Interactive Events/Conferences - What could/should we do?

Let's tap in the collective brainpower of the members of this conversation. What is the alternative to the "talking heads" and formal 20-30 minute presentations of papers at conferences, posters, demonstrations and the predetermined and limited range of pre-conference workshops. Should we throw the baby out with the bathwater, or combine some of the old with the new? What new conference/meeting formats could/should we have that help small/large numbers of people share ideas/create new knowledge together? How do we maintain academic rigor and at the same time create engaging events/inter-activities. For example,the East Side Institute's Annual Improv conferences, Performing the World, ensure that most people are presenters, performers and participants and have a direct experience of the ideas, methods, theories etc. in the fields of psychology, education, social therapy, community development, cultural studies, business development etc. yet the conferences have only a minor technological component. So how should we change the way we communicate and interact as well as the technologies of interaction?

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Permalink Reply by Alastair Creelman on February 20, 2009 at 7:44am: I think we all agree that there are lots of tools that can be used to enhance conferences but sometimes we can get too distracted. I was at a conference last year where I really didn't meet many people. The problem was that during every break most people were so busy on their laptops and cellphones that it was difficult to start a conversation. If I want an on-line discussion I would stay at the office. At a conference we all want to really meet people but sometimes I wonder if the technology gets in the way. Even in the conference hall it was hard to strike up a converstaion before the session because my neighbours were all deeply involved with their laptops.
One excellent solution I experienced was where we all went to variuos group rooms and had 1½ hours to just discuss whatever we wanted around the conference themes. No need to report back, just discuss. We had 2 sessions of this and it was great - non-stop ideas, tips and debate. We need such oases in a conference to really interact (and we all agreed to switch off our cellphones and laptops!).; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Raymond Rose on February 20, 2009 at 12:56pm: We did that a number of years back with an NSF project CILT. (The project website is still up at cilt.org) We did have some panels, but they were to insure participants had a common background and language, then the panelists, along with the participants got into smaller groups, and depending on group size, sub-groups, to focus on specific topics that were the themes the conference was built around. There was an expectation that teams would create projects based on the interests and resources represented by the team-members. The plus, as this was an NSF project was that there was the possibility that some of the project ideas would get some small funding through the conference.

Sometimes, just a few thousand, for travel, can allow interesting things to happen. We also had projects that didn't need funding, the participants had their own resources, they just needed the conference to put then in contact with others with similar goals/needs.

This was clearly a conference where the event created new knowledge and transfered and applied knowledge.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lynn Anderson on February 20, 2009 at 12:59pm: Cynthia Hollingsworth said:
I'm going to take the "opposite side of the road" approach here and ask your community collectiveness how we can possibly manage to keep up with all of this. I want to be involved in communities such as Ning, create and participate in more interactive conferences and discussions, but between my "she's being paid to do this job" activities and some semblance of family and personal activities, how can any of us manage to e-mail, post, tweet, read, podcast, vodcast, chat, become a virtual world avatar, with any sort of depth without going completely mad? At least my e-mail is intrusive and I must at the least read, file, and/or delete messages, but if I were to just enter each blog, wiki, world, community that I would like to learn from all I would have time to do is click my mouse, I think. Now we're talking about pre, current, and post conferences, too. At what point (or have we already surpassed it?) do we lose the positive values of these tools?

Hi Cynthia, I'm really glad that you addressed the elephant in the room. There has to be some balance between the interactivity that is encouraged in a conference and the limited amount of time in our lives to devote to these conference discussions. This is true not only for the participants, but for the "presenters" who are being asked to present, facilitate, interact or provoke, whatever their role may be. At what point are conference organizers asking too much? But, I suppose finding this balance is going to be part of the learning process that we are going through right now.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sylvia Martinez on February 20, 2009 at 3:18pm: We do tend to hold ourselves back into a few very well known formats - lecture/panel/workshop when there are many others that could be tried. The flip side of this is that people get used to these formats and get nervous when new things are introduced.

