Conferences that Work

MARCH 28, 2022

When meeting planner textbooks gloss over the key ways that meetings can be made much more effective and useful for all stakeholders, planners remain ignorant, and traditional broadcast-style meetings continue to be the norm. Most assume that a meeting planner is all they need. Steve Jobs said, “Design is how it works”.

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Logistics Meeting Meeting Design Site Selection 171

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.

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Conference Consulting Meeting Design Website 75

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!

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Conference Meeting Booking Audience 98

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

Traditional conferences focus on a hodgepodge of pre-determined sessions punctuated with socials, surrounded by short welcomes and closings. Such conference designs treat openings and closings as perfunctory traditions, perhaps pumped up with a keynote or two, rather than key components of the conference design.

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Conference Conference Design Meeting Design Education 71

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!

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Meeting Design Meeting Speakers Conference 66

Smart Meetings

AUGUST 15, 2022

Now that events are going back to in person, how can meeting professionals deliver the same level of detailed success metrics to the executive team about the range of value delivered on the investment? Two veteran meeting designers joined Smart Chat Live! Meet the Experts. Watch the entire webinar here.

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Medical Meetings Meeting Trade Show Virtual Events 246

Conferences that Work

JANUARY 10, 2022

For too long, we’ve equated a meeting’s “success” with its size. ” But if we concentrate on increasing attendance, we overlook getting the meeting design right. Improving an event’s design makes the meeting better for all the stakeholders: meeting owners, sponsors, and participants.

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Meeting Meeting Design Online Sponsors 147

Conferences that Work

JULY 2, 2018

Recently, a client asked for help designing a new conference. The needs assessment trap Conference design clients who “know what they want” have already decided on their “ why? It’s an honor to work on a classic Conferences That. Conferences That Work goes to Japan!

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Meeting Design Logistics Conference Design Consulting 76

Endless Events

JUNE 21, 2019

Both on Event Tech Podcast and #EventIcons , we shared a lot of good stuff from this fantastic conference. But on the matter of inclusion at events, our host Tahira Endean sat down with Maarten Vannest e of the Meeting Design Institute. If you’ve been paying attention, you know we already covered IMEX Frankfurt.

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Events Remote Communications Communications 256

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. Hire curious people.

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Consulting Manufacturing Meeting Design Publishing 145

Conferences that Work

AUGUST 16, 2021

And it made me think about meeting design. And, me being me, I thought about what Marcy had just said in the context of meeting design. And meetings are no exception. The art and craft of the meeting designer. It’s a meeting designer’s job to create these contextual layers.

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Rehearsal Meeting Design Conference Planner 139

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.

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Online Conference Platform Publishing 158

Conferences that Work

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

Presentation versus interaction at meetings. But our meeting designs, in large part, haven’t changed to reflect this shift in cultural awareness. Read the full article at Conferences That Work The post Presentation versus interaction at meetings appeared first on Conferences That Work.

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Meeting Publishing Booking Meeting Design 126

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.

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Meeting Online Conference Booking 169

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

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Conference Proposal Meeting Design Publishing 62

Endless Events

SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

An entrepreneur since he was only 18 years old, Maarten has over 35 years of experience in meeting design. And since 2012, he has organized the FRESH Conference in Europe. Ready to hear all about the ground-breaking magic of multi-hub meetings? In 2006, Marteen started the Meeting Design Institute.

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Meeting Speakers Regulations Meeting Design 176

Conferences that Work

JUNE 14, 2021

When the leading candidate for the Mayor of New York City has this take on how people learn, perhaps it’s not so surprising that we’re still sitting through endless broadcast-style sessions at meetings and conferences. Learning researchers and our best teachers and meeting designers have known this for a long time.

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Meeting Remote Meeting Design Conference 139

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.

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Conference Education Booking Audience 72

Conferences that Work

FEBRUARY 17, 2020

Finally, as a meeting designer I’m convinced that using meeting formats that facilitate and support sharing amongst peers of relevant information is one of the most powerful ways to improve the effectiveness of meetings. Share information; don’t hoard it. Image attribution: Flickr user ben_grey.

