“And they lived happily ever after.”

It’s the classic ending of many children’s fairy tales. It wraps up the story nicely, alluding to the fact that all the character’s problems have been solved as they ride off on white horses into the sunset.

Some people prefer a happy ending. Sitcoms wrap up problems in less than thirty-minutes and all is well with the world. Yet, we’ve all seen a great movie that was ruined by a poor ending.

When telling stories, a good beginning pulls people in and a great ending leaves a favorable impression.

Most authors agree that a good ending to a story is one that is satisfying to the audience. Those satisfying endings typically reflect upon and connect to something that is present at the beginning of the story.

Do you remember the infamous “Who Shot J.R.?” Dallas season cliffhanger? Or maybe the 1985 Dynasty “Moldavian Massacre?” Or when Pixar’s The Incredibles spoofed the cliffhanger when a new villain, The Underminer, burst into view from underground at the very end of the movie?

So how do you provide a great ending to a full- or multiple-day conference? How do you get people to attend the last session and not leave early? Many of us attendees often leave early because the last session or party is not compelling enough to keep us there.

Do you provide a cliffhanger moment that gets everyone talking? Do you wrap it up nicely with “And they lived happily ever after…is only the beginning?” Do you provide a final night party with big name entertainers and drop the next morning general session? Do you provide a closing general session with a marquee name?

Most conference organizers have faced this dilemma and continue to wrestle with it today.

That’s exactly what Dave Lutz (my boss), Stephen Nold and RD Whitney faced when designing the last session of the March 24-25, Chicago MTO (Meetings Technology Online) Summit at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare. After one and half days of networking and education on social media and technology for events and tradeshows, the presenters were stuck with the typical conference dilemma, “How do we end this conference and get people to the last session?”

Here’s what they (with my help) are trying to keep people around and deliver value.

The Ultimate Not-To-Be Missed All Things To All Attendees Wrap-Up

This is not your Grandmother’s final closing session. Taking a cue from GenX and Millennials digital, horizontal peer-to-peer learning preferences, we’ve designed an unsession, with untraditional, unconventional elements and under-utilized experts: YOU. Bring your open mind to this session and be prepared to do some unlearning in this unconference-styled session.

You’ve sat for several hours today hearing and learning about new things, new ideas, and new ways to do your business. So what? Really, what are you going to do with all of that information now? Forget about it? NOT!

This is the opportunity for you to rehash, recap, revise old thoughts and revolutionize the way you do things in the future. Come prepared to discuss with your peers the most valuable parts of the conference. You’ll be given the opportunity to explore how to apply the concepts you’ve heard and get a deeper understanding into the important take-aways.

And if you act now, by attending this wrap-up, you’ll receive extra, at no charge, this amazing cherry on top addition: a discussion on the Data Standards For Tradeshows and how it will further the industry.

So don’t miss this once-in-a-conference-lifetime opportunity as it will never be replicated again. Seriously!

What do you think? Is this ending conference session compelling enough to keep you until the end of the day? Would you stick it out and take a later flight or sit in traffic for 30 more minutes? What can conference organizers do to keep people until the very end? What have you tried? What was successful for your audience?

Oh, and by the way, please join Dave, RD, Chris Brogan and Stephen at the MTO Summit, March 24-25, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare. Check out the full schedule, speaker lineup and the great registration rate of $125.

Here is the slidedeck from my presentation to EventSolutions 2010 on Catalyst Conferences: How To Plan and Produce Next-Generation Conferences And Events.

People today are learning in new ways that are both collective and egalitarian. They contribute to Wikipedia, comment on blogs, teach themselves programming and figure out work-arounds to online video games. They follow links embedded in articles to build a deeper understanding. They discuss issues in online chats in an interactive and immediate exchange of ideas. All of these acts are collaborative and democratic, and all occur amid a worldwide community of voices.

So how does this affect the traditional conference or event? What about the typical one to many presentations with a sage on the stage and a passive listening audience?

Conference organizers should capture and apply these new social and informal ways of learning or risk seeing their conference education become obsolete. Today’s learning is interactive without walls. Conference organizers can view themselves as conduits for their attendees’ education endeavors and help facilitate participatory, interactive and connected learning environments.

