In October, we sent out an invitation to a sampling of our Convene readers to participate in a short e-survey. We were interested in learning how you encourage your attendees to engage with each other before, during, and after your face-to-face events, and the extent to which you provide opportunities for them to help shape the content and drive the conversation. These are the areas we explore in our cover package (starting on p. 46) and throughout much of this issue.

The responses reveal that more than a third of you provide space in your education program for open-ended discussion, and that nearly half of you use social media to facilitate a dialogue among your attendees. Here are the specific questions we posed and how you answered:

Who is primarily responsible for developing the educational programming for your annual meeting?
Annual meeting program committee comprised of members/volunteers 47%
Staff/education department 31%
Staff/meeting department 20%

Does your organization currently make educational sessions available online following your annual meeting/conference?
Yes 33%
No 62%
Yes, through a third party 5%

Do you include opportunities in your education program for attendees/participants to shape their own content (e.g., dedicated time/meeting space for open-ended discussion groups)?
Yes 36%
No 64%

How?
Among the open-ended responses:

• "birds of a feather or common-interest group meetings"
• "exchange forums"
• "roundtable discussions"
•  "dialogue cafes where information exchange is part of the learning"
• "guided open-space format for key issues facing members and attendees"
• "using Moodle, we have our presenters meet prior to and after the conference/meeting" (www.moodle. com, an open-source and complimentary course-management system)
• "we invited some of our attendees to deliver a session of their own choosing … session environment was casual geared towards interaction and networking - not presentation-style sessions, but more peer-to-peer interaction around the topic"

In your opinion, has the availability of online content/ education within your industry increased or decreased the need for face-to-face meetings?
Increased 20%
Decreased 15%
No effect 65%

Who Responded: The Convene reader panel, produced in partnership with American Express, was conducted by LewisClarkBoone Market Intelligence. The 383 planners who completed the survey identified themselves as: 26% corporate, 36% association, 10% medical, 12% independent, 1% scientific society, 15% other.