Conferences that Work

MAY 11, 2020

Because participants love these meetings ! Now the covid-19 pandemic has forced meetings online. Unfortunately, most online events are still using a traditional webinar/broadcast-style approach: presenters speaking for long periods, interspersed with chat-mediated Q&A. In person meetings have vanished overnight.

Conference 395

Conference 2012 Meetings Meeting Design 395

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

It’s a good time to invite guest presenters into your online classroom. As an experienced facilitator and designer of participant-driven and participation-rich meetings, I love to share what I’ve learned during my four decades in the meeting industry. You won’t get a canned presentation.

Hospitality 227

Hospitality Education Meeting Design Conference 227

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

As a result, many conference attendees have not encountered these designs before and have not experienced how effective they can be in creating valuable connections and learning with their peers. So when should you use the Conferences That Work design? I thought you’d never ask.

Meeting Design 120

Meeting Design Conference Meetings Conference Design 120

Conferences that Work

APRIL 11, 2022

Unfortunately, supplier and practitioner perspectives on having suppliers present don’t usually align. . The practitioner’s perspective on including suppliers at meeting sessions. May not want to talk about supplier products and services when suppliers are present.

Meetings 296

Meetings Conference Meeting Design Advertising 296

Conferences that Work

JULY 31, 2017

Although I have good reasons to champion meeting designs where the participants get to choose what they want and need to discuss and learn rather than a program committee , there is invariably a place for some predetermined presentations at conferences. Read the full article at Conferences That Work.

Meetings 220

Meetings Meeting Design Conference Speakers 220

Conferences that Work

JUNE 12, 2017

I love my meeting design clients, but there is one mistake I see them making over and over again. Clients invariably ask me to help design their meeting after they’ve chosen a venue! Face The Fear—Then Change Your Conference Design! Here’s why they do it, and why it’s a mistake.

Venues 221

Venues 2010 Meetings Conference Design 221

Conferences that Work

APRIL 1, 2019

Often it is more like a discussion than a presentation, but that is why it is effective. I was an amateur in the meeting industry, and that led to some mistakes, but it also gave me a fresh perspective at a time when meeting design wasn’t really a “thing.” Often, the results are unexpected.

2014 259

2014 2019 Conference Meeting Design 259

Conferences that Work

APRIL 18, 2022

Check out my original post for the details of the session, which explored the unexpected advantages of working together online even when the participants are physically present. You can use this novel hybrid meeting format to explore the effectiveness of employing appropriate online tools to work on problems at an in-person event.

2010 423

2010 Meetings Conference Travel 423

Event Marketer

SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

Whether it’s a meeting designed to galvanize the salesforce or a beach retreat that rewards staffers for their achievements, companies are leaning on team-building events to support—and retain—employees. Throughout the event, the team simultaneously translated presentations in 10 different languages for the 250 people in attendance.

Airlines 306

Airlines 2024 Conference Events 306

Conferences that Work

JULY 19, 2021

If you want maximum learning, interaction, and connection at a meeting, small meetings are better than large meetings. Yesterday, Brandt was presenting at an MPI event on hybrid meetings, so Glenn shared the event so we could kibitz. Increased learning, interaction, and connection.

Meetings 367

Meetings 2011 2021 Fashion 367

Conferences that Work

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

Some say I have high status in the event industry, but when I’m facilitating a roomful of subject matter experts, I’m the most ignorant and lowest status person present. At a traditional meeting, however, perceived status roles rarely change significantly during the event. Here are a couple of my own unhappy experiences.).

Meetings 358

Meetings Conference Negotiating Speakers 358

Conferences that Work

JUNE 7, 2021

Why am I writing about social learning on a blog that’s (mainly) about meeting design? Which means, to create the best meetings we need to maximize the social learning that takes place. Which means, to create the best meetings we need to maximize the social learning that takes place. Humans’ true superpower.

Meeting Design 309

Meeting Design Conference Meetings Event Design 309

Conferences that Work

MARCH 15, 2021

Recently, I’ve been appearing as a guest at college event planning and hospitality courses to talk about meeting design. (I Rather than lecture for an hour, I’ve been using an Ask Me Anything (aka AMA ) meeting format. I love to do this. Teachers, please contact me , it’s free!) Well…sometimes.

