert here, I understand the best way to facilitate networking and to help you learn”. We know what value conferences can deliver and we must challenge ourselves and our delegates. Take them out of poverty, don’t let them set the bar so low, and show them what riches a conference can deliver.

Networking: conference’s greatest myth

It’s something you see on almost every advert for a conference. “This event offers excellent networking opportunities”. But do they? At our events we bang on about the number of people attending like this is a virtue: how can you speak to all of these people? If we take a step back can we actually say that the events we organize are ideal for networking? When we are selling to potential exhibitors to take stands alongside the conference we always talk about the amount of ‘breaks’ which the argument goes, allows them to guarantee time with the delegates. But does it?

Most of the ‘networking’ takes place on the traditional programme during registration; coffee x 2 and lunch. And isn’t that just the best time to talk and listen to other people as they queue and busy themselves in either filling their bellies or emptying their bladders? Now of course this is obvious to all who attend, but a lot of conferences still bounce you in to believing that the networking experiences they offer are ‘unique’. Like cream, the best networkers make it to the top and here’s 8 great top networking tips but what about everyone else who has bought into your great conference and its’ unique networking opportunities?

I think we therefore have two options: we are honest and admit networking is a myth or we deliver more quality networking and build it into our events. So here’s 10 things you can do to improve the networking at your conference:

1.       Allocate table places at the start of the day. Split groups up, put suppliers on the tables with their target customers, or big companies with small to allow compare and contrast in discussions

2.       Use cabaret format as it gently forces people to say hello to everyone on their tables (theatre style probably means you will speak to two people at the most during the sessions)

3.       Aim to get people in the main room at least 10mins before the first session, allow them time to chat and introduce themselves

4.       View ‘breaks’ as just that and ensure everyone has some time to soak up the learning and have a coffee in peace

5.       Mix tables up for the afternoon

6.       Build networking into every session. Allow delegates the time to talk about something from every session, or make sure you add ‘table discussion’ time at the end of each part of the day

7.       Embrace technology. Allow and facilitate 1-2-1 meetings arranged on line at your event

8.       Help your delegates take their networking off line by using Blogs and other social media

9.       Add something exciting or different to your programme that gives your delegates something to talk about

10.   Dedicate time to networking outside of the breaks, perhaps adding add a quiet informal drinks reception, with no entertainment, after the conference or an informal dinner before

I’ve deliberately stayed away from listing ways of ‘forcing networking’ like colour cards or badges, or finding a particular person by birth date, or code words or the like, as I believe the organiser knows if,  when and where these will work. So I’ve humbly suggested ways in which we can less obviously help those less likely to get the networking value from your conference. Good luck!   

Conference innovators beware!

I’ve read a lot recently (especially from our American colleagues) that innovation in the world of conferences is the key, the secret, the future. From new session formats; to the fluid structure of a days programme; to the use of new event software and new media, we are in a world where everything on the registration desk and the cabaret table is up for grabs: but innovators beware. And here’s why.

You can ignore the basics

In too many event departments where I have done consultancy I see organisations not focusing on the basics; like good speakers; great content; keeping their database up to date or thinking about the price of competitor events. No, they are off chasing the ‘next big thing’. This could be their own TV station at their exhibition, or voting panels at the ‘great debate’, or wondering how to engage an audience with social media. I have seen ‘innovative’ events crumble and ‘cutting edge’ event businesses shrivel. We have to realize that innovation comes at a certain point of the life cycle of your event and your event organiser. Sometimes keeping up with the neighbours leads to two bankrupt, garish houses.     

Innovation that went wrong

Keeping with the housing metaphor, basically so I can draw on my experience within financial services, I saw ‘innovative’ products such as the 120% LTV mortgage (a product that allowed you to borrow 120% of the value of your house, secured against, believe it or not, the rising price of your home!) And the mortgage where £100,000s was lent to people who had been targeted as ‘likely to default’: people who were struggling to cope with the repayments for the kid’s hundred pound bike. This is what can happen with ‘innovation’ if you forget what it is the product or service is supposed to do. Mortgages were supposed to help people securely buy a home and a future in that home: they weren’t designed just to be sold to anyone wanting a home. And we all know that this unchecked innovation created a whole pile of poo for the rest of the economy.

So what can conference professionals learn from the ‘crash’?

