Changing the Genetic Code of Conferences

So there is a wonderful conversation getting underway at Spaces of Interaction: An Online Conversation about Improving Traditional Conferences. As someone who goes to a lot of conferences, this really interests me. As part of looking around on that topic, I found this article about Webstock 2009, a conference that just wrapped up in Wellington, NZ.

The post that caught my eye was one in which people were putting together the business case for attending the conference. I thought they had some nice ideas like (Oh, and keep in mind that my comments aren't directed at Webstock, which I assume is awesome but rather at us in the learning/training field and our conferences):

• Webstock is an unparalleled training opportunity: that's a great claim - what do we think it would take to change it to a metric?
• You’ll be better at your job: again - that's awesome - what's the best way to achieve that?
• The speakers are some of the best in the world - but they should bring relevant messages as well or else they're just marketing fodder. I'll never forget being at one conference where Rudy Giuliani was a speaker - before he was a candidate - not only was he one of the most wooden and dreadful speakers I've ever seen but he also failed to adjust his pitch one whit to map to the audience in front of him.
• You’ll come back better networked - this is awesome but is the conference actually deploying tools. technologies, opportunities to achieve this? Here is a crazy idea - offer a couple of stations set up using something like a CardScan business card scanner - now offer to let people use this station to scan in all the biz cards they collect and email themselves electronic copies of them before they even leave the conference. That is facilitating networking. 
• Webstock is run by people who care: Again, that's great and might sound superficial but there could be something deeper here as well. What if instead of having companies who's biz model is driving attendance to shows and selling booth space - we actually had conferences run by people who may have those elements as part of their model but who at base, care about the industry?

So what do you think? Any hope of changing conferences at a genetic level? What would it take?

Comments

[Dave Ferguson]

Your questions are excellent, Mark, because the claims (terrific opportunity, great speakers, better skills for you) are those made by just about any group arranging just about any assemblage -- including unconferences and barcamps.

I think conferences will go away, right after books and personal vehicles do. Yes, they're going to have to change, but that's true most of the time for most social constructs--organizations, workplaces, neighborhood restaurants.

Megaconferences may indeed be fading--I know ISPI's fretting about their annual spring gathering, and I suspect that's true for many other organizations.

Successful conferences (meaning the people who plan and participate in them) will adopt new models and adapt existing ones -- the social media gurus talk about the uselessness of lecture, then record podcasts.

Humans like coming together, especially when they share interests. Meeting face-to-face to share, experiment, learn from someone's experience, solidify a connection that had been only virtual? That started with the first two Neanderthals who returned to different campsites after comparing hunting styles.

Large conferences (those hoping for more than 1,000 folks, say) have real problems because there's a lot of overhead built in. CSTD's planning a symposium in Halifax for 200 or so, which strikes me as a pretty decent number. If you wanted, you could try to meet everyone; you're certainly not going to get stampeded when the keynote breaks out.

[Jay Cross]

Let me put this as gently as I can: Conferences as we have known them are dead meat.

Why? Ghastly carbon footprint. Discretionary item in the midst of economic catastrophe. Still organized as preacher-and-congregation events. Web 2.0 substitute is a cheap, effective alternative.

Did you listen to the voices at Spaces for Interaction? Tame, well-reasoned, compelling prods for us to change our ways. We can use the recession/depression/melt-down as an impetus to fix something that's still playing yesterday's tune.

Something's afoot here, Mark.

Learning Irregulars may turn its spotlight on this issue. Conferences have been vital for professional development in our business. That's how you and I met, along with the hundreds of people we know in common.

Where you planning on hanging out now, buddy?