Many events have the habit of distributing crappy & useless gadgets, often provided by the sponsors. It gets even worse when attendees get to fight for them (I’ve seen men in suits which -directly or indirectly- had payed more than 2.000 USD for a ticket fighting over who got a cheap cap with the BMW brand on it).
Such a practice greatly hurts the experience of your conference, it says “I don’t care” or “I was to lazy to make something innovative” and in the end transmits a negative -mediocre- feeling. In a way, the only [physical] things that the event leaves you is a cheap one (apart from the memories in your head). Plus in many cases it’s not green nor ethical: many of those gadgets are hardly recyclable, have a short lifespan and a very low cost because they are being produced in a sweatshop in some poor country.
You might argue “everybody does it so why not me?”. Well -I’d answer- because you care about details and want to innovate on just another bad practice.
T-shirt made with reused yarn (by Muji)
I do appreciate when an event gives away a nice or useful product (like the classy Monocle notebook given out at a Monocle magazine meetup). In the past I’ve given out BlackBerries and iPods as a special offer promotional gadget (of the kind “if you buy by a give date you get a BlackBerry – it was a corporate event). Other gadgets I usually like are stickers or T-shirts (with logo, date and country) that act as a stamp that shows that your participation. If it’s about T-shirts, please make them of good quality… and why not from organic cotton or recycled yarn?.
3D printed gadgets
3D printing has been around for many years and now the entrance barrier is becoming much lower and accessible to broader masses. My interest in 3D printing has been pumped up by the near future scenario described in Cory Doctorow’s latest novel, Makers (Amazon link), and a short conversation with Marleen Stikker (co-founder of PICNIC festival, founder and director of the Waag Society which hosts the FabLab dedicated to 3D printing).
International conferences are a sensitive spot for the dissemination of highly contagious diseases like Swine Flu (H1N1), Bird Flu (H1N5) or just regular flu. This is because they gather lots of people and travelers in particular, who have a higher possibility of being exposed to someone carrying it while going to the conference (think of crowded places like airports, train stations, etc).
Not only conferences usually take place in a closed environment where air is being constantly re-circulated but also people tend to meet each other and shake hands (yes, that’s what networking is all about).
One extreme way of reducing the risk of contagious would be not to shake hands at all -as TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington seems keen on (see Hand Shaking Is So Medieval. Let’s End It) but I think there are other more practical methods for doing so.
The most simple way of reducing the risk of catching a flu is washing your hands often, especially before & after going to the toilet and before & after eating. To further reduce this risk I suggest the event organizer provides disinfecting substances at several strategic spots inside the venue.
Hand cleaning product dispenser at Triennale di Milano
Marco Montemagno(blog, twitter)followed the live streaming of Le Web Paris 2009 and was terribly bored. He’s no ordinary spectator though. Montemagno is an Italian technology speaker & evangelist, web entrepreneur, TV host… in a few words a 360 degree communicator that has been running an “internet evangelizing show” throughout Itally called Codice Internet. As most true-heart entrepreneurs, he likes to create (as opposed to destroy) so he compiled a list of 19 suggestions to improve Le Web.
“I started asking myself how it’s possible for a video to be so boring if the speakers and moderators are top level in their business, the content is rich and full of information, the online streaming was excellent and the room was full?” Marco Montemagno
The 19 suggestions issued by Montemagno can be grouped in 3 blocks that are part of the global “event experience”: Format, Show and Interaction. To maintain the correspondence between my comments and those of Marco I will indicate between brackets -like this (1), (2), (3), etc – the link between his suggestions and mine.
The Format
The Format is the structure that holds your event upright and makes it stand out (or not) in the city of skyscrapers made by other events. Like with a building, many elements are at play: design (looks, user experience, etc), functionality, location (venue), the content (who works inside the building)… Marco writes “LeWeb2009 has amazing content ’served’ in a conference format that’s 30 years old”(1)
To associate great public speaking with Steve Jobs is a recurrent cliché (I already wrote about it here)… but it’s undeniable that Jobs’ presentations are remarkable per se, not only in the corporate & technology world.
Carmine Gallo (twitter, website) -a famous communications coach, author and speaker- has made a colossal work by carefully dissecting Steve Jobs presentation techniques in his latest book “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs” (amazon link).
Gallo uses clear and direct language to explain the techniques that you should master and makes no secret about the fact that to achieve that mastery you have to practice, practice, practice… sorry, no shortcuts here. The book is divided in 3 parts or “acts”, each containing a series of short “scenes” that approach every aspect of the presentation method: from planning to writing a headline, from delivering the experience to refining your skills.
The new year is just a few hours away so it’s time to plan which events I’ll be attending during 2010. The event & conferences is blooming like never before, in a way thanks to the internet that allows us to find people with similar interests and meet physically.
I won’t make it to all the ones I want so if I had to make a short wishlist that would be:
I’m also looking forward to participating in some other events, especially in South America and Asia. Maybe some TEDx, Pecha Kucha or Ignite here and there, a couple of BarCamps (though lately it’s difficult to find really good ones). Meet The Media Guru in Milan always offers amazing speakers.
On the Events Calendar for 2010 you will find some of the most interesting ones around the globe.
Before the conference: you promote and try to sell. During the conference: you engage with people and generate real-time buzz. After the conference: you disappear… until you will have to promote your next event. This often involuntary behavior is comparable to the refractory period after sexual intercourse or “the recovery phase after orgasm during [...]
Gary Vaynerchuck (or garyvee for short) is like a nuclear powered volcano with clear ideas: if you start him up on one topic he will erupt in honest, direct and rather colorful descriptions of what he thinks of it, and you will hardly be able to regain control of him. That is probably why so [...]
I recently met Jeffrey Hayzlett, Chief Marketing Officer Worldwide for Eastman Kodak, at the 140Conf in London and we talked about his vision on The Future of Conferences. Jeffrey, who was one of the keynote speakers during PICNIC ‘09, is the rare kind of corporate executive that has embraced social media into his regular business [...]
Yesterday I met Peter van Lindonk, director of the PINC Conference during a workshop and I asked him for his vision on the Future of Conferences.
“The human size of conferences will be emphasized more and more and more [...] the eye to eye, arm to arm, hand to hand meetings will be far more important” [...]
On November 20th 2009 TEDxAmsterdam (official hashtag TEDxAms) took place at the Royal Tropical Institute. In a few words: it was successful and powerful, speakers & contents were first class and the overall experience was blasting (that’s a good thing eh!). Although it was not an official TED event but a TEDx (read here if [...]
GO TED GO! RT @TEDchris: Beautiful sunny morning in Long Beach. Gearing up for TED2010 speaker rehearsals on a crazy-beautiful stage... [link]9 hours ago
so many interesting things happening in the conference world I can't wait to wright about it on conferencebasics.com [link]17 hours ago
RT @SonarFestival: A Taste of Sonar in London Roundhouse:: 5 March SOLD OUT! run for the tickets left! http://www.roundhouse.org.uk[link]2010/02/04
RT @bjfogg: Mobile Health 2010 @ Stanford - May 24 & 25 - text 4 health, iphone apps & more. Save the date. More soon. [link]2010/02/03
