Conference Season – Just a thought!

Question, are conferences value for money? last year (2006) our team was (kindly) inundated with invitations from all over Europe, as we are newly formed Consortium it was only right and proper that we attended as many (UK events) as possible, to find the ideal platform for exhibiting our organisation in 2007.

While the venues (Always very posh) speakers and supporting materials are always extremely well organised the challenge from our perspective was finding the top ten from the delegate list in between sessions. Could we locate our needles in the 400 strong haystack? Or read the name on the delegate badges without the aid of a jeweller’s monocle or hidden camera equipment? Not half as often as we had wished.

However that said we have introduced ourselves to some great people doing great stuff but they themselves described feeling unattached from the main objective of the event and were often seen throughout the day on the fringes of the tea and coffee buzz.

Perhaps the irony is that in order to control your sectors message and gain support for your activity with organisations that may not be, but need to be aware of your capabilities to add value, then the answer may lie in arranging your own smaller, concise and more intimately focused event. It could progress your objectives ten fold and may also quickly identify the true needs and future strategies of your hand picked guests. You also have the added luxury of deploying your existing advocates to ensure everyone is introduced to the right people during the break outs.

Please share with us your thoughts and experiences on the best possible shape of a personalised event. I am very positive about the future of our message and the plans that lie ahead in getting our own event of the ground, we’ll keep you posted. Have a great day.