Conferences that Work

APRIL 18, 2022

The first novel hybrid meeting format was invented by Joel Backon back in 2010. The second is a design I’ll be using in a conference I’ve designed and will be facilitating in June 2022. Collaborative Tools Workshop ” designed by Joel Backon at the 2010 annual edACCESS conference.

Meeting 169

Meeting Online Conference Booking 169

Conferences that Work

APRIL 1, 2024

On Tuesday, March 26, 2024 , I sat down with Martin Duffy and Paul Nunesdea on LinkedIn Live for an hour’s deep dive conversation about peer conferences: the participant-driven, participation-rich events I’ve designed and facilitated for over thirty years. Peer Conferences Unveiled—The Transcript! Here it is—enjoy!

Conference 98

Conference Meeting Booking Audience 98

Conferences that Work

JUNE 3, 2019

The first peer conference I convened and designed was held June 3 – 5, 1992 at Marlboro College, Vermont. So, as of today, the community of practice that eventually became edACCESS has enjoyed 27 years of peer conferences. Twenty-three people came to the inaugural conference. 27 years of peer conferences.

Conference 75

Conference Consulting Meeting Design Website 75

Conferences that Work

MAY 11, 2020

I’ve been designing and facilitating participant-driven and participation-rich in person meetings — aka peer conferences — for almost thirty years. Because participants love these meetings ! Now the covid-19 pandemic has forced meetings online. In person meetings have vanished overnight.

Online 158

Online Conference Platform Publishing 158

Conferences that Work

DECEMBER 16, 2019

If you had told me forty years ago, a freshly minted high-energy particle physics postdoc, that I’d go on to have four additional careers (owner of a solar manufacturing business, computer science professor, independent IT consultant, and meeting designer/facilitator) I wouldn’t have believed you. I recommend you hire them!

Consulting 145

Consulting Manufacturing Meeting Design Publishing 145

Conferences that Work

AUGUST 26, 2019

Here’s a teaser: the introduction to my new book Event Crowdsourcing: Creating Meetings People Actually Want and Need. Then buy the book ! Read the full article at Conferences That Work The post Introduction to my new book Event Crowdsourcing appeared first on Conferences That Work. Interested?

Booking 78

Booking Events Consulting Conference 78

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 17, 2020

But I’m a consultant who has long subscribed to Jerry Weinberg’s Seventh Law of Marketing : “Give away your best ideas” and Credit Rule : “You’ll never accomplish anything if you care who gets the credit”, from his invaluable book The Secrets of Consulting. ” “Stop. No related posts.

Consulting 147

Consulting Meeting Design Benefits Training 147

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

And yes, I admit it, during the second day of my vacation while enjoying the harmonies I hear, I’m jolted to think about religious meeting design…. Religious services are thought to be around 300,000 years old — by far the oldest form of organized meeting that humans have created. Keep ’em moving!

Meeting Design 66

Meeting Design Meeting Speakers Conference 66

Conferences that Work

JULY 24, 2017

So you’re holding a conference. Read the full article at Conferences That Work. The Solution Room—a powerful conference session There’s been a lot of interest in The Solution Room, a session that I co-facilitated last July at Meeting Professionals International World Education Congress in Orlando, Florida.

Conference 72

Conference Education Booking Audience 72

Conferences that Work

APRIL 1, 2019

This (slightly edited) interview by JT Long appeared in the March 2019 issue of Smart Meetings Magazine. What led to writing the book, Conferences that Work ? I invented the format by accident 26 years ago when there were no expert speakers to invite for a conference on administrative computing issues in small schools.

Booking 103

Booking Conference Speakers Meeting Design 103

Conferences that Work

JUNE 12, 2023

I am delighted and honored to be featured in ‘ Harnessing Serendipity ,’ a unique new book that explores the magic of facilitating connection that leads to collaboration. However, the work of everyone included in this book incorporates most if not all of these approaches.

Booking 62

Booking Retreat Sports Meeting Design 62

Conferences that Work

JUNE 7, 2021

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

Booking 123

Booking Conference Meeting Design Online 123

Conferences that Work

MARCH 25, 2024

Since 2005, I’ve written three successful books on meeting design and facilitation and over 800 weekly blog posts on a wide range of topics. My books continue to sell, and this blog is the world’s most popular website on meeting design and facilitation. Write a book? So here’s my story.

Booking 96

Booking Consulting Meeting Design Conference 96

Conferences that Work

JULY 17, 2023

I am resigned to the fact that OpenAI ‘s Large Language Model ChatGPT has scraped every blog post I’ve written here (over 750 posts in the last 13 years—around half a million words) so it can parrot my thoughts about meeting design, facilitation, and other topics. I don’t think so.

Booking 117

Booking Publishing Meeting Design Technology 117

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 5, 2024

Community versus audience I began my first book with the research finding (and common observation) that people go to conferences to network and learn. My later books (and many posts on this site) have emphasized the superiority of active over passive learning. But, all too often, attendees are not the conference owners.

Audience 98

Audience Meeting Manufacturing Meeting Design 98

Conferences that Work

OCTOBER 11, 2021

And so it goes with meetings. Daniel Kahneman, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize for Economics, wrote a long book about this. It’s why businesses sponsor meetings. It’s why we judge meeting experiences largely based on how they were perceived at their peak and at their end. Institutions. No related posts.

Meeting 128

Meeting Technology Technology Manufacturing 128

Conferences that Work

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

Ten years of Conferences That Work ! Ten years ago today, I started this website and published my first book: Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love. (A I’m proud to have written three books ( the latest was published this week) and over six hundred blog posts in the last ten years.

