Tips for participatory conferences - first, think social

David Gurteen, who runs highly engaging free Knowledge Cafes, as well as larger events, offers great tips for making conferences more participatory. First tip that sets the tone for the rest:

Remember a conference should be a social event and should be designed to facilitate networking by the participants.

I agree with that and other advice from David - of which more later - and just wish I had it documented so well for a discussion I had recently with a conference organiser.
She had written asking me to chair a session at an event about digital inclusion - a field I've plenty of ideas about. Nice to be asked - but when we talked further, it turned out I would spend five minutes introducing two others speakers and then managing a follow-up discussion. Much of the conference was the conventional list of Powerpointy speakers.
How about making it a bit more interactive, I asked? Why have a chair plus two speakers in a workshop? Couldn't they just do their own introductions and facilitation? Well, said the organiser, we really want to get as many names on the programme as possible. She said that feedback suggested delegates want to hear about ‘how it is done’ and not have to do it themselves, while adding  "I can personally appreciate that it is often in doing it yourself that you actually learn!"
I know there are those who think that the people who turn up to conventional conferences are just the sort of people who like a day out of the office, but nothing too challenging ... so maybe the conference organiser was right. Perhaps those escaping do need to get agreement from their boss by saying who is on the programme - not what they'll learn. I wondered about trying to engineer a subversive hour of workshopping to show something different at the event, but we weren't able to agree on a sensible format, so we've parted on an "I'll call you (maybe)" basis.
If I'd had David Gurteen's post I could have sent his link and at least felt in good company. He writes:

I have, over recent years, spoken at, attended, chaired or run Gurteen Knowledge Cafes at very many conferences and apart from a one or two notable exceptions have been appalled at the design of the events. And they delegates without exception agree with me!
Too often, talks are packed in back to back, often in multi-streams with little or no time for questions and answers and genuine discussion - never mind - networking among the participants.
Speakers are not sufficiently briefed or disciplined and run over time; insufficient time is allowed for coffee breaks and for lunch and no time is built in to the day for conversation and reflection.
What's worse is that these conferences are so often about 'learning and knowledge management' - the organizers are just not walking that talk!
So this page is one that is continually under development and captures and disseminates some ideas and tools for making conferences more interactive, participatory and engaging and thus better learning environments.
Its still all a bit rough but I hope you find it useful. If you are a conference organizer and would like some help, especially in building Gurteen Knowledge Cafes into your event, then please contact me.

• Remember a conference should be a social event and should be designed to facilitate networking by the participants.
• Participants (do not call them delegates) should sit at round tables, allows discussion, also after each presentation, participants can discuss the talk before asking questions, also possible for them to take part in mini-workshop sessions at times
• Speed networking sessions at start of each day even morning and afternoon - need only  take 10 mins
• Idea of  network badges - a self sticky label on which participants can write a  word or short phrase that says something about themselves  or one of their interests - stuck close to their name badge this helps facilitate networking
• Knowledge cafe as a review process at end of each day or very least, end of last day
• Get  heavy with the speakers up front - and tell them they MUST ONLY speak for 20 mins and then there will be a full 15 mins for discussion and questions.
• At the end of a talk - the  audience are asked to discuss the talk amongst themselves for 5 mins - if tables as a group - if no tables - then turn to a neighbor and then only after they have discussed the presentation do  they get to ask questions for 10 minutes or so.
• Give speakers some good guidelines on speaking - most do not seem to ask themselves "Is what I have to say of any interest or relevance to the audience?"
• Conference Posters (Presentation Posters) sessions for participants : great overview here (download)
• Conversation Meetings
• Open Space Technology Sessions
• If your conference includes vendors then get tough on the vendor speakers - by and large their talks are DIRE!
• Get the vendors into the conference - one on each table - so they become part of things. Maybe even create vendor led Knowledge Cafes -- the vendors are there to share their expertise in a subject area - not their products!
• One wonderful way of capturing the soul and energy of a conference is to take lots of photos and videos. You can do this in such a way that everyone can post their photos to Flickr and thus create a group slideshow. Participants love this and it makes great material for publicizing future events.
• Name badges should  serve one purpose only and that is so that participants can find each other and quickly get to know each others names. The badges should be large and so should the names. Badges also serve a secondary purpose at large conferences in that they are a security pass. However, they should NOT be used to advertise the vendors.at the expense of their prime function. I have seen badges where vendor names and logos totally dominate the badge and where the participants name is in unreadable small print!
• Arrange dinner or other social events if the conference runs for more than one day.

David recommends looking at the Unconference concept, to which I would add see how Johnnie Moore ran an excellent open space event for my friends at Policy Unplugged. I could also throw in Drew Mackie and my instant communities of practice technique (requires flags).
Here's an example of one of David's cafes that I went to, and there's a video of one on David's page too.

Comments

[Carl Reynolds]

Yes, yes, yes. Give lots of attention to satisfying the various senses. Engage the mind and body and appeal to the various learning styles. Live typed recording direct into a blogcast (is there such a thing?) for remote viewers (not the sort that read your mind, just the sort that can't get there) and remote commentators. If it ain't engaging, is it worth doing?

[Rick Perkins]

David's comment on name badges was right on. We have see many smart convention goers wear their own professional looking personalized badge in order to stand out in the sea of overcrowded, vendor provided badges.

Rick Perkins
Recognition Express
http:/www.bestbadge.com