Engagement.

When you read that word, what does it mean to you?

I was talking with BeEvents’ Ray Hanson, Event Solutions Publisher Meredith McIlmoyle, Pink, Inc.’s, Deb Roth, and Conference Content Strategist and Emcee Glenn Thayer at Event Solutions Conference this past week. During our conversation, someone dropped the “e-bomb: engagement.” There it was resting on our ears and brains as if we each understood its depth and meaning. The all allusive, slippery 21st Century e-word. Engagement had announced its arrival once again.

I asked the $64 billion question. What does engaging a conference attendee actually mean? What does engagement look and feel like?

During our time together, several others joined and left the conversation. Our discussion was fluid and always changing directions as we deconstructed attendee engagement and others added their input.

To some, it meant that a presenter was engaging. The presenter had good eye contact with the audience, proper presenter body language and adequate inflection in their voice that appealed to the listener and viewer.

To others, it meant the obvious: a promise to marriage and the period of time between proposal and marriage. Ironically, Elizabeth Beskin was in Vegas at the same time at the Wedding Photographers Conference and joined the conversation as well, thus her spin on engagement.

Some said it meant that the presenter had a high energy and so much stage presence that it captured the attendee’s attention and became engaging.

Still to others, it meant that the presentation was hands-on, interactive allowing the attendees to talk with each other, discuss the presentation and maybe even do something. It was more than a panel allowing audience question and answer.

Before “engagement” becomes another overused business cliché done to death, how can conference and event organizers create engaging attendee experiences in a 21st Century digital world?

I believe that the future of conferences and events is about engaging attendees more than corralling them into general sessions and commanding them to sit, be quiet, listen and learn. People want to be engaged in conferences that help them work with a purpose. They want insight into how their conference attendance is linked to their work and ultimately to larger organizational and societal goals. Attendees want to know where they fit into the industry and how to continue to succeed. They want to connect with each other on a higher level than just a passive conversation held in the hallway or tradeshow booth. Engagement requires a level of participation rarely experienced by attendees at most conferences and events. Engagement means active involvement and not passive contributions.

I’ve been reading Stanford Professor Byron Reeves and physician J. Leighton Read’s Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete. It’s about how massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) like Halo, Mafia Wars and World of Warcraft will change careers, companies and competitions…and I believe conferences, events and face-to-face meetings. (If you don’t have any idea what I’m talking about when I mention those games and are more familiar with Pinball Wizard, Pacman and Space Invaders, go ask your kids what multiplayer online games they play.)

More than one hundred million Americans and many more around the world played a computer or video game last week with levels of engagement and focus rarely seen at face-to-face meetings and events. (Online Gaming Report 2008) The hours flew by for people immersed in sophisticated online interactions.

These new MMOGs represent a high level of interactivity and continued refinement. Digital play is already engaging and will continue to improve. Great MMOGs have light-speed pacing, constant feedback, transparent levels and reputations, compelling narratives and interesting methods for self-representation in action.

So why do people play these online games? Why are people willing to spend so much time in these games? Nick Yee’s 2006 study the Demographics, Motivations and Derived Experiences and two subsequent studies by Richard Bartle and Thomas Malone categorized two types of reasons: personal and social. Personal motivations include achievement, immersion and exploration. Social motivations include competition and socialization.

These reasons sound very similar to the reasons people attend conferences, events and face-to-face meetings. Yet these MMOGs have found a way to get people involved in cooperative explorations that afford an opportunity to begin a social relationship.

I think the key to successful future conferences, events and tradeshows are designing experiences that include elements of successful online games: achievement, competition, exploration, immersion and socialization.

What do you think? What experiences have you had with online games that you wish conferences and face-to-face events provided? What lessons can conference and event organizers learn from online games to provide more attendee engagement?

A little over four years ago, I left the C-suite to begin the next chapter in my life. During my first few months, I had the opportunity to do some serious soul searching and self discovery. Like many of you, I have a passion for learning. I initially focused much of my reading around increasing my knowledge of what makes a great vs. mediocre leader. You know, things like humility, drive, vision, character, servant’s heart and excellent communicator.

