Conferences...

I attend 2-5 conferences a year and I was once asked what I get from them and I took pause.

I mostly attend Marketing or Design focused conferences, with possibly one business related conference. And while, yes I have gotten business cards and given out some, its not typically why I go, more of a perk to meeting people face to face.

It's also not the lanyards, though Ive been collecting those in my office as well.

So when this business owner asked me why I attend conferences I gave a half answer, something about inspiration but even as I said it, it felt half empty.

I could easily point out what was different at this conference, and by now I could tell a lot of things about what makes a good conference vs what makes a conference bland and after all this time I can tell you everything that is irritating about the way things are scheduled and always makine attendees feel like were missing out.

He has a design team and while my initial answer was around design and his response was the things he does for them to be inspired.

Conferences offer a way to connect things, people, ideas, tangible thoughts into action. They give us the courage by seeing what other people have done, they connect us to pathways to help our brand, business and ideas evolve.

We can go to see the Lion King play and while its inspiring, how do we connect that experience with our work?

Can we:

• Figure out how to make our work multi-generational

• Learn how to better story tell

• Find a villian and make our audience appreciate it (all brands have villians)

• How do we support what we are doing with added merch, integrations and experiences

• Add emotional attachment or connection

• 
  

In a world where not everyone has gone back to the office, conferences can be a place where we find people that angst over similar things, laughter at knowing the same inside jokes and a chance to learn a lot of new things. Often we cannot read the 100 emails daily with all of the new updates and advances, conferences offer a coles notes.

This is the time we connect with eachother, connect over similarities and differences.

So what makes a conference bad?

• The exhibition halls (poor vendors), I have been to some with horrible vendors and it made me question the integrity of the conference. -- it can be a reflection of what you attract, so put the effort in.

• Lack of bathrooms, there should be 2 nearby access areas with bathrooms reflecting the size of the conference

• Lack of access to water or no beverages. A water fountain is the least that should be offered.

• Scheduling: Its customary to have 1-2 concurrent streams but when there is more or too much overlap of time, it gets very frustrating and can feel like you're missing out or overwhelmed.

• Poor messaging/instructions. Often conferences are large, so communication and instructions need to be very clear.

• Allocation: I have seen people pay for upgraded tickets and not get the benefits because there was not adequate instructions for VIP seating, or other perks, make it clear.