The Future of Conference Events – Looking after the Health of Attendees

4 thoughts on “The Future of Conference Events – Looking after the Health of Attendees”

  1. Luis, Thx for linking to my post at “Future Business”. So many things that can be improved about conferences. I worked in a business that provided speakers for conferences so I have seen a bit behind the curtain. My explanation for your experience is that many conference organizers are trying to squeeze every last penny of margin from their conferences. Where they can cut a corner, they will to save a tiny bit of cost…usually to the detriment of the attendees.

    I am in the process of building a business that will provide ways to consume keynote speakers other than in person. I hope that will be one step in the right direction to far superior conferences. Website for speakerinteractive.com coming in the next few weeks.

    All the best, Swan

  2. Luis–thanks for speaking out on this. I also write about the changing nature of events in an online world, and am struck by the increasing and inherent stress of being at events, whether blogging or attending, while dealing with the pressure to take care of business back home. This is challenging for the nervous system, even in advance of the physical issues you mention. If interested, my most recent post on how Twitter is changing events can be found here: http://www.conferencebitesblog.com

  3. Thanks for the link Luis – hoped you liked the post.

    Love the topic of watching out for the health of the attendees. I think in some cases these shows are still catching up to the users both in services and expectations. One conference I love is Gnomedex because Chris and Ponzi really do a great job on the space, the wifi, having power at every seat and a decent desk/chair combo combined with great healthy food, plenty of hydration and lots of breakout space to meet and talk to folks.

    I have found with one large conference provider that they are still catching up with the users as far as expectations go. The conference quality is great, but the wifi sucks, or you can only plug in at the “charging lounge” which is as far from the action as you could get or the food is a really crappy box lunch.

    There was a day (in the mid 90s) when everyone DIDNT have a laptop and shot video or recorded audio or livestreamed anything. THey were happy that the schwagbag had a pen and pad to take notes with.

    These guys are still catching up 🙂

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