Not too long into it, I had an ah hah moment. While I thought I had strong communication skills, it occurred to me that if I wanted to take things to another level there was one major area that I needed to improve. I learned about the incredible power of storytelling and how using stories was a part of the secret sauce for the best of the best.

I’m still not great at storytelling, but am getting better. The more I tell my clients how they can incorporate and benefit from it, the more I tend to use it.

Last week, Jeff and I received a copy of a storytelling whitepaper entitled Bold Brands Drive Revenue with Storytelling. It was written by NCM Fathom who helps major brands convey their messages through events at their national network of movie cinemas . The storytelling topic always catches my eye and this is one of the better short reads I’ve come across on the topic.

Here’s an excerpt taken from whitepaper that jumped off the page for me:

Good Stories Compel People to Change

1. The way we feel. Stories demand an emotional investment.
2. The way we think. Stories pique and hold interest.
3. The way we act. Stories bring energy to the message.
4. The way we behave. Stories cause us to take action.

DNA of a Great Story
Things around us are changing at a rapid pace and storytelling is a great tool to help accelerate and enable change.

A great story will include these elements:

1. Real people like your members, attendees or exhibitors.
   Don’t just look for those in leadership positions.
2. A difficult problem or challenge.
   What are the top three issues impacting your attendees’ business success? What are the real reasons members don’t register or exhibitors decline to show their wares? Are the challenges different for each of your primary segments? Consider stories for each.
3. How did participating in your events help them solve their problem?
   Details are important. Err on the side of brevity.
4. A powerful emotional connection.
   This is what really makes your story have an impact or even go viral. Work hard to find that emotional hook. Stories that have a strong emotional ending are usually the ones that have the greatest impact.

Putting the four elements of a great story into practice.
Associations that adopt storytelling will have a process and culture for collecting and sharing the best stories.

1. They’ll make sure that their staff, board and committees antennas are always up looking for that “killer story.” (Seeking real people.)
2. They will ask open ended questions searching for a deeper understanding of attendance benefits. (Understanding a difficult problem or challenge.)
3. They might seek out attendees or exhibitors that were on the fence, attended anyway, and are ecstatic they did. (How participating in your event helped the attendee solve their problem.)
4. Their culture will encourage the use of Flip or digital cameras to capture the emotion. (Providing the emotional connection.)

Much like target marketing, you want your stories to be as relevant as possible. Segmenting your audience and doing your push distribution to only those that it aligns with is critical. If it’s a great story, those that connect with it most, will spread it for you.

Has storytelling had a positive impact on your organization or your life? When you think about the best leaders and their traits, is storytelling one of the skills that made them special? Got any cool stories or storytelling ideas to share?

Some of you asked for the slides from today’s PCMA’s Info On The Go Webinar on Engaging Attendees Today: How to Combine Virtual and Face-to-Face Meetings.

Read Michael McCurry’s recap of the Webinar. The full recorded webinar will be available soon at PCMA’s Online Learning Center.

What questions do you have about virtual and hybrid events. What questions do you have about livestreaming? Fire away and we’ll do our best to answer them–and I suspect the community will have answers too. And share your experiences, fears and concerns about livestreaming and hybrid events too.

America has a love-hate-relationship with American Idol.

We boo the negative naysayer and painfully honest founder and judge Simon Cowell. Although we often secretly agree with what he has to say.

We applaud the effervescent Ellen DeGeneres when she says she likes a finalist and compares them to an unripe banana. Although we know she is struggling to find something positive to say when a singer does a poor job.

The entire process of finding the next American Idol is very similar to the process of finding the right speakers for your conference. It takes an extraordinary amount of time. And it can be extremely frustrating as you often have to review a lot of losers before you find a winner.

So how do you identify a winning speaker and know that your audience will agree. Let’s take some tips from the American Idol Playbook to see how those judges sift through the bad and mediocre performers to find the outstanding gems and diamonds in the rough.