It would be churlish to say that we should not embrace new ideas and of course it is totally incongruous to everything I’ve written in my blog but we have to understand that with innovation comes some risk, and a chance that we are taking our conferences off course. What conferences do and what we should focus on is helping people learn very useful stuff that will help them when they get back to their desks. And all this takes place is an environment where they can network and soak up learning. So here’s a few thoughts which counter some current ‘innovation’:

-          Letting delegates decide on what should be covered on the day. Structuring programmes to allow people to learn is hard. It’s a skill. So should we let delegates do this? Just imagine allowing the diners into to the kitchen, throwing the chefs to the wolfs, and expecting some fantastic food to come out the other end. If this happened it’s probably not a restaurant that you and I would eat in.

-          Asking delegates to speak on the day rather than have skilled, well briefed and prepared speakers, facilitators and chairs. In our metaphorical restaurant again, we can hear the call: “Who fancies making the beef Wellington for everyone tonight, it’s OK, you don’t need any experience we trust you”. Erm, check please! I am out of here!

-          Use of voting panels. Is this more worthwhile than asking delegates to raise their hands? Sometimes not. I hate seeing these tools used just for the sake of it.

-          Doing new things without taking the delegates along with you. Change can scare the begeebies out of people. Innovation scares some people to death!

Innovation? I’ll just see if your name is one the list

Innovation in our industry is no different from any other sector: it is the future and it is the key to adding value to our conferences. But before you let it in, ask innovation its’ name; check its’ ID and ask for references before you let it lose at your conference.

I hope this sets an interesting back drop to my chairing the session entitled ‘congress innovation’ on the events stream at the www.assocationcongress.com on the 18^th July and I would love to hear your thoughts.  

Here's another great blog you should read: http://www.ideaarchitects.org/2011/07/be-careful-of-format-fetish.html

Why you have to adopt the correct process when organising events

The basis for one of the sessions I will be giving at CIBTM in Beijing. It's about adopting a process, and hopefully the right process when managing events.

The Chairman Part 2

Last week I blogged about the importance of the Chairman and the role they play as conductor / ring master in your conference. In essence it was about giving your Chairman more responsibility for the day. It wasn’t shifting some tasks, shunned by the lazy organiser, and thrusting them unwelcomingly onto the Chairman’s shoulders; but more of an allocation of important things owing to each others’ particular skills.

With this duel responsibility we have to give the Chairman a strong element of control and I’ve thought about this as I prepare to chair a stream at the Association Congress next month. Here’s a link to that event again. www.associationcongress.com For any conference programme to ‘work’ i.e. to take delegates from one place to another having ‘learned some knowledge that they can apply’, we have to use one particular key tool.

Themes

Identifying and using key themes throughout the day is the most important tool a programme developer and their chairs can use to structure the days sessions. These themes should be woven into every session like the gold thread in a medieval tapestry. As well as giving some structure to the day they should also give context for every session. Now this is an important point. When we look at a conference programme we can see a huge variety of topics to be covered; and when you are a delegate shifting from the micro to the macro, or the national to the international it’s easy to get lost.

Making sure all your speakers see and agree with the key themes should provide some kind of rough road map that will keep everything going in the right direction. Here are some key themes from a recent Directors’ staff away day that I put together. Every speaker was given these themes before they start to structure their presentation:

·         The external economic crisis

·         External stakeholders   

·         Change is ahead

·         Reduced funding from Government

·         New revenue streams

Given to speakers a month or so before their session this gentle steer really helped the structure and consistency of the programme on the day. In this example the themes were put together by the Chairman and the programme developer working together and I believe this is the very minimum input that your Chairman should have with this type of briefing. If you have the right Chairman he / she should understand the topics extremely well. And as they are likely to be their peers, they should be very close to the content too. That’s if you have the right Chairman of course.  

Next steps?

So my first suggestion is that for every conference you are running you should ask your Chairman to come up with four or five key themes. They may be different or similar to the ones you have picked out and focused on in your event marketing but that’s not a problem and it can be done in five minutes. Once you have the themes you can come up with something which you can send to every speaker. The link is a live brief; it’s actually the one I have developed for next July’s Association Congress. You can get a sneak preview (before hopefully you copy the idea) here: Chairman's briefing for speakers.

I developed my model after speaking at a conference chaired by Elling Hamso from the Event ROI. He provided something similar to all the speakers and was a chair who truly understood the role of the Ring Master. And I hope the info over the last two Blogs will help you understand the role and give you confidence to appoint and control the right Chairman.

