Comments on: The Value of Conferences

By: Matthew Homann

Matthew Homann — Fri, 27 May 2005 02:39:18 +0000

That’s exactly what we did with LexThink in Chicago this April — an invitation-only collaborative brainstorming conference. We are having a few more events this year, and I’ll give you a head’s up when we make the announcement.

By: hyku | blog

hyku | blog — Thu, 26 May 2005 00:57:01 +0000

On a Panel Tomorrow and Why Panels are Useless
I am on a panel tomorrow for a PR conference. Joining me will be none other than Buzz Bruggeman from ActiveWords. With that said, these three posts seem appropriate. The Value of Conferences from Jeremy Wright Death to All Panel…

By: Mutually Inclusive PR

Mutually Inclusive PR — Thu, 26 May 2005 00:45:14 +0000

Making Conferences Better
We’ve all spent too much time at conferences filling time when we wanted to be challenged, enlightened, or at least entertained.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Wed, 25 May 2005 22:59:16 +0000

Oops! I left out to best way for you to get to the “Internet with Integrity” Power Summit http://rightnowseminar.com, trust me you owe it to yourself and your business.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Wed, 25 May 2005 22:53:27 +0000

I agree totally with Jeremy and Stowe’s comments, and I have found a solution or a least one of them. An interactive,up close and personal workshop hosted by the experts in the internet marketing industry. The “Internet with Integrity” Power Summit is a diamond in the rough, and it is in New York this June. Declan Dunn is a dynamic speaker who puts these seminars on 4 times a year all over the country. Take it from me, I attended the one in Atlanta last February, and I actually got to present my business project to the group for feedback. It was unbelieveably helpful, Declan had some awesome insights that opened up my own perspective. Declan and Jody(his partner) are about more than money, they have created a scholarship program for(the not so rich)people who have a desire to learn how to market their business online, through their distance learning platform, check out http://payitforwardrightnow.com. They were willing to pay it forward for me so could attend. I think that their workshop is the kind of confrence that Stowe is describing and more. I suggest you check out the New York “Internet with Integrity” Power Summit this June 24th – 26th, it is sure to please and if not there is a 100% money back guarantee at the end of the seminar. So there is no risk! In short it was the best seminar I’ve ever been to(and I been to quite a few), I wish I could make it to New York but I am swamped with orders, thanks to Declan and Jody.

By: Elisa Camahort

Elisa Camahort — Tue, 24 May 2005 19:55:46 +0000

Hey Jeremy: you'll be glad to know that BlogHer has had "Room of Your Own" sessions on the schedule since we announced the conference in early April. And people have come out of the woodwork with ideas that we, as organizers, wouldn't have thought of. You bring up an interesting point on conference speakers. When I spoke as part of the corporate high-tech world there were two things that were clear: 1. the conferences were money-making endeavors for and 2. my trip was subsidized by my for-profit company...as a marketing effort, since any presentation subtly extolled the virtues of whatever solution we had. Things shift when you're taking about grass-roots, nono-profit events, paid for out of pocket by a few organizers, and speakers who are like you and me...on our own. I mean it is to our benefit to speak and gain credibility, speaking credits etc., so the benefit is not a one-way street, but it's a lot harder to justify when it's just little old me paying for it...I hear you. What we're doing with BlogHer is being totally honest with our speakers and asking them to be totally honest about what they need to attend. Some speakers do work for companies and can consider it a marketing expense, just like I did when I traveled for my old tech company. Some speakers are saying I really can't come without airfare being taken care of. Some speakers are saying, can you find me a place to crash? It's not quite as glam as the days when I (and my company) didn't think twice about flying to Lisbon for 36 hours to speak. But it's amazing what people can do when they are honest and pull together to make something happen.

By: David Paull

David Paull — Tue, 24 May 2005 17:25:36 +0000

Very good and interesting post. I spend a lot of time thinking about this because my company specializes in your #3 item above. We use wireless devices to ask questions of the audience, the responses to which are instantly presented back to the speaker to then drive the session in a relevant direction. As one example, we recently worked on an event where a 90-minute panel discussion was completely driven by how the audience answered questions. Rather than the moderator simply asking the panel members to answer his questions, he asked the audience what they thought on various topics and had the panelists react to those opinions. The result was a session that was incredibly relevant to the audience because they drove the discussion.

We use the same technology to bring some fun and interaction to sessions by dividing the audience and having competitions through questions and activities relevant to the scope of the event. These work particularly well over lunch and people love to compete and win prizes, etc.

What I tell my clients is to interact with their audience, not talk to them.

I actually have a lot of ideas and have done this sort of thing for a good number of events. So, if you’d like to brainstorm, be in touch.