1) American Idol judges say: You’re a bit indulgent, aren’t you?
You know these speakers. They’re the ones that are over-the top, selfish and pleasure-seekers. They are there to serve as a mouth piece for their company, their books, and their products. They have the famous bright white speaker smile and handshake.

Speaker selection takeaway: You want a speaker that is transparent and that provides a presentation that is content-rich with relevant information that will help your audience succeed, not one that is clearly there to sell their books.

2) American Idol judges say: That was completely forgettable.
Quickly, can you name one highpoint from the last keynote presenter you heard? Probably not.

But how can we forget, “Yes, we can.” Or “Ask not what you can do for your country.” Those are memorable.

Speaker selection takeaway: Find a speaker that has a memorable presentation that arouses the brain and uses some good adult learning techniques such as repetition, audience participation and storytelling.

3) American Idol judges say: That sounded like a random act of copy cat Karaoke.
It sounds all too familiar, like rehashed, refried, regifted déjà vu and in the end, it’s still just black beans. You might hear an attendee leave this presentation and say something like, “Frankly, we’ve heard better people outside of the subway station on their soapboxes.”

Speaker selection takeaway: Find a speaker that has a message that is unique, compelling and memorable not a carbon copy cookie cutter faux presenter.

4) American Idol judges say: That was very authentic and true to who you are as a performer.
How sincere is the speaker? Does their message feel like a slick, snake-charmer, potion carrying, slimy used car sales approach? Or can you tell by the way the presenter interacts with the audience that they are speaking from the heart, are genuine and the bona fide real thing?

Speaker selection takeaway: Find a speaker that is genuine, realistic, legitimate and sincerely honest. This is one that connects with the audience.

5) American Idol judges say: You have no charisma or stage presence
“I think you are amazingly…wait for it…wait for it…dreadful. I don’t think another human being on the planet will ever sound or act like you.” Ouch! Honest and to the point.

Can you imagine the American Idol judges saying, “Wow, those words were so good, even though you didn’t sing them with much meaning and you couldn’t connect to your audience, you’ll be the next American Idol for sure. America will love you.”

Not! They probably would tell the candidate, you can’t make it on stage but obviously you’re a good song writer, so go write songs.

Speaker selection takeaway: Find a presenter that has great delivery and communication skills such as good eye-contact, appropriate gestures, and correct body language.

Need more help understanding good delivery presentation skills when selecting a speaker? Start with CommCoach: An Online Video and Speech Resource by Professor Corinne Weisgerber for tips on what to seek in a speaker with good delivery.

6) American Idol judges say: Yo Dog, I like you. I like your smile and your look. Unfortunately, that wasn’t very good for me.
We’ve all seen the judges struggling with something positive to say about these finalists. Their looks are attractive and they dress trendy. Unfortunately, it stops there. The judges remind them that it’s a singing competition and in the end, the audience won’t vote for them just based on looks.

Speaker selection takeaway: Choose a speaker that has a memorable message that hits it out of the ballpark. Your attendees want more than just a message that is a bag of air and looks good on stage.

In Conclusion
Ultimately, on American Idol it’s all about viewers picking up the phone or texting their vote for a finalist. For your conference, it’s about your attendees voting by picking up the evaluation and letting you know that they feel as if they got their money’s worth…and returning to next year’s event.

If your attendees are like the ones at my conferences or events, they will complete an evaluation if the speaker is outstanding or painfully terrible. If the speaker is really bad, and I mean really bad, you’ll hear about it for sure.

If the speaker is mediocre or average without much depth to their message, the attendees usually won’t take the time to complete the evaluation. They walk away with a “So what, apathetic attitude.” They weren’t moved to tell you how they feel or what they learned. You didn’t move your audience to vote.

So heed some advice from the American Idol judges to move your attendees to vote, return to the next show and find the winning American Idol Conference Speaker.

What other American Idol speaker takeaways would you add to the list? Share them with us.

Consider your association’s education and conference content.

Does it resemble a vibrant, youthful, buzzing community, like the always open 24-7 New York City? Or does it resemble an old ghost town with dust and tumbleweeds, a city stuck in the past refusing to change with the times?

Now let’s take that further. So, which do you prefer for your association to provide at your next annual meeting and programs?