Hospitality 194

Hospitality Meeting Design Conference Event Planning 194

Conferences that Work

JANUARY 11, 2021

Their expertise can, therefore, be shared with participants via traditional presentations. However, few presenters incorporate significant interactivity into their sessions, and this format is more the exception than the rule. Sadly, traditional lecture-style sessions are only good for solving participants’ obvious problems.

Conference 371

Conference 2010 2011 2014 371

Smart Meetings

JANUARY 27, 2025

Instead, meeting designers have to understand the core values of their attendees. That means you, as a meeting presenter, have to be prepared to answer the hard questions. David Allison, founder of The Valuegraphics Database, says age is not an accurate predictor of behavior.

Event Design 130

Event Design 2026 2012 Events 130

Gallus Events

DECEMBER 11, 2018

I spoke at IBTM in Barcelona ( you can read the “review” here ) at the end of November on one of my favourite topics, Meeting Design or fresh formats for conferences. I then said the way to highlight these issues is to highlight the need for meeting design (or for the sake of this presentation “Fresh Formats”).

Conference 178

Conference Meeting Design Entertainment Meetings 178

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

Let’s look at these three conclusions in the context of meeting design. Most meeting presenters still lecture. And most meeting session presenters resort to lecturing as their dominant session modality. Attendees learn more when presenters use active learning modalities.

2012 232

2012 Speakers Education 2019 232

PCMA Convene

MAY 1, 2017

Sperstad will present results from the study at IMEX in Frankfurt, Germany, this month. EVENT DESIGN. “My My first white paper, Mindful Event Design, was really driven around a physical sense of meeting design. The final report, supported by IMEX and PSAV, will be delivered at IMEX America in Las Vegas in October.

Meeting Design 75

Meeting Design Meetings Education Fashion 75

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

An event that: Asks potential presenters to submit pre-event proposals for sessions isn’t an unconference. Includes breakout sessions as well as presentations isn’t an unconference. [No, When this doesn’t happen (sadly, most of the time in my experience) the conference design, no matter how good it is, suffers.

Conference 280

Conference Venues 2023 Consulting 280

Conferences that Work

APRIL 9, 2018

Meanwhile, it’s clear from a review of industry conference programs that large numbers of presentations are accepted from employees of sponsors or trade show exhibitors. In my case, the demand for the meeting design and facilitation services I provide has been exploding. (In

Education 196

Education Meetings 2006 2012 196

Conferences that Work

JUNE 3, 2019

At the time, I had no idea that what I instinctively put together for a gathering of people who barely knew each other would lead to: a global design and facilitation consulting practice; over 500 posts on this blog, which has now become, to the best of my knowledge, the most-visited website on meeting design and facilitation; three books (almost!)

Conference 189

Conference 2014 Consulting Meeting Design 189

Gallus Events

MAY 2, 2017

Too many venues, especially hotels, are still designed and to house traditional conferences. If you want to run a creative conference, one that uses Meeting Design you have to find a venue that will really support your conference. In this post I thought I’d add a little Meeting Design Venue Check List!

Venues 164

Venues Meeting Design Conference Meetings 164

Conferences that Work

AUGUST 12, 2024

Religious meetings are a small, fascinating subset of the meeting industry. I learned about them when I presented at The Religious Conference Management Association annual conference in 2014, and I’ve written about what meeting designers can learn from religious services.

2014 240

2014 Tourism 2023 Conference 240

Conferences that Work

MARCH 14, 2022

Even post-presentation Q&As rarely evolve into a conversation, which is always between the presenter and a succession of audience members. I have been doing this for 30 years, and it’s clear that meeting designs that integrate meaningful conversations into sessions have a transformational effect on almost all participants.

2006 177

2006 Meeting Design Conference Meetings 177

Smart Meetings

JUNE 11, 2021

This larger-than life projection is worlds away from a droning PowerPoint presentation on a distant screen. Why not transform the welcome reception into a jungle or beach to fit your meeting theme and put everyone in a fresh frame of mind?

