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MEETING DESIGN

THE POWER OF THE CROWD

How do you use the wisdom of the crowds? Participants attend conferences to gain more knowledge, but as a group they also bring with them a wealth of experience and brainpower. ose who exploit the full potential of the interaction contribute immense added value to their conference. e time is ripe for this, argue four specialists in the eld of conferences and crowdsourcing.
BY ALLARD FREDERIKS, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Eric de Groot of MindMeeting calls the developments the conference world is undergoing a silent transition. We are moving away from traditional knowledge sharing by experts, in the form of a classroom, to knowledge sharing via far more e ective work methods. It has long been known that receiving passive lessons in the classroom is not very e ective. Teaching the subject yourself, for example, is far more instructive. Providing a demonstration is also highly e ective. ese insights are beginning to force changes. In countries with greater social margins, with more room for experimentation with peoples interactions, the transition is faster. Ruud Janssen of e New Objective Collective (TNOC) sees a relationship between the new developments in conference management and those of the traditional media. People are increasingly discovering the power of the Internet. ey also want to see evidence of that power at conferences. eyre going to try things out, theyre curious. And if what they try out is better, works better - thats just adding fuel to the re to do more with it. I think that conferences are lagging about ve to eight years behind online developments. e user adoption cycle plays out at conferences as well. is cycle revolves around more than just technology; for example, it also involves questions such as: do you design one conference for a thousand people, or a

thousand conferences for one person? e greatest added value of being live is the interaction, says Erik Peekel of Aaaaha! e Actor Factory. e wisdom of the crowd suggests that, taken together, participants have a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience. Whenever you bring people together, you have to exploit that potential. In evaluations, participants also ask: Where does the interaction take place? Give participants the opportunity to connect with one another and to each others ideas. It is the organisers responsibility to achieve this. Blowing Hot Air One pitfall that conference organisers should avoid, according to Ruud Janssen, is organising a conference in the exact same manner as the previous event. After the event you are to answer the question: how has the participants behaviour changed? You will use these outcomes when considering improvements in the form and format of the subsequent meeting. Otherwise, it is a useless endeavour - like the air wasted on blowing up a perforated balloon. Unfortunately I still see that happen quite frequently. If you continue to do what youve always done and it provides no additional value or has less of an impact: people are going to consider new ways of getting what they came for. Continuous repetition without innovation is like

WHEN DESIGNING A CONFERENCE, KEEP IN MIND THAT:

participants need to understand and

endorse the meetings objectives; participants are encouraged to be in charge of contributing to the content; Experts are often a good tool for this, if they operate on the basis that the participants are going to share in the process. Also theatrical resources can be deployed to create more dynamics; work methods involve a lot of action, such as looking at every angle of something while using all the senses, and having lot of room to play while working on challenging assignments; the design and facilitation of the work methods is a profession and to ensure top quality, it is to be designed with the end in mind and led by the best people in process guidance; the results are bundled in a well structured manner; the results have a clear owner at the end; the next actionable step needs to be crystal clear.

ILLUSTRATION: ISTOCKPHOTO

TEACHING THE SUBJECT YOURSELF IS FAR MORE INSTRUCTIVE

Eric de Groot (1) and Mike van der Vijver (2) - MindMeeting MindMeeting delivers meeting design for meetings with an international audience. This means that Eric de Groot and Mike van der Vijver evaluate for international clients how the meeting programme can achieve the clients objective; both on the harder side: such as decisions and insights; and on the gentler side: such as the atmosphere and impact. MindMeeting makes a design and oversees its implementation.

signing the death sentence of your event. Another major pitfall of conference organisers, according to partner Mike van der Vijver of MindMeeting, is the idea that it is too di cult or complicated on a physical or organisational level to bring together large groups of people to exchange views. ats why they prefer to dispense with large group discussions or only give the participants the opportunity to cast a vote. Voting can be a useful solution, but there is so much more possible. at does mean, however, that organisers should be prepared to leave the beaten track far behind - like that tired concept of people sitting on chairs in neat rows. And thats scary for many. People think all too quickly about everything that can go wrong. Solution Room Van der Vijver and Janssen have also collaborated on the development of the Solution Room: a strictly directed closing general session format to activate the behaviour change induced by peer led consultation. Lose the closing keynote speech, no

one is looking for yet more information and motivational talks at the end of an event, says Janssen. Energetic, structured solutions arise from the meeting where problems are given up for adoption and every problem is actioned by 7 peers whilst you observe and are consulted. In turn everyones problem gets addressed. Deep conversations, practical advice and actionable steps are key to create change in behaviour with intent and purpose. Also the use of human spectrograms to demonstrate the impact of the solution room and physical note taking on paper table cloths create a rich engaged user experience that create strong bonds at the