In a recent interview, Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter talked about her "innovation pyramid." That's the mix of efforts an organization should engage in simultaneously: a base of many incremental quick wins and continuous improvements; a solid center consisting of a portfolio of new ventures, prototypes, and projects; and a peak with a few big strategic bets. While all three are important, I believe the base is the most untapped source for additional meeting participant value.

Quick wins and incremental improvements are across-the-board opportunities to increase the meaning and value of each element of a conference. Here are five filters through which you can evaluate your meeting in an effort to identify those doable (and desirable) improvements that won't break the budget.

1. Make it simple. The more complex your meeting is, the greater the need for simplicity. From the way you communicate session options to offering navigational maps for exhibit halls, make it as effortless as possible for participants to find what they need. Make the meeting's offerings searchable by every field possible: date, location, speakers, tracks, session level. You can't always predict what people will find valuable, so make it as easy as possible for them to find it on their own.

2. Make it more practical. Session participants increasingly want quick fixes or boilerplate solutions to their challenges. Coach speakers to connect their ideas to participants' work. Save a few session time slots for late-breaking topics of immediate usefulness. Make sure you are crystal clear what the key takeaways will be for different segments of your membership - from the overall meeting to each individual session.

3. Make it more human and welcoming. Attendees can get to your event without much human interaction (think airport and hotel electronic kiosks), so put the "personal" in their first interpersonal moments. Help them to quickly feel connected to the event and other members of the participant community. Think of ways to make your registration and welcome area more inviting; your lounge areas more conducive to informal interaction.

4. Make the perspective more expansive. Busy professionals most likely stay current on the trends in their field that are the most immediately applicable. They are less likely to stay abreast of ideas, trends, and insights on the periphery of their efforts, the ones often further out on the time horizon. How can your meetings effectively expose them to what they should be starting to think about and not just what they already need to be examining?

Think of your meeting's content as a bull's eye: A concentrated core of immediately useful content, surrounded by several rings of interesting information that is effectively connected to immediate, short-term, and long-term participant efforts. Bringing in relevant ideas and thinking from outside your immediate industry or profession and connecting them to your participants' work environments might be one of the most meaningful contributions you can make to their professional development.

5. Make it more enjoyable. You've seen the studies. People are self-reporting higher levels of anxiety and stress. Road rage is becoming the norm. By being plugged in all the time, people are increasingly feeling the need to check out. Massage stations are just a starter; we need to offer more that caters to harried professionals. From playfully themed breaks and social events that let people reconnect, laugh, and have fun, to short, personal development sessions that engage the person behind the professional, meetings can do much to rejuvenate the spirit.

° Jeffrey Cufaude is a former higher education administrator, meeting planner, and association executive. He currently writes, speaks, and facilitates on a variety of individual and organizational leadership issues. Learn more about his work at www.ideaarchitects.org. To submit topic ideas and feedback on the Leading Learning column, e-mail jeffrey@ideaarchitects.org. Convene's Leading Learning series is sponsored by AVW-TELAV. Visit its Web site at www.avwtelav.com.