• Content from the “Good Old Days” – featuring sessions and stories from the best of times from past conferences and events, where nothing ever changes, is predictable and always stays the same, the mediocre, status quo average content

        or

• Content that features what’s “Now, New, Next” – cutting edge, innovative, fresh content that is unpredictable and full of surprise and that you need in order to keep your business out in front of the competition

Which type of conference content will cause you to commit your time, energy and dollars for registration, travel, lodging and expenses? A conference stuck in the past or one with vibrancy and new life?

Better yet, what type of content will attract more people to your annual conference? What type of sessions will get your attendees talking? Content which is familiar, safe, common and successful from the past? Or content which leads you to the front lines where the action is, the frontier of success and showcases what’s coming down the pike?

So how would you describe your association’s conference content? Is it New York City or a Western Ghost Town?

Consider New York City for a moment.  Amazingly, improbably, New York City works.

Vast throngs get from here to there, earn a living, find food, push baby strollers, play softball, bake wonderful breads, walk along at different paces, and, except for occasional outbursts, do so peaceably.

No one factor makes it happen. But one seems critical: this city allows the mighty to fall. Everything can be changed: buildings torn down or renovated, enterprises relocated, vistas altered, land filled, land emptied, streets and neighborhoods given new character, cultural icons like Madison Square Garden moved, Times Square reborn, The Plaza converted to condos.

By allowing even the mightiest to fall, New York City remains alive. Yesterday doesn’t rule today. The dead don’t control the living.

History buffs lament the losses, and former residents seeking nostalgia will find few wafts of yesteryear. But that’s life. That is what it takes for life to happen. Yes, some new buildings and venues are grotesque. But they must die of their own weight, not because the nostalgic prevented them from happening.

Civilizations, institutions and people worry about losing their history, not giving their history its due. As a history buff, I know Santayana’s famous saying about needing to learn from history. The greater danger, however, is losing the future. If New York City couldn’t allow itself to change, if yesterday’s mighty were given control of tomorrow’s needs, the city would die.

Meetings and event organizers are at this very crossroads. Protectionists of the way things were always done, look backward, seeking unalterable truths to make today more certain, less dangerous. Others keep waging the same association and conference wars, as if nothing had changed since they first embraced this or that cause. Today’s association boards often resist change that would welcome tomorrow’s growth. They cling to old ways, old science, old properties, and think themselves righteous for protecting the past.

People want and deserve living bread, living water, living hope, not museum tours and old-school posturing. The mighty do fall, and then life moves on. Conference organizers must embrace the new, try different room formats, pick innovative fresh presentation concepts, and embrace new ideas and ways to deliver content. Associations can’t continue to lament the way things used to be done, better times of the past and let the old dead processes control today’s living.

So is your association conference content a sign of the way things have always been done, protecting the past as the ghosts of yesteryear haunt the conference headquarter halls? Or is your association conference content providing nourishment, new ways, new ideas, new perspectives and what’s coming next? Is your content attractive to the next generation or only those from the past?

Why say all this? Because tough times require a tough reliance and devotion to moving forward and not backwards.

How would you describe your association and its education endeavors? What can you do to help your favorite association move forward? How can you help them become more cutting edge?

Imagine you are going to hear Martin Luther King’s memorable “I’ve Got A Dream” speech for the first time, live and in person.

You grab your time machine manual and follow its instructions. You step into your time machine and set the location for the steps of the Lincoln Monument and the date for August 28, 1963. You put on your seatbelt, push the flux capacitor button thingy and away you go.

As you open the door of your DeLorean, you find yourself in a New York Subway. There standing on the steps is Martin Luther King getting ready to deliver his speech. Just as he starts, a subway car speeds by and its doors open. The voice of others and speeding subway cars drown out King’s speech. You can’t hear him for all the noise and distractions.

You’re think you’re dreaming and then look down at the time machine manual. In fine print you notice a caveat that says, “Using this machine may cause strange time warp malfunctions with locations, date and time. Use at your own risk.” “Hello? Hello? Anybody home? Huh? Think, McFly. Think!?