Let’s take conferences back to basics

Is the following too much to ask, is it fanciful? Is it too much of a stretch? Just image if every conference organiser only put on a conference that followed the following list of or actions: let’s call them commandments:

This conference will:

-          Be built around the learning needs of the delegates and have those at its’ core;

-          Be built to allow great networking, not just in the breaks but throughout the event;

-          Be in the best venue to allow a comfortable learning and networking environment;

-          Be fun and enjoyable;

-          Be memorable and

-          Will not be a vehicle for suppliers to sell to delegates

Before a speaker / facilitator stands up in front of my delegates they will:

-          Be fully briefed by me and the conference chair. And I mean fully briefed (see last weeks’ Blog)

-          The organiser or the chair will have met the speakers and seen them perform;

-          They will be experts in content but also in delivery, and if they are not, I will help them. They will have undertaken addition presentation training (the costs of which we will cover) if they need it;

-          They will have a shared vision which is clearly understood about what the event is trying to achieve;

-          They will be fully prepared;

-          They will engage with delegates and other speakers before, during and after the physical event;

-          To ensure they put the effort in, if the profile of speaking is not enough for them, then I will pay them

If this happened would we be having the eternal debate around ROI at conferences? Would we be struggling to justify a reasonable fee for a conference? I doubt it.

So what’s our industry doing?

Now as an organiser who’s organised hundreds of commercial conferences I know that this is too much to ask for every conference we organise, although we get a lot closer! But is it too much to ask, or dare I say expect, from conferences run for the conference industry? I don’t think so. Do you?

Shouldn’t we be more demanding of our trade associations; membership bodies and other companies that organise conferences for conference organisers? I think we should.

Imagine heading round to Gordon Ramsey’s for dinner and he serves you a bacon sandwich. You wouldn’t be happy. So don’t except conferences that are easy to knock up unhealthy snacks. Put the pressure on our industry to show us exactly what they can do. Run a proper conference.  

Making sure you get the most from your conference chair

I’ve been asked to chair the ‘Conference and Events Stream’ at this years’ Association Congress in London. I love chairing events; it’s fun. But as an event organiser I know it’s no fun (quite literally) when you have a BAD chairman. And in this blog I would like to discuss that it is not always the chairman’s fault; it’s sometimes down to the organiser never quite spelling out what they want the chair to do.

So what are we organisers doing wrong?

Too many conference organisers just give logistical briefs: “Keep the conference to time”, “Lead the applause after each session”, “Don’t take a call when a speaker is speaking” – this has actually happened to me! But I suppose, can we expect anything different when we don’t brief them well enough? As organisers we have to get beneath the logistical brief and really help our chairs. Feel free to use what’s below as your chairman’s brief.

The ideal chairman’s brief

You are a simple chairman only in name. You are the conductor: you are the ring master: if this conference is a car, you are the engine.

Filling the chairman’s role at one of our conferences is so much more than keeping the day to time. There are few things that make such a positive impact on our event as having a great conference chair. This is your opportunity to shape the learning for a room full of your peers. It’s a big responsibility. So here are a few tips on how to make sure you shine in the best possible light:

Before the event:

1.       Realise how important you are to the day! You are the star striker. The quarterback. It’s your role to make sure there is energy in the room, that people are relaxed and ready to enjoy the day.

2.       We would like you to speak to every speaker. Simple as that. Give them a call, say hello and ask them what they are covering and why they are covering it. Take the time to make sure there aren’t any obvious overlaps and that they are covering the important aspects.

3.       We will send you all the slides as they arrive. Look through them and come up with a couple of questions for each speaker.

4.       In the run up to the conference we may ask you to do a bit of promotion for us. We see that as extra profile for you and we hope that you do too.

During the event:

5.       Please get there early and speak to a few delegates. It always very useful to find out from them exactly what they are expecting to get from the day. Bare these in mind when you are quizzing the speakers.

6.       After each session do please lead the applause. Also please sum up each session. It’s likely that each speaker has only two or three important points and we consider it your job just to emphasise those to delegates.

7.       At the end of the morning session and the afternoon session, it’s time for a summary again. But this time, tell the delegates what you’ve taken from the sessions and perhaps even, what you are going do to with this new found wisdom.

8.       Let’s all be flexible. If there is something that you want to cover, perhaps running over a bit, then do so; just let me know. But remember, cold coffee leads to unhappy delegates!

After the event:

9.       We really like to close the loop with our delegates. We would love you to spend an hour or two and send a note to all of the delegates summarising the day, perhaps adding a link to some content on the web that you think would be useful to them.

10.   And finally, please accept the cheque to cover your time and effort making this such a great day for delegates. We realise how important you are so of course, we are happy to pay.

Come see me in action at www.associationcongress.com