Log In
In the July-August Convene issue, editors asked event professionals from around the world to share their sacred cows — those event practices or traditions that they think are out-of-date and need to be overhauled or replaced — and their solutions. Here we share the responses that focus on the structure and programming of events, beginning with what Huong Nguyen, the CEO and founder of Shiloh Events, had to say about the use of badges at events.
Lose the Name Badges for Better Conversations
“Name badges — do we really need them?” asked Huong Nguyen, the CEO and founder of Shiloh Events, in a LinkedIn post. “It’s an industry practice or an event element that every conference [has] always implemented. Since it is an industry norm, it’s easy to never question the necessity of it. Plus, on-site registration process takes a lot of effort.”
Citing a list of pros and cons, Nguyen proposed that for smaller gatherings it’s worth doing away with badges, not only to reduce costs and waste but to encourage a more natural flow of conversation. After testing out the idea at an industry gathering of around 30 people, she came away with some positive notes.
“It was a great move for a micro-event because it encourages organic conversations and points of connection,” Nguyen said. “For example, attendees would be encouraged to ask each other questions …. It will organically go from, ‘Hi, I’m ____, what’s your name? to ‘Where are you from?’ to ‘What company are you with?’ to “What do you do?’
“All of this information is normally on a badge, but it is better to have it spoken to one another to network, and truly connect.”
Josh Henry
Long Conference Days
“When our attendees have flown out to a location to attend a conference, our understandable approach is to make sure they get the most out of their time. Our mistake is that we cram far too much into a short time and we end up losing attention spans, creating less engaged participants, and exhausting attendees before sending them home. By shortening our conference days and/or providing adequate free time during the conference, we ensure that our guests can keep up with work, spend time enjoying the city they are visiting, and make time to engage with one another on their own. How many times have you attended a conference intending to get lunch, drinks, or coffee with colleagues or partners and simply never find the time in the day to make it happen? That’s on us as planners. While it is true that having empty time in your conference schedule means that the spaces you’ve rented are sitting empty, it allows your attendees to refuel and be even more engaged when the conference resumes.”
— Josh Henry, CMP, Meetings Manager and Diversity & Inclusion Lead, SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics
Session Length and Format
Sessions that run for an hour are “too long. Research shows attendees lose interest and struggle to retain the information; 15 to 20 minutes is optimal, with 30 minutes being max.”
The lecture model, in general, should go by the wayside in favor of peer-to-peer learning. “I prefer live discussions among attendees versus someone talking at you.”
— Kerry Crockett, MBA, CPC, CAE, CMP Fellow, DES, President, NPAworldwide
In the past, a plenary session of 60 minutes given by a keynote speaker would be well received. In today’s fast-paced world, attention spans are shorter, and the need for mental breaks is greater. To address session fatigue, we should adopt shorter, more focused presentations with plenty of opportunities for interactive elements. Incorporating breaks and varied activities not only keeps attendees engaged but also improves their ability to absorb and retain information.”
Crammed Education Programs
“The idea is that the more sessions we have, the better, because everyone gets what they want — but that can be overwhelming and by the end of the show you want participants excited and energized. Part of that is festivalization — you have to do business but you create a festival environment so that people enjoy the experience. That doesn’t mean every show should be SXSW, but people are looking for what’s new and different. Many associations just follow an old blueprint for their events — you’ve got to invite the voice of the next gen if you want them there.”
— Carol McGury, Former Executive Vice President, Event and Education Services, Smithbucklin
Networking
“The days of throwing people together in a room with a glass of wine and a piece of cheese don’t cut it for ‘networking’ anymore. Attendees are telling us, through our trends research, they want meaningful connection. To them, this means solving professional challenges together, common and personal interest meetups, and hands-on, topical roundtable discussion groups.”
— Megan Finnell, CMP, HMCC, Senior Director, Strategy and Insights, Freeman
Sherron Washington
Room Sets
“I’d like to see changes within the attendee seating [arrangement]. For example, add some of that expo flair to some of the seminar rooms — not necessarily sponsors selling things, but making it an engaging concept, maybe using the sponsor’s technology or something like that [during the session]. What I’d really like to see is more of an engaging classroom setting, not traditional classrooms. That not only helps the speaker, but helps the attendee too, because now they feel like part of the programming.”
— Sherron Washington, Marketing and Communication Strategist and Professor at Trinity University and Stevenson University
STEAL THIS IDEA
Participants at the 2024 IOC World Conference on Prevention of Injury and Illness in Sport were able to grab some lunch and eat while watching poster presentations at stations set up around the dining area.
Poster Presentations That Engage
“The buzz you can create around your posters is amazing if you set them up in the proper way. Normally, for the IOC World Conference on Prevention of Injury and Illness in Sport, we set up a sort of a hub where you centralize the networking, the catering, and everything. Because poster sessions usually happen during lunch and nobody attends because it’s far away from where you get your lunch, we combined the two [for IOC 2024, Feb. 29-March 2, at the Grimaldi Forum Congress Center, Monaco]. We set up all the poster stations around this hub so that people could get lunch and then visit the poster stations,” said Annalisa Ponchia, CMM, CMP, sustainability manager at AIM Group International. Each of the 10 stations that circled the lunch area had a digital screen featuring an electronic poster that delegates could touch to enlarge parts of the poster, Ponchia said. There were seating areas around the poster stations for delegates to eat their lunch while listening to the presenters or they could visit the poster stations before or after having lunch at the lunch area in the center of the space.
Liz Lathan
Panel Discussions
“There could not be a more useless session in all of conference-dom (the way most of them are run). Let’s put three curated professionals (but make sure two of them are sponsors and one is a customer) in uncomfortable chairs with pre-set questions that they have all rehearsed answers to and have them perform the most boring performance known to man.
“What should change: If you must have a panel, then it should bring people together with different perspectives and while they should know what the topic of conversation will be, having them prepare answers is a snoozefest and prevents open dialogue. Get the panel together for a pre-meeting or dinner to give them some chemistry and make the conversation free-flowing and interesting. Even better, stop with the crappy chairs — make it look like a TV talk show set so it has a completely different vibe. But ideally, you’ll kill the panel in favor of a fishbowl or a more collaborative, interactive session where ideas can be shared with the crowd’s involvement!”
— Liz Lathan, CMP, Co-Founder and CMO, The Community Factory
Single-Speaker Formats
“We’re seeing a shift from set meetings where we sit and hear from one expert leader. Gen Z participants want to discuss topics and be heard or get lots of different sources of information. They’re inquisitive and want panels, site visits, or group discussions so they can hear from lots of people rather than sitting through traditional PowerPoint presentations. Keynote speakers talking uninterrupted are most definitely ‘sacred cows.’”
— Greg Carew, Director of Conferences & Sales, Abbey Conferences and Events
“This is a complicated issue and truly depends on the desired outcome of your event. For us at SPIE, speakers present at our conference with the goal of being published so this requires the singular speaker method. Panels are a good way to bring a bit livelier interaction to a typical single speaker format but is always better when audience participation is part of the discussion.”
— Josh Henry
Adding a Hybrid Layer to All Events
“Can we stop always [adding] a digital format to an on-site event, in case it really is just to tick a box? Those meetings where all your online people have cameras off, you have no idea if they are even listening and in all honesty, your focus as an on-site attendee is really on standards and bring on volunteers that fellow participants.”
— Eszter Mattiassich-Aszody, Head of Global Events, Siemens Healthineers
Listening to Next-Gen
“Our industry pretends to talk about the future and innovation, yet we, the young generation, are often left without a say. We’re suffocating potential by ignoring young voices and fresh perspectives. Let’s change that. Give as a session. Give us two. Let us manage, test, fail. And learn.
“No to rigid schedules, cookie-cutter formats, and tedious event registration processes. Add fluidity and speed. No more panels with the same people and hour-long keynotes. Bring interactivity, new players, new angles, new formats, and fun. No to passive listening sessions, where we all pretend to listen but are scrolling through the latest social media app. The innovation is simple: Prioritize human connections. Keep the peer-to-peer engagement but please, also add exchange with other professionals from other industries.
“Event professionals juggle impossible demands, late nights, and sometimes unrealistic expectations … for very low salaries. We need to value our people and embrace cross-industry talent, or watch our best flee.
“Overall: Streamline everything, make events accessible and not exclusive clubs, where the young generation is left out and without a voice. And please, no more lukewarm buffets, boring awards and dinners.”
— Albert Cerezales Garcia, Strategic Consultant, MCI
Formal Social Events
“Associations are holding on tightly to these social formats as they serve a purpose to tick boxes — awards, speeches, sponsorship recognition …. The reality is that different groups want to go off and do their own thing or catch up with friends. I see more events going the direction of planning smaller informal events and perhaps accepting that other, already formed groups will look after themselves or value their free time more.”
— Greg Carew
“Award ceremonies can definitely be reworked. Even the Oscars, which is often credited as the best awards show in the world, gets critiqued for being too long and boring. The recognition and awards themselves are still important. They give your constituents a way to present their accolades to their peers, and it positions your organization as a credible authority in its field.”
— Josh Henry
Volunteer Leadership
“So many of us rely on the contributions of volunteers to make our associations successful. This is and will always be an important part of the way community support associations work. However, because we all feel the need for volunteers so desperately, it’s easy to get complacent with the quality of volunteers and the quality of our volunteer programs. We either create low-quality volunteers by keeping them in the same roles too long, or, because we’re desperate to get and keep help, we lower our standards and bring on volunteers that aren’t aligned with our missions and values. Putting volunteer term limits in place and reinforcing mission statements can help ensure that we’re keeping our organizations moving forward in a positive way.”
— Josh Henry
Feedback Surveys
“Feedback and KPI measurement is so very important. Can it be more instant? Get a push notification the moment the session is over, so you can rate it before you leave the room — instead of an email that you will come back to potentially a week later (if ever). In the future, live reaction tracking, facial recognition, and emotion analytics can revolutionize this entire area — but data privacy matters will delay implementation here.”
— Eszter Mattiassich-Aszody
Illustrations by Dale Crosby Close
Breaking Free From Convention: Event Pros Offer Their Insights
To learn what events industry practices planners believe are out-of-date and no longer useful, Convene editors went right to the planners themselves via our recent Salary Survey and other interviews. We curated and categorized their sacred cows, and how they would change them, for the July-August issue of Convene. Here are links to more results.
Earn and Learn a CMP Credit
Earn one clock hour of certification by visiting Convene’s CMP Series page to answer questions about all the articles above. The Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) is a registered trademark of the Events Industry Council.