How are you going to hear MLK’s famous speech if the environment is not appropriate for his presentation?

This silly analogy references just one of the things you as a conference organizer can do to help improve the content: improve the presentation environment. (See number 11).

Here are 13 things you can do now, to improve your conference content for your next meeting.

1. Offer instructor training for industry speakers.
Most industry speakers are chosen for their expertise and knowledge, not their good presentation skills. Typically, their presentation skills are severely lacking. Follow the lead of Lynn Randall of Maritz Travel which is now training all of their speakers in the Neuroscience of Presentations. If you consistently offer instructor training for several years, you are investing in your members and ultimately everyone benefits.

2. Require Learning Objectives (LOs) for all presentations.
You don’t start traveling without a goal in mind of where you want to go. So why do we allow presenters to ramble through presentations without several LOs of what they want their attendees to learn. All public education teachers identify the LOs for every 60 minutes of teaching. So why don’t conference organizers require LO’s for every presentation?

3. Have attendees evaluate whether the presentation matched the marketed description and whether the presenter met the learner objectives.
We’ve all attended a session where we look back at the conference program to make sure we are in the right room because the speaker is presenting something entirely different than what was marketed.

4. When evaluating presentations and presenters, at a minimum use the following criteria:
      a. Facilitator’s Knowledge
      b. Facilitator’s Delivery Style
      c. Pace & Timing
      d. Program Content
      e. Relevance
      f. I will be able to apply what I’ve learned.

5. Set a goal for an overall average favorable score of all your conference speakers.
Let your speakers know that you’ve set a goal of an overall average speaker, such as 80% favorable. Tell them they will be evaluated, ranked and judged upon their score. The following year, move that overall average favorable score up a few points to help improve the presentations of your speakers. You also can use the scores to select industry speakers from past years. For example if an industry expert scores 70% favorable, they need to improve something in order to be considered again in the future.

6. Set performance standards for all professional paid speakers.
It’s amazing that we pay speakers the same fee whether they succeed or fail. When negotiating a speaker’s fee, consider a performance standard clause in their contract. For instance, if their normal fee is $5,000, tell them you’re willing to pay the full fee of $5,000 if they score 90% favorable or higher. If they only get 80%-89% favorable, you’re willing to pay them $4,000, etc.

7. When securing a speaker for multiple gigs, place a performance cancellation clause in their contract.
Set a minimum overall average score you are willing to accept, say 80% favorable, and if the speaker scores less than that on the first presentation, you have the right to cancel any future speaking gigs without additional payments. This puts the pressure on the speaker to meet the attendee’s expectations and needs.

8. Release a public comparison ranking of all your conference speakers based on the evaluations.
Let all speakers know you will be doing this in their conference contracts. Then release the overall average favorable score, the number of attendees and the number of submitted evaluations.

9. Require all paid speakers to customize their presentation for your audience.
Include a clause in their contract that the speaker is to customize their message for your audience and industry. Have them interview at least four members of your organization to understand the audience better.

10. Stop using famous people and marquee names to put butts in chairs.
That doesn’t work. Very few people, if any, attended an event because of your keynote famous presenter. Secure relevant, business related keynote presenters.

11. Improve your presentation environment.
Look carefully at the rooms you are using for your presentation. What’s the lighting like? Are their poles or chandeliers in the way? What room layout are you using? Is there proper AV?

12. Set your keynote sessions in chevron or semi-circle.
Instead of viewing your general sessions as a way to get the most people in a room as possible, consider what would be the best attendee seating experience as possible. If you have a large, rectangle room, putting people in long row is not the best experience. Find ways to bring the audience closer to the speaker and for attendees to see the eyes of other participants.

13. Include a discussion breakout about the keynote presentation immediately following the general session.
If the presenter was good, people want to talk about it. They want to digest it and engage with the content and each other. Encourage it and secure moderators or table facilitators to help lead those discussions.

What content and education tips would you add?

Dear Association X (insert your association name here):

I have been a member of your association for several years. I am writing this open letter to you about your annual conference and event speakers, and how they map to my professional development needs.

