In the last week, the blog world has been buzzing about conferences. They’ve been discussing what cool techniques are keeping attendees focused, to how to set up a room. I don’t want to be left out of the conversation, so I’ll recap the highlights of the latest conference discussions. These ideas can be used in almost any size meeting.
- Cool Conferences – Hey, didn’t I see that somewhere? I see that cool just doesn’t pertain to high school students anymore, so at least The Balcom Group is one of the cool kids, or at least our clients are cool.
Jeff De Cagna, of Principled Innovations, has been writing about “Insanely Cool Conferences.” Last week he posted two blogs on this topic.
Jeff’s readers commented that it’s important to “surprise, delight and challenge” the conference attendees, but at the same time they have to go home with valuable information. If you need help with engaging your audience, contact Marti Balcom here. She’s our conference planning guru.
Jeff followed up the next day with a blog on Three Principles of Insanely Cool Conference.
His Principles are:
- Organizational DNA matters
- Violate the participant’s expectations
- Focus on Design
It’s getting harder and harder to keep audiences engaged when they have so many mobile device distractions, but Seth Godin’s blog on “How to organize the room,” will help in any type of setting. It’s cool to be prepared and organized.
I’ve listed a few of the ideas Seth touches upon in his blog as a teaser, so you’ll have to read it to get his explanations.
Outlined below are Seth’s useful and sometimes unconventional information, on room organization:
- Do you serve lunch followed by a keynote? Yes, but not in the same room.
- Is “standing room only” a good situation? Yes, in fact, it’s the best.
- Get the biggest screen you can, and then go bigger.
- VGA cables are a must.
- Music, if it’s too loud…well, you know the rest. Use loud upbeat music to introduce all the speakers. No marching bands.
- Aisles, the more the better.
- Lights = light stage, dark audience
- Make friends with the staff.
No matter what size meeting you are planning you can use these tips and techniques to engage your audience. If you want to know what our clients are saying about our ability to add to the “cool factor” of your next conference, please read our testimonials.