Conference 10

Conference Publishing Website Booking 10

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

Software testers do peer conferences right! They even call them a peer conference , rather than unconference , a term I don’t like.) As evidence of software tester conference awesomeness, I offer three examples below. a short history of the peer conference. The 2022 SoCraTes peer conference. But first…. …a

Conference 62

Conference Proposal Meeting Design Publishing 62

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.

Meeting 88

Meeting Conference Booking Meeting Design 88

Conferences that Work

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

” I think it’s reasonable to concentrate on fairness to participants : the majority of those involved with the meeting. In his influential 1971 book A Theory of Justice , John suggested that “the fairest rules are those to which everyone would agree if they did not know how much power they would have.”.

Meeting 143

Meeting Conference Speakers Booking 143

Conferences that Work

MAY 20, 2024

Improving Conferences That Work I designed and facilitated my first peer conference in 1992. I ran them in my spare time for thirteen years before writing my first book. Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love took four years to write. When it was published in 2009, my peer conference work exploded.

Consulting 96

Consulting Social Media Publishing Conference 96

Conferences that Work

MARCH 13, 2017

This is all very well, but it begs the question: what can meeting designers do to make it easier for attendees to participate more at meetings? Read the full article at Conferences That Work. Here are three things we can do.

Attendee 84

Attendee Education Booking Conference 84

Conferences that Work

AUGUST 19, 2024

Forged ahead and wrote what eventually became a series of three books on conference design. Consequently became a valued resource on meeting design and facilitation for thousands of people and organizations. license Read the full article at Conferences That Work The post Paying it forward!

Consulting 96

Consulting Conference Design Conference Meeting Design 96

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

For over thirty years I’ve been making clients’ conferences significantly better, for about the cost of a conference coffee break. I make conferences better by dramatically increasing attendee satisfaction. Since 1992, I’ve designed and facilitated hundreds of conferences and thousands of meetings.

Sponsors 96

Sponsors Registration Conference Attendee 96

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

Events and media consultant Julius Solaris shared at the Unforgettable Experience Design Summit that he was initially very enthusiastic about unconference format events. He thought conferences would eventually adopt unconference models. The solution to this is to design your unconference before choosing the venue.

Preparation 112

Preparation Venue Conference Proposal 112

Social Tables

OCTOBER 28, 2016

Tahira Endean tweets about the intersection of experiential, immersive meeting design and technology. She’s a stellar resource for the latest event tech news, and also shares her take on industry conferences. If you’re active on the event and hospitality conference circuit, you might bump into her. @TahiraCreates.

Social Media 128

Social Media Hospitality Media Consulting 128

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

For a full explanation of why active learning modalities are superior, see Chapter 4 of my book The Power of Participation.). Let’s look at these three conclusions in the context of meeting design. Most meeting presenters still lecture. So why do we continue to use broadcast-style formats?

Publishing 92

Publishing Speakers Education Booking 92

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. Related posts: Ask Me Anything About Conference Panels — Thursday, July 21, 4-6 pm EDT Blab!

Panel 77

Panel Meeting Design Conference Hospitality 77

Conferences that Work

MAY 22, 2023

Check to see if your school already makes books available via VitalSource Campus Retailers. It is critical to understand how to design conferences and events effectively. Now, you and your students can easily access my books from anywhere in the world, at any time, both online and offline.

Retail 12

Retail Booking Meeting Design Education 12

Conferences that Work

JUNE 4, 2018

When consulting, one of my biggest meeting design challenges is to get boss buy-in. To improve the relevance and effectiveness of social structures, organizations, and meetings, it’s crucial for leaders to understand and accept the potential and value of decentralized influence.

Networking 75

Networking Consulting Meeting Design Booking 75

Conferences that Work

APRIL 9, 2018

Over the last five years I’ve heard increasing concern from the meeting professionals community about the deterioration of the quality of our national industry conferences. In my case, the demand for the meeting design and facilitation services I provide has been exploding. (In

Education 78

Education Meeting Sponsors Speakers 78

Conferences that Work

JULY 1, 2024

All the conferences I design and facilitate have a time and place for participants to share their experiences. PSFG has a deep appreciation for the importance of meeting design. One of the first things we did was a short exercise that helped us explore the essence of her desired meeting. And that’s okay.

Conference 96

Conference Speakers Proposal Online 96

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. See my book The Power of Participation to learn more about body voting.).

Online 154

Online Platform Communications Communications 154

Conferences that Work

MARCH 14, 2022

Personal meetings like these, whether brief or extended, between good friends or strangers, are fundamental. Someone to tell it to at conferences. Conferences, whether in-person or online, are also potential arenas for conversations. But some conferences offer better opportunities than others. No related posts.

Meeting Design 71

Meeting Design Conference Online Audience 71

Social Tables

DECEMBER 27, 2018

Industry Performance Trends Attendee Experience Trends Meeting Destination Trends Event Technology Trends Meeting Design Trends. The unprecedented rise in demand for meetings and events will continue this year, with CWT Meetings & Travel predicting a robust 5-10% growth in demand. Industry Performance Trends.

Trends 167

Trends Meeting Planner Venue 167

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. 13:45 Creating a conference program on the fly at the event. 03:30 How Anca and I met.

Event Design 62

Event Design Meeting Social Media Sponsors 62

Conferences that Work

MARCH 29, 2021

People have written books about how to do this. If you had told me then that I’d leave that career (my fourth) to write a book about meeting design that would catapult me into the heart of the meeting industry, I’d have said you were crazy. Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Meeting 97

Meeting Communications Communications Logistics 97