For the past several years, I have attended your annual meetings and listened to your speakers. I have walked into your general sessions and listened attentively to your choice of keynote speakers. I have sat there and wondered why you chose that speaker and what you were trying to convey, especially if it was the opening general session or luncheon speaker.

And, I’m still perplexed.

I don’t understand why you have paid five- and six-digit fees to secure marquee names like Nancy Brinker, Jeff Corwin, Bill Cosby, Nancy Grace, Jay Leno, Collin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Barbara Walters or any other famous person. We can turn on the TV or click on a website and watch these people any time. Unless they have something specific to say to my job, my industry and my work, I don’t want to hear them. And your insistence to use them only repels me from attending these sessions.

So why do you keep hiring speakers for your general sessions that are not relevant to my professional life? Do you actually think that a big name famous person helps convince my boss that the company should pay for my attendance to your event? Do you really believe the bull from that the speaker bureau representative that the marquee name will put butts in chairs?

So does that marquee name cause me to want to pay for your registration fee? NO! Actually, it causes me to question whether you really know me, my wants and needs. It makes me wonder if you understand your members and our work at all.

OK, I agree that some sports figures will put butts in chairs. And some politicians will too. So when you put a big name like Sarah Palin or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on your agenda for a general session, you will attract an audience. And you will also divide your audience because your speaker cannot speak to the industry without taking political sides. So you attract half of your membership and distance the other half. Is that worth it?

Yes, I understand that you’ve negotiated a great discounted rate with the speaker’s agency. And yes, I understand that your intentions are to motivate and inspire me. And yes, I get that the speaker may have a worthy cause such as the environment.

But seriously, what does their “universal message for the masses” have to do with my professional and personal life? Will it help me do my job better? Is there relevant practical information provided in their speech? Is it memorable? Are their takeaways I can apply immediately?

Or is their message another moving moment of cotton-candy fluff? Is it a message that tugs on my heart strings, get’s my emotions going and I promptly forget as I walk out of the room?

And when you pick four or five professional speakers that talk about “universal messages” and don’t customize anything for your audience, I feel like you’ve made a deal with the speaker bureau to showcase speakers so others will hire them. If I wanted to go to a speaker’s showcase, I would. If I wanted to attend a day of “Motivational Messages,” I would.

And why do you allow speaker selection by committee or board members? Why do you crowdsource the speakers? Why do you continue to take speaker proposals and only select speakers from those proposals?

Do you pick the conference location and venue by committee? Do you pick your AV team and food and beverage by committee?

Of course you don’t! You allow the experts, those skilled in hotel contracts and negotiations to secure your venue. You depend upon your meetings professional to work with the local venue’s chefs or catering managers to choose the right food and beverage for your audience. You hire an AV company that has expertise, great equipment and strong opinions on how to make your event shine.

So why do you insist on allowing the content, the meat, the main product of your conference to be chosen by committee and board members? Oh yeah, it’s political and those people think they know best. But does that serve us, your members?

Don’t you think you should allow experts in education, speaking and training to choose your content and meat? Don’t you think you should allow those that are skilled in finding speakers that understand the neuroscience of presentations help guide your content? Don’t you want people who have experience with adult education helping design your general sessions?

Sure you do.

So, stop it. Stop the madness now. Stop choosing marquee names unless they have something specific for our industry. Only bring us a big name if they are willing to customize their canned speech for the conference’s theme and the industry. Stop fooling yourself that a motivational message from a speaker of a feel-good cause is the right thing to do. It isn’t! It only works if the audience profession is related to that issue.

Of course you should still offer a call for speaker proposals. Sure you should still take suggestions from your speaker’s bureau rep. Absolutely, you should allow your annual conference committee to have input and score speaker proposals. And yes, you should crowdsource topics–not speakers–topics. And you should leave the final content and speaker decisions to a team of experts, not the Board, the committee or even the Association executive.

Just remember, as the association, it’s your job to get out in front of the industry and lead us. It’s your job to show us what’s new and next, not what’s now and yesteryear. It’s your job to lead me, your member to new ideas and better ways of business. It’s your job to bring us relevant, timely, current information. It’s your job to secure experts at molding the conference content.