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Consulting Meeting Design Benefits Training 147

Conferences that Work

JULY 19, 2021

If you want maximum learning, interaction, and connection at a meeting, small meetings are better than large meetings. For example, think about a conference to explore the implications of a medical breakthrough. Increased learning, interaction, and connection. Have you experienced one, and, if so, what was it like?

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The MICE Blog

JULY 27, 2022

I want to re-share this article that I wrote back in 2019 and was initially published on VDVO website , because the principles of event design remain the same, the human is in the centre of every experience that we want to design for our events and technology technology should enhance this experience, and not replace it.

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Events Speakers Conference Attendee 147

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 These days, this site gets about six million page views per year, making it, as far as I know, the most popular website in the world on meeting design.

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Conference Publishing Website Booking 10

Conferences that Work

JUNE 28, 2021

During our 25 minutes together, we discussed various panel formats, their value, and how to structure and design powerful panel discussions into the larger context of meetings, conferences, and events. 2:30 A brief history of meetings; why lecture formats are still so popular; how panels fit into the larger context of meetings.

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Panel Meeting Design Conference Audience 133

Conferences that Work

OCTOBER 11, 2021

All meeting design needs to recognize this reality. What we think of as modern business meetings and conferences are hundreds of years old. The traditional top-down formats of meetings and conferences reflect the top-down structure of the institutions that still largely dominate our world. Institutions.

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Conferences that Work

MARCH 3, 2022

Here’s a rare opportunity to ask me anything about meeting design and facilitation at a unique, free, online workshop. Take this opportunity to ask Adrian anything about meeting design and facilitation. Enjoy time after the session in an online social environment that closely mimics meeting in-person socials.

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Online Affiliate Meeting Design Platform 118

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. Creating community at conferences around participant-driven content , therefore, creates a far more effective learning and connection-rich environment.

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Audience Meeting Manufacturing Meeting Design 98

Conferences that Work

APRIL 25, 2022

The Conference Arc: Building connection while uncovering wants, needs, and resources. Ask Adrian Anything: using a fishbowl sandwich to facilitate group discussion on meeting design and facilitation. Human spectrograms: a simple tool for learning about other participants. Creating the right program. Consolidating learning.

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Online Registration Meeting Design Conference 116

Endless Events

JUNE 15, 2018

Meetings may cover the simplest of topics, but mixing things up to break the mold can go a long way. From uncommon games and giveaways to choose-your-own-adventures and unique conference breakout sessions , it’s possible to make any meeting interesting. Just make sure to mind the coherence of the whole event.

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Registration Events Sponsors Event Marketing 258

Convene by PCMA

AUGUST 2, 2024

Others brought up approaches to conferences — which have stood the test of time but are as flat as stale beer — that are within event organizers’ power to rework or at least to advocate for their re-imagination.

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Social Media Events Consulting Culture 119

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.

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Booking Conference Meeting Design Online 123

MeetingsNet

JUNE 6, 2022

A meeting designer used a carbon-dioxide meter in all the spaces he moved through while attending a recent conference. In late May, Adrian Segar attended a meeting-industry leadership summit in San Juan, Puerto Rico. With the meeting-room doors open, my meter typically showed readings between 500 and 600,” he noted.

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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.

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Booking Conference Speakers Meeting Design 103

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. of what I routinely did at the conferences I convened and led.

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Booking Consulting Meeting Design Conference 96

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! Read the full article at Conferences That Work. Face The Fear—Then Change Your Conference Design!

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Venue Meeting Conference Design Meeting Design 88

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.

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Meeting Conference Booking Meeting Design 88

Conferences that Work

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

At a traditional meeting, however, perceived status roles rarely change significantly during the event. This leads to a number of problems, which I described in my first meeting design book: Conferences That Work. For a low status person (like me at those conferences), that is a great freedom to have.

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Meeting Conference Speakers Booking 143

Conferences that Work

APRIL 11, 2022

By “practitioners” I mean the folks who do what the meeting is about; e.g., doctors at a medical event or scientists at a conservation conference. Often, vendors meet with practitioners at a tradeshow, and sponsors (who are usually vendors too) get opportunities to address practitioners.

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