Let’s talk about conferences. I know, I know, but stick with me here. As a delegate and specialist in your field, it’s a remarkable opportunity to get together and talk with peers, learn about new industry advancements, catch up with old friends and meet new ones. Great! But what about the suppliers? Well, I’m sorry, but on the whole it’s not a lot of fun or use.
My early memories of conferences largely include standing under some spotlights set to 840 degrees Celsius, whilst in a suit, trying to remember whether I did in fact hide a can of Lynx Africa under the trestle table. Positioned there in close proximity to our closest rivals trying to make eye contact with anyone we could, in the hope that we would entice a business card from their grasp for the raffle. Often the anticipated best future clients would win (not my decision for clarity), and the hamper would be personally delivered to them. Another meeting stat ticked off; another single relationship built.
Fortunately, things have changed. By which I mean, nobody makes me go anymore, so I don’t.
Don’t get me wrong and excuse the heading because I do indeed still go to conferences, but I have no desire to spend my time in a large hall missing the content that will improve our market knowledge and give us the edge over our competitors. I don’t want the only interaction I have to be with people as they rush by trying not to make eye contact, and the customers we have value us, so they’ll meet us regularly anyway. I want to sit in a room surrounded by new people and expand my network, to listen to new ideas, provocative suggestions, case studies of great transformations and (my favourite bit) the questions at the end that challenge the speaker and often bring new morsels to light.
So, this week as I head to a hotel lobby in very close proximity to (but not actually inside) a conference because, to be frank, it’s prohibitively expensive for SMEs to exhibit and doesn’t allow delegate passes for non-members or suppliers (you have to pay several thousands of pounds to be a corporate member before you can pay thousands more for a stand), I’m wondering if there is a better way.
Well, there is, and some people are doing it. Charity IT Leaders have a much more progressive approach, for a start it’s affordable, with different options such as hosted break-out rooms, advisory panels and networking opportunities. Times Higher Education arranged a conference last year in Exeter, which was positively brilliant both as a networking opportunity and due to the enormous value of the content. Not only did our market knowledge significantly improve, allowing us to adjust our focus to growing markets where the sector was struggling for talent, but we forged new commercial relationships as a result, and it was affordable.
So can we say goodbye to the old format please? Because I’m also not sure that the delegates really get the value either. How much new business is actually done in the vacuous halls filled with pen covered tables, F1 simulators, jars filled with an un-guessable number of corks, stress balls, hampers and notepads, and who even carries business cards now anyway? I have even experienced conferences where delegates have to tick off visiting each stand, but really how enjoyable is that for them. There must be a better funding model than simply charging medium to large firms exorbitant amounts of money to plug the gap, especially in the knowledge that the commercial benefit to them is questionable.
So in the meantime, and as I ponder this dilemma later on the train, I’ll know that the big firms will probably go anyway because hey, it would look weird if they didn’t, right? When I get there, I’ll catch up with old friends and connections and perhaps meet some new ones at the bar too, whilst I ask what the most interesting takeaways from the conference have been so far, jealous that I didn’t get to hear them first-hand. The only other downside? I guess I’ll have to shell out for my own stress ball.
Rob Johnson
Managing Partner – Global Resourcing: Talent Consulting, Executive Search & EDI champion (security cleared)