I HAVE spent almost 20 years of my career planning and
organising events for numerous industry sectors around the
conclusion that conferences are dead.
Well, at least in the format we have been producing them over
the past decades. So, now I am preparing myself to spend the rest
of my career trying to work out how to try something new.
dconferences were supposed to work: your team wrote up a
conference agenda based on your lock your delegates into an
auditorium to listen dthe delegate, content above consumer.
Digital disruption is hitting usThis world is broken and it is
terminal. Like so many other trades, from print publishing to
music, the conference industry is feeling the /similar fashion to
their online experience. They ddecide what is relevant for them
based
To put it in simple terms, we the consumers want to be in the
driving seat. The wealth of dway weve learned has changed as a
result of this. Clarion recently commissioned a large research
project on this issue and we found that conference delegates these
days rate peer-to-peer learning above lectures by experts. This, of
&>/dAnd it is here to stay.
K75 per cent of respondents said so - but the vast majority also
said that they wanted more than just catching up with industry
friends. In fact, 70 per cent of our GiGse audience this year
selected learning and keeping up-to-date with industry
So, how do we meet this new challenge? How and learn in a
digital age? How can we create a face-to-face format that replaces
old-fashioned
and relevant experience? I want to be totally honest and say
that I dont know the answer to this. What I do know and feel
passionate about is the fact that we have to try new things.
Put your delegates in chargeThis year we are trying something
new. Instead audience decide what they want to talk about. In the
run-up to our i-gaming conferences in the h^'''people from the
gaming industry to an open the agenda.
So far the results have been more than encouraging. When we
trialed it in the US this year with the GiGse Advisory Board we
ended /panel or speaker, we created an open space for real
debate.
Yes, at the beginning many senior industry Wexperienced open
space at the Advisory Board them to talk about the topics they felt
passionate their passion.
In short, we managed to create an engaging learning environment.
Many encouraged us to pursue the new format, so we decided that for
next year we will take it a step further
by allowing the open-space format to be experienced by all of
the GiGse, and possibly '
We also want to ensure that the environment ^'instead of a
hotel, we started the change process and chose an old factory
building where everybody was in the same room: exhibitors,
delegates and speakers. It proved that staging is as important as
content planning. It wasnt only edgy and cool, but also felt like a
transparent and
Is this our answer to the challenge? Most certainly not, but its
a beginning. Some feedback was that while we hit the right note
with a lot of delegates, some felt uncomfortable or unfamiliar with
the new format. This is about a successful wconference.
And should we call it a conference at all? We at Clarion have
spent many hours thinking able to agree to new expressions that
guarantee heading. Maybe you can?
> customers in the future. And lets start now.
Kate Chambers, portfolio director at Clarion Events, challenges
the traditional notion of the industry conference and what happens
next
FOCUS
?? Issue1 2015 iNTERGAMINGi www.intergameonline.com
KATE CHAMBERS, PORTFOLIO DIRECTOR AT CLARION EVENTS
Lets try something new
We must embrace the future and educate
EiG 2014, Berlin
