After having visited the KM in Europe conference and also Blogtalk in the past year I�ve spend time thinking on what to me would be a valuable congress. Value in this context can mean value to:
The organizer in the form of revenue and profit
The presenters in the form of visibility and acknowledgement
The exhibitors in the form of leads
The individual in the form of meetings, conversations and new insights.
The answer is in striking a balance between these stakeholders, and finding a way to satisfy them all. At the last KM in Europe conference, organised by the Ark Group, for instance this balance was not found, because satisfying one stakeholder meant dissatisfying another. Thus a gain for one was achieved at the cost of another. Not the win-win that a correct balance might bring.
The vendors complained that there were too little pauses in the presentation schedule thus preventing visitors to walk the convention floor and visit their booths.
The presenters complained that the vendors had no relation to their presentations, that in fact two different events were taking place in the same space.
The visitors complained about the absence of spaces to meet other people, and the overloaded program that meant that people kept missing eachother because their attendance at presentations got in the way, and also complained about the vendors for the same reason as the presenters.
And in the end the Ark Group probably complained about all three groups, the lack of visitors, the disgruntled vendors, and the fact that even such an impressive list of presenters did not mean enhanced revenue.
What made my visit to Amsterdam worthwile nevertheless, was the networking and the fringe events of the communities I count myself to be part of. The rest of the conference, the presentations, and to a much lesser extent the vendors provided a fitting back drop for it.
Now how could we enhance such a conference, to make it valuable to all parties involved.
Let�s look at this from the individual�s perspective first:
Basically to visitors a congress is a physical space to meet people to have interesting conversations with.
Which people? Well ideally one would want to see a mix of people you know or are familiar with, and people you are not familiar with. Only known faces would bring too little thought provocation, only strangers would make it difficult to get into deep conversations quickly. By having both the communities you�re already part of and new ones represented you�re sure to have enough to start conversations with, and can be sure of new insights and opposing views as well. Maybe we can call this balance Optimal Unfamiliarity.
This would presuppose that enough members of different communities will be willing to attend, and attend as part of and together with other members of these communities. A way of increasing that likelihood would be for the organiser to invite communities to pursue their own agenda during the congress, in the form of having their own semi-restricted meetings, fringe events, and social gatherings.
The balance of Optimal Unfamiliarity I mentioned for visitors can be extended to the presentations as well. Here I would like to see a mix of the known and the unknown too. Some known presenters (known to both the individual and the field) to reinforce existing bonds and convictions, and further internalise core values. Added to that some unknown (that is to say unknown to the individual, not to the field as a whole) presenters to provoke new avenues of thought, to challenge those same core values, and to open new vistas, and present emergent thinking. Presentations should be held by representatives of the variety of communities the event organisers wish to attract, and should be thought leaders in their respective communities.
The role of these presentations is to be a starting point for conversations, a kernel around which conversations between individuals (vendors, presentors, visitors) can then grow. That is why here again a mix of the familiar and unfamiliar is necessary. This also means you don�t need full programs of presentations, a few good ones are enough to trigger conversation, too many would inhibit the time for conversations. Also different forms than the traditional �I talk, you listen and gawk at my slides� should be encouraged.
In KM where speakers can represent the very frontline of current innovative thinking, the vendors are struggling. Especially software vendors are more or less doomed to be only able to show products that are lagging behind the newest thinking, simply because there�s been no time to build the appropiate tools, but also because KM has been consistently moving away from being technology and tool oriented to being society and fundamental changes oriented. So either you only have the most innovative ones from the tool industry, or look for other types of exhibitors. Research groups, small consultancy firms (I liked seeing a few of them on the exhibition floor in Amsterdam), poster presentations and the visiting communities themselves. This might also help keeping the presentation-schedule limited, and helps making the two parts (exhibition / presentations) seem more connected.
Now where does that leave the organiser as a value adder?