I think the purpose of the conference or event is crucial here - academic conferences with peer reviewed papers and proceedings have very different goals and expectations than a conference mainly organized around a exhibition of vendor wares, and there is a wide spectrum in between. (and of course you can have boring talking heads reading their slides at any event)

Even the attempt to extend the boundaries of the event to a virtual space is going to really depend on the purpose of the event, but I haven't seen a lot of success in any of them. I think that you have to have a community with a strong purpose to have a virtual community with a strong purpose. Coming to an event once a year doesn't make you instantly a member of that community, and expecting people to suddenly be a community seems a bit of a stretch.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cynthia Hollingsworth on February 20, 2009 at 3:22pm: Thanks Lynn. I'm not sure what the answer to this is, but it's certainly something that's been on my consciousness a lot lately as I feel like I'm so often slipping behind in learning new methods and techniques in my field, while at the same time drowning in information overload.

Lynn Anderson said:
Cynthia Hollingsworth said:
I'm going to take the "opposite side of the road" approach here and ask your community collectiveness how we can possibly manage to keep up with all of this. I want to be involved in communities such as Ning, create and participate in more interactive conferences and discussions, but between my "she's being paid to do this job" activities and some semblance of family and personal activities, how can any of us manage to e-mail, post, tweet, read, podcast, vodcast, chat, become a virtual world avatar, with any sort of depth without going completely mad? At least my e-mail is intrusive and I must at the least read, file, and/or delete messages, but if I were to just enter each blog, wiki, world, community that I would like to learn from all I would have time to do is click my mouse, I think. Now we're talking about pre, current, and post conferences, too. At what point (or have we already surpassed it?) do we lose the positive values of these tools?

Hi Cynthia, I'm really glad that you addressed the elephant in the room. There has to be some balance between the interactivity that is encouraged in a conference and the limited amount of time in our lives to devote to these conference discussions. This is true not only for the participants, but for the "presenters" who are being asked to present, facilitate, interact or provoke, whatever their role may be. At what point are conference organizers asking too much? But, I suppose finding this balance is going to be part of the learning process that we are going through right now.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Daniel Bassill on February 21, 2009 at 10:45pm: I have hosted a Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago every six months since 1994 with a goal of building connections between those involved in the field, and those who support the work we do. The conference is also intended to create collaboration that leads to work between conferences that resolves some of the problems we all face, such as finding volunteers and dollars. I've create an attendee list so people who register can see who else is coming and make plans to meet them, and so they can continue to connect after the event. I've also created a ning page for the same purpose and for planning future events. I support all of this with an extensive web based library of links and idea.

Through this I hope to connect with people in other cities and countries who focus on the same issues and can add their own time and talent and network to this process, and thus expand the range of ideas, people, and most importantly, public involvement.

Ed Bowen said:
Helena,

I enjoyed your post and for some time now have felt that conferences should not be isolated onetime events but facilitate a before, during, and after dialog. When I'm fortunate enough to do a conference workshop I reach out to the attendees beforehand to (1) try to get to know more about them, (2) help them connect with each other, and (3) explore what their expectations are for the workshop. After the conference I give them an opportunity to continue the connection and sharing via a Ning site. I have found that most attendees appreciate that but few actually continue the conversation. Although the few that do often become part of my network. When I find someone of interest at a conference I will see if they have avenues to continue the conversation via social networking sites. More and more do. I haven't had much success twittering during a conference or maybe its just that I can't find them. I love your ideas and suggestions.

ed

Helena Starc said:
We're working on this challenge right now -- specifically engaging prospective conference attendees BEFORE, during and AFTER the event, especially given the current economy where fewer may be able to travel/attend. Asusuming the event organizers have some sort of online community platform, & a way to notify prospective attendess of this... What do you think of posting event session content pre-event, and asking for burning questions in advance of the typical presentations? What do you think of asking community members to indicate within the community whether they plan to attend, & who they want most to meet @ the event? What do you think of conducting pre-show calls with the scheduled speakers for prospective attendees to meet/greet (whether they end up attending or not?) Seems the ultimate goal of a conference is information sharing, networking, & collaboration with others who've got common interests/goals -- if this is true, are there social media tools which might address these goals?; ▶ Reply to This