Social Media 279

Social Media Meetings Venues Meeting Design 279

Conferences that Work

MARCH 21, 2022

This coming June will mark my 30th year of designing and facilitating participant-driven and participation-rich meetings. So I designed the workshop as an “ Ask Adrian Anything ” about meeting design and facilitation. I’ve shared the why? and the details of how I typically run this format here.

Meetings 385

Meetings Meeting Design Conference Speakers 385

PCMA Convene

JANUARY 25, 2019

Kate Fairweather (right) and Amy Blackman present results from “The Future of Meetings and Events” report at Convening Leaders 2019 in Pittsburgh. We believe they are going to be disruptive in every category, but have certain implications that will be important for meetings and events.” Jacob Slaton). Emotional Intelligence.

Meeting Design 66

Meeting Design Meetings Consulting 2019 66

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

Presentation & panel capability. So you can’t use Rally to create a presenter or panel session for more than (currently) 36 people. Anyone speaking on stage will be heard by everyone in the room, and presenters can hear audience response at a reduced level, rather like as if they were speaking at a live event.

Conference 240

Conference Venues Marketing Meeting Design 240

Gallus Events

MARCH 22, 2016

3 Use meeting design to create the framework for great content. With these first two steps covered: bringing together the content expert and the programme expert, the next step was to add some meeting design. That’s Meeting Design. This included speaking to each other 1.2.1 and in small groups.

Conference 173

Conference Meeting Design Speakers Fashion 173

Slido

JANUARY 30, 2019

In December 2018, we set out to explore the future of town hall meetings. The goal of our one-day event in partnership with Convene was to show how a successful all-hands could look in 2019 and beyond by using interactive technology and meeting design thinking. It was a new experience for everyone, and the audience loved it.

Speakers 69

Speakers Meeting Design 2018 2019 69

Conferences that Work

APRIL 16, 2018

Fun fact: the testing community often uses my term “peer conferences” for their get-togethers, due to a chat about meeting design I had with tester James Bach at the 2004 Amplifying Your Effectiveness conference.) Those running stands were able to gather community feedback on their topic.

2018 174

2018 2004 Conference Trade Shows 174

Conferences that Work

MARCH 25, 2019

Though it’s clearly sensible to keep a conference running on schedule, we’ve all attended meetings where rambling presenters, avoidable “technical issues”, incompetent facilitation, and inadequate logistics have made a mockery of the published program. I did so, and noticed that the other presenter did not.

Contracts 199

Contracts 2011 Conference Education 199

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

07:45 Behind the scenes: How I got into designing and facilitating participant-driven and participation-rich meetings. 11:00 What participant-driven and participation-rich meeting design means, and the core components. 15:00 Why we need to have participant-driven and participation-rich meetings.

Event Design 156

Event Design Meetings Social Media Meeting Design 156

EventMB

JANUARY 8, 2024

Skift Take: In the latest episode of the Skift Meetings Podcast, the spotlight is on Joe Pine, a visionary thinker whose groundbreaking work on the Experience Economy has reshaped the way businesses approach customer engagement. Miguel Neves Read the Complete Story On Skift Meetings

Meetings 205

Meetings Meeting Design Events Event Design 205

GEVME

DECEMBER 19, 2019

Today, we see professionals from the UX & Design field apply design thinking to meetings to explore how to reinvent them. Kevin Hoffman has written a pretty good book about it: Meeting Design. A facilitator then helps to build a working agenda, breakout sessions and real-time presentations.

Trade Shows 156

Trade Shows 2019 Speakers Meeting Design 156

Conferences that Work

DECEMBER 18, 2023

This annual two-day event, first held in 2006, is an opportunity for event agencies from forty countries to present their best projects in person to juries and BEA World delegates. For this trip, the first time I’d been back to Europe since an Estonian meeting design conference in 2020, I decided to spend a week in Rome. .”

2023 245

2023 Conference 2006 2020 245

Conferences that Work

APRIL 8, 2019

I quickly discover the size and interest of the meetings industry. Due to interest and demand, I become a meeting designer and facilitator of participant-driven and participation-rich meetings. (Five years earlier, self-publishing was a minor industry for vanity projects. Yet another career that had not existed before.

2005 166

2005 2009 Consulting Conference 166