Information Overload

If you want to attract more people to your conference, you have to make the experience worth their time and money. But how? If you think that providing more information is the answer, we’ve got one word for you: Google.

The Internet changed everything. A deluge of digital information is now readily available; and potential conference-goers can find what they need online, download materials, watch webinars, and listen to podcasts – free of charge.

So what will motivate people to break away from their work and possibly invest money to attend your event? It’s the most important thing a virtual meeting can’t give them:

Meaningful Connections

The chance to form meaningful connections is what drives attendance and creates impactful meetings. Relationship-building and networking opportunities, along with real-time idea exchange and active participation, all add up to memorable meeting experiences. That’s why people attend face-to-face events. And if you want your event to be successful, you’d better deliver what they’re looking for.

The meetings experts agree that connection – not content – is the new king. The National Conference Center just released a fall white paper, The Future of the Meetings Industry: Why Certain Conference Innovators Are Winning, that sheds more light on conference trends.

The paper features such industry innovators as Tom Condon, who specialized in designing meeting experiences for Steelcase (the world’s largest office environment manufacturer) and Adrian Segar, conference design and author of Conferences that Work: Creating Events That People Love. Here are few key takeaway points:

• Traditional, passive-learning conferences are being replaced with active, participant-driven events. (Conference content is determined by what attendees want to gain from the experience, not what organizers think they should learn.)
• Designing conferences that help people connect with each other is the common theme of industry innovators.
• Traditional classroom settings are being replaced by unique spaces that promote social learning and informal group sessions.
• Attendees are more likely to attend conferences that foster collaboration, with active learning that fits their needs.
• Space and design is crucial – create memorable spaces to make the experience unique and provide more opportunities for one-on-one interaction and networking.
• People attend conferences to connect with speakers and/or other colleagues. (Speakers are increasingly connecting with attendees.)
• Innovative planners are focused on space, design, collaboration and learning, rather than content.

In a nutshell, The National Conference Center white paper affirms that despite the increased use of technology and social media, people attend conferences for the connections.

“In fact, each year conference innovators who consider survey feedback to be a key to future success strive towards creating memorable experiences that allow attendees and speakers to engage more. As Condon described, people are attending conferences for a unique and memorable experience that they couldn’t have had anywhere else.”
Download the free white paper.

Get Onboard for Greater Connection

To organize a conference with built-in networking opportunities, consider a meeting at sea. There’s nothing like the self-contained environment of a cruise ship to encourage meaningful conversations and connections – after all, conference attendees (and speakers) are a “captive audience”. Multiple dining venues, recreational facilities, and a unique variety of meeting spaces, lounges and theaters are all onboard, so there’s no shortage of places where attendees can interact and build community.

Want to know what attendees think about meeting on a cruise ship? Our sister company Landry & Kling has planned and operated several conferences at sea for Microsoft. Here’s some sample feedback they received from attendees at the Foundations of Digital Games meeting:

“As always, some of the best parts of the conference were the conversations outside the sessions. It was an intriguing collection of folks, and all of them were right there — not rushing off, always at the same restaurant as you, often bumping into you in the hallway, sometimes in the same bar as you.”

“I was rather hesitant about how the cruise ship was going to work with the conference, but it turned out that putting a bunch of people…onto a ship encouraged lots of discussion that may not have occurred if we were all off wandering around a city and finding different places to eat.”

“The ship-board environment fostered a sense of community among attendees in a way that I have not felt at other conferences.”

Other articles you might like:

How to design more impactful meetings

Finding connection at sea – with people, not computers

Why it might be time to ditch your one-day conference

Filed under: Meeting & Incentive News, Miscellaneous