How TED and TEDx are writing the future of conferences

A friend recently shared this great article on TED from Wired, The Big McThink! How TED Became a Consumer Franchise, I’ve blogged about TED in the past (I’m a fan, although never attended!) and I’m sure most people are familiar with the trans-formative effect they have had on many issues. But I think Bill Wasik in this recent article highlights some very interesting aspects of this success, including:

• Putting video online is only the start – It transformed TED as a brand from a conference to a media company and created the worlds first truly global virtual conference, but it’s still only part of the story. It lets the online talks and real world experiences feed off each other and grow. It primes the audience but it’s clear looking at the numbers that people also want to attend the event!

• TEDx’s growth (1,300 events in 134 countries, with more than 800,000 delegates) – The licensing model adopted by TED for TEDx is risky and revolutionary, taking TED from it’s somewhat humble beginnings to buck the industry norm, often the way you win big!

• The TEDxer’s (if you can call them that) – Are engaged in their communities, highly entrepreneurial, and driven to deliver a quality experience beyond the $100 entry fee. Their passion for the event guarantees they find true leaders in their fields that deliver a unique, passionate presentation.

• Speaker acquisition and coaching – the local TEDxer’s are helping coach new speakers on sharing ideas. I also believe TED does significant coaching of speakers. Just being an industry expert or holding the key job title is no longer enough, speakers need to be coached in the art of presenting.  Check out the acquisition process for TED.

• One fundamental rule – no sponsors logos on stage, no one can sell anything during the ‘performance’. Sponsors play a huge part in many events, how they engage with the audience needs to change.

• Bill also highlights some research by Joseph Lampel on how conferences can help focus the mind from the onslaught of information we all receive today. He also points to some very interesting older research on how ‘events’ can shape industries.

• TED may even dictate the future of speaker presentations…

It’s a great article, well worth the read, and insightful look into how our field might develop. No doubt, speaker acquisition, induction, and training for most conferences needs to improve, the relationship with sponsors and the audience also needs to adapt, we need to find more ways to engage the crowd in producing our events and video can help reach beyond the room to drive deeper awareness.  As William Gibson said, “The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed”.

New IQPC Website now live…

Special thanks to our IQPC web team and all their efforts in updating the IQPC website. A few key people stepped up and did most of the work on this in their ‘spare time’.  It’s a great effort and the site looks great.. Thanks!

It’s been redesigned with a few key points in mind:

• Update the look and feel and include more movement, graphics, color, interactivity etc. 
• The idea was to also make it more repesentative of the energy and passion of the people who work at IQPC.
• Add the ability to promote more featured events at a global and local level.
• Add the ability to promote more speakers, and bring them more to the forefront of the site.
• Raise the profile of some of our remarkable content created by some of our remarkable OCM’s.
• Improve our social media integration (this part is a bit of a work in progress…)
• Add email optin for all topic areas.
• Improve the branding / user experience across our online communities.
• Incorporate a new navigation/infrastructure allowing for a global home page.

As always there’s more work to be done… more on that later!

The world longest (& best) infographic on Copywritting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Courtesy of www.abccopywritting.com

 

The Future of Conference Video …Prepare for a Video Sprint!

I’ve written about the emerging part I think video has to play in the future of B2B events many times (Here, here, and here amongst a few…).  

 

 

I believe it can help promote events, enhance the on-site experience, and extend learning beyond the conference room or exhibition hall into the wider community, all of which helps promote your event.

Through an excellent guest post on the excellent site Conference basics (and @gchicco) by Gabriel Shalom, founder of the KS12 Creative Studio I just had an insight into what that future might look like. You can read all about here: http://www.videosprint.net/  (including some great examples) or better still visit this post on Conference Basics and here Gabriel tell you about his business model.

The most interesting aspects of Gabriels model is the image above (I also liked how there wasn’t any shots of a speaker podium or power points, or people entering and leaving the conference hall but I digress). Gabriel outlines how video can help extend the conversation, the sharing, the learning and the networking both at the event, into the hallways, the online back channels, and after the event into the wider business community by leveraging social media. The future of conference marketing involves video, but like all tools, it will be how you wield it that will make the difference.

Boring Boring Boring…

That’s the knock on most business to business conferences… and certainly the main theme in this great piece “The Posh, Predictible World of Business Conferences” by Eric Garland (Thanks @whoisdarwin for sharing). Eric makes some fantastic points, and they are all true.

The challenge is for event organizers to break the “2 speaker/coffee/2 speaker/lunch/2 speaker/coffee/2 speaker /cocktail” mold, and never has the need to do so been so high. If we want our events to resonate with our audience and cut through all the noise, we have to deliver a different experience. Likely it will involve more work not less, including more speakers (talking less), professional moderators, more flexibile agendas, more interaction, less power point, and more immersive experiences that will require different venues and more site tours. 

With this in mind it was also refreshing to see this great concept from our very own IQPC team at Defence IQ: Live vehicle testing at The Internation Armored Vehicles Show. Anything that promises an experience that includes “sinusoidal waves” and “rough goings” is guaranteed to break the mold, you can’t exactly test drive an armored vehicle online.

I also love this: http://www.pecha-kucha.org/ 20 slides, 20 seconds each. Then the PPT gets turned off!

I also think the unconference format holds great potential.

Giving delegates these type of immersive experiences is the future of B2B events!

Speaking the same language?

A colleague recently forwarded me this great video. Sound familiar?

 

it

Lot’s of people like to talk about ‘it’, as in she just gets ‘it’, or he doesn’t get ‘it’, but no one knows exactly what ‘it’ is…

I think ‘it’ is many things:

• Bringing passion to what you do… everyday. (Hint: Turning up isn’t enough)
• Truly listening to your colleagues and other people’s point of view. You don’t have to agree but you have to listen and understand.
• Understanding customers experience with your event and your marketing.
• Not being the expert… always learning… trying new things… challenge all assumptions.

I work with lots of cool people who get ‘it’, understand ‘it’, and try to apply ‘it’ everyday, ‘it’ makes ‘it’ fun!