If you don’t, I’ll stop going to your conference. And, I’m not the only one that will stop. Many of my association friends will too. We’ll say you’ve become status quo and not connected with your members.

We’ll use the “I” word. We’ll say you’ve become irrelevant.

And as my association friend Jeff De Cagna says, “What could be a clearer indication of your irrelevance than the announcement (and subsequent debate) of your own relevance?”

Signed,

Your dues-paying member.

Can your conference content boogie?

Is its SPH (Sessions Per Hour), similar to BPM, contagious, and trance-like making everyone want to sway to its beat? Does your content have an infectious swing and shuffle rhythm that makes the heart beat faster, toes tap and the booty shake more? Does it have a rockabilly, blues, boogie-woogie wow factor? Does everyone suddenly jump up and get their groove on and once the content ends the crowd asks for more?

Or is your conference content like the Acid Rock with long instrumental presenter monologues that few in the room find enticing? Or maybe your conference content creates a lot of attendee headbangers–those of us banging our heads in frustration saying, “Why, why, why?” Maybe your heavy metal content creates a subculture of alienation as attendees wonder if they are in the right room, right convention center or right city.

So how would you define your conference content? Boogielicious or headbanging? Maybe country twang?

Now, which type of content would you prefer to hear at your next conference? Boogielicous or headbanging?

All music analogies aside, why do you really attend a conference anyway? Say the first thing that comes to your mind out loud.

What did you say? Networking? Education? To get new leads? The tradeshow? To see what’s new? To get out of the office? Because I’ve always attended? To get more business? To dance the night away? To party like it’s 1999?

If you’re an industry supplier or vendor, you probably said networking, to get new leads, get more business or retain current customers. Yet, if you’re not an industry supplier, you probably said education and networking.

Think about your annual conference meeting. What makes someone decide that they want to attend your event? Unless your attendees are executives, they have to get approval to attend your event from a shrinking professional development budget. They don’t have an endless training budget to become a professional attendee and register for every event that knocks on their cubicle.

So how do they get approval? What process do they have to follow? Do they submit a list of receptions, parties and networking sessions to their boss and say, “We have to be present at these events?” Do they list the marquee name keynote presenters? Do they give their boss a brochure with the city skyline featured on the front cover? Do they submit a list of what worked at last year’s event like, smooth registration process, nice venue, no lines, great food, awesome entertainment and opportunity to party?

No. They submit a list of the education opportunities and content that they and the company can benefit from if they attend. They talk with their superior about what they can learn from the event and how they can apply it to their job. Remember, I’m talking about non-supplier attendees here, not suppliers who might submit a list of attendees of buyers and influencers.

Once they submit a conference request, their boss asks a set of questions before making a decision. Questions like:
A. Can you get this content online for free or cheaper than the registration fee?
B. Are these speakers and their content relevant to your job?
C. Is there enough content there to justify the company paying for your ground transportation, airfare, lodging and expenses in addition to the conference registration fee?
D. Is this conference known for providing cutting-edge, new, next-type content or just status quo content?
E. Will our competition be there?
F. Can you read a book about this and learn more, faster and cheaper?
G. Will you learn enough that you can share with the rest of the staff and help us all do our job better?

As conference organizers, we often forget that one of the main motivating factors for potential attendees to register is the content. Not necessarily the speakers, although speakers with reputations for delivering home run sessions, will help and get people up to groove to it riffs. And speakers and panels with a history of delivering poor presentations will hurt and cause more head thrashing. Just like a great rock-and-roll song sung by poor performers–remember William Hung–will cause the entire song to suffer, so will sessions delivered by poor presenters.

Ultimately, it’s about the heart and soul of any top conference country song–the content. To paraphrase Tammy Wynette, content is still standing by its man!

So, how boogielicous is your conference content? Does it appeal to potential attendee and cause them to want to do the boot scootin’ boogie and say “Great Balls Of Fire?” Or does it repel a potential attendee who says, “You really aint got me going,” because it’s a poor foreign Karaoke-experience of headbangers and metalheads.

So how do you make your conference content more boogielicous? Share your ideas.