Seven rules for designing more innovative conferences

After speaking at many conferences - many on innovation - I wondered why so few seemed innovative in the way the content was presented. I don't mean lighting and technology. I mean how conferences were designed to ensure that:

• people learned new things,
• people shared their expertise,
• people left with ideas, and
• people did something with their ideas afterward.

What started out as an article for a meetings magazine on designing innovative conferences led to this book based on 'Seven Rules' I defined for designing more innovative conferences. It's a tool kit of ideas, templates and case studies to help you design better meetings and conferences.

Each of the seven 'rules' helps you explore a crucial element of conference design. By using the rules to prompt new ideas, you can create learning objectives that link to the bottom line of your organization.

It will help you make decisions such as: is a keynote speaker better than a brainstorming session involving all participants that generates hundreds of ideas? The answer depends on your learning objectives…and this is the reason why creating a learning strategy is so important.

It's about delivering more return on your conference investment.

With the growth of electronic meetings we need to reexamine:

1. why we bring people together, and
2. what we can create when we bring people together.

Our 'in person' conferences must deliver more bottom line value. The days of planning a day full of motivational speakers are long over.

You should read this book before you think about speakers or entertainment.

Start your planning by asking these questions:

1. Why do we need to bring people together?
2. What do our participants need to know and do to be more successful?
3. How can we engage them to find more and bigger ideas, and act on them?
4. How can we increase the return on their investment?

These answers will help you create a 'learning strategy' for the conference. A learning strategy summarizes the main reasons for the conference and does so in a way that helps you make these types of decisions:

• What mix of speakers, workshops, keynotes and alternatives like idea factories or 'meet the experts' will produce results and engage participants?
• How much to invest in the content in terms of speakers, workshops, tools, books, simulations, and so on?

With a learning strategy in place, you can then focus on managing the logistics and budgets to create a successful conference.

What is an innovative conference?

Everyone wants to think of their events as innovative, but what does this mean? You can use laser lights to bounce the names of speakers and sponsors throughout the room. Is this innovative? While it's entertaining, it's not innovative.

An innovative conference is designed to:

1. Help people find more and bigger ideas at your conference.
2. Prompt people to act on their ideas after the conference.
3. Raise the profile of your organization in the process.

For an event to be innovative, people must engage in a way that leads to bottom line results. Something has to be created, learned or changed. It starts with people acting on their ideas as a goal for all conferences. For example:

• For sales conferences: use new ideas to sell more or to sell in new ways.
• For staff conferences: use new ideas to work together more effectively or use new skills or personal insights that have value to the individual.
• For leadership conferences: use new ideas to have organizational leaders act with a stronger sense and conviction in core values.
• For management conferences: use new ideas to gain a stronger understanding of the organization or its values that leads to greater staff commitment.
• For association conferences: use new ideas to be successful in the coming year and serve members more effectively.

It starts with people reviewing the notes from a conference, reflecting on the lessons and insights, and then acting on their ideas.

Why Seven Rules?

The term 'rule' is used as rules suggest a discipline. Disciplines are something most people dislike but most of us need to get new results. Fitness is a discipline. Creativity is a discipline. Conference design is a discipline.

Every conference needs to manage the logistics of bringing people and speakers together. They also need a learning plan or strategy that aids all decisions on speakers, workshops and ways to engage participants more effectively. This book gives you a framework to create a learning strategy.

What's in this book?

This guide provides a roadmap to prompt (and sometime provoke) new thinking in the design of conferences and it's long overdue. You will find this type of information in this guide:

1. New thinking - each rule presents an innovative insight for you to use when designing your conference.
2. Tips and Case studies - these are real life examples that highlight a specific approach or example.
3. Planning sheets - these are templates to create your learning plan.

Take advantage of this free workshop on the Seven Rules for designing a more innovative conference. It will give some insights of how this book can help your learning strategy with a broad range of ideas, case studies and new perspectives to prompt your thinking.

Rule One - The experts at your conference are in the audience, not on the stage.