The signs your meeting is from the past (Part 3)

Director of Conference Focus, Max Turpin is sharing his insights on a range of topics with a regular column in BEN. Topics include new generation events and making events effective and valuable.

THIS is the final article of a series where I’m highlighting the signs that the meeting you’re organising or attending is old-schooI and will never reach its maximum potential.

Technology & social media: There’s so much to be said about these issues it will be hard to fit it all in. As such, this is my abbreviated take: As far as the end result is concerned, there’s little difference between not implementing any new event tech at all into your events than implementing new tech or social media that has no purpose and no benefit to you and your attendees. These should not be ‘vanity purchases’ (it will make me/us look good), they should not be ‘copycat decisions’ (everyone else is doing it so we should) nor should they be last-minute afterthoughts. Choices should be carefully considered and strategies planned from the start. If you want your event to have an app, what do you want it to do for you? What benefits will it bring to attendees? If you want your event to have a hashtag (if indeed it even warrants one at all), then promote it throughout the event lifecycle. Forcing the use of new tech or social media engagement onto attendees for no reason is simply annoying and foolish.

Post event feedback: Not collecting any feedback at all is bad enough. Collecting it and then doing nothing with it is even worse. And yet this happens often. Thoughtless feedback forms stacked with conventional, aimless questions are a waste of time. Trying to collect feedback 2-3 weeks after the event is just a bad decision. Collecting it onsite via pen and paper is tedious when it can be done digitally or via an app. Again, careful thought and planning must go into your feedback strategy for it to have value. And why not share the feedback with your attendees – they’ll appreciate you’re taking it seriously and would like to know what everyone else is thinking.

Post event follow up: The event is over, attendees have been back at their desks for several weeks and….. that’s it. Nothing. Crickets. There’s no more news about the event other than perhaps the clichéd gala dinner photos or a banal pic of the CEO or guest speaker on stage printed in a monthly newsletter accompanied by a brief self-appreciating write up trumpeting the event’s success. As an attendee, you receive no personal followup, you’re not sent an event report, a learning summary or action plan. You are given no encouragement to put into motion any new ideas or plans. You are left with your fading thoughts and a notepad full of scribbles to act alone….. or, as many do, simply take no new action at all.