It
amazes me that in this dynamic age of high-technology the experience
for a delegate at the average technology conference is almost totally
passive. Although there are opportunities to network during the breaks,
while conferences sessions are underway, delegates are expected to sit
listening and suffer ’death by PowerPoint’. This is particularly true
afterlunch during the dreaded ’graveyard slot’.
It is
surprising how little consideration high-tech and other business
conferences give to the role of the Chair. The Chair is often not
mentioned in the programme, rarely promoted and expected to do very
little apart from introduce people, often by reading words off a card.
Fortunately this oversight spells real opportunity for organisers to
inject some needed life into conferences simply by rethinking the role
of the Chair.
Viewed objectively, a conference is no different
from any other customer service situation. If you think of the
delegates as customers and the Chair as the person responsible for
delivering the service, the Chair’s strategic and commercial potential
starts to become clearer.
When I first served as Chair for a
supply chain industry conference, my goal was to make the experience
much more interactive and challenging for the senior executives
attending. This wasn’t me trying to impose my will for the sake of it
but a reflection of the way I carried out my ‘day job’ of facilitating
educational workshops within companies. After all, conferences are meant
to be learning experiences and the best way to make this happen is to
actively involve people.
Advice for chairs and conference organisers
How
can a Chair deliver a high level of engagement and tap into the full
value of aroomful of smart, experienced business people? The key to
success is to combine three factors into conference sessions: planning,
variety and knowledge.
Planning –
know exactly what is going to happen in each session and how the
content will be communicated. Make sure facilitators, timekeepers and
note-takers are all clearly established.
Variety – the format of each
session should ideally be different from the ones next to it, not just
in content but also in style.
Knowledge – the Chair should be familiar with all presenters and panellists, through research and ideally, acquaintance.
When
it comes to offering variety in conference sessions, I have used a
number of different formats to overcome ‘death by Powerpoint’. These
are just a few:
Simulation games –
these are particularly effective when you need to communicate a
business process that is hard for people to grasp by listening to an
experttalk theoretically. By getting everyone in the room to take part
in a live simulation, people start to see exactly how a process works
and they also retain the information.
’Day in the life’ interactive role-plays –
we often need to communicate what it’s like to work in a specific job
and create empathy with other colleagues. We do this by creating a ‘day
in the life’ scenario of this person in the workplace, involving other
delegates to play the roles of colleagues.
Team problem solving –
in several conferences I have challenged delegates to get in teams to
explore new solutions to established problems in their industry. The
results have been really inspiring. After the conference, we summarise
the findings and share with all the delegates to keep the community and
networking in motion.
Finally, here is some general advice for Chairs to keep the atmosphere lively and engaging:
Listen
hard when moderating panels and during presentations. Keep notes of
anything interesting, provocative or entertaining that can be revisited
again later.
Throw
out questions to the audience throughout the day. People will
naturally be more alert if they think they might be called upon.
Reward people who are brave enough to participate. Never criticise someone’s answer or embarrass them in any way.
Use
small props to reward participation. We are known for throwing out
packs of Smarties to audience members who answer questions and by the
end of the day, people are fighting for them!
Inject some tasteful humour into the proceedings. This is not just for fun, but it also keeps delegates more alert.
Be
sensitive to cultural and personal differences and make every effort to
involve people in a way that is stimulating but never intimidating.
Hugh
Williams is the MD of Hughenden Consulting, providing supply chain
consulting services and interactive education and training workshops to
global corporations. He is also a keynote speaker and professional
conference Chair in the supply chain industry.
Any comments? Email conferencenews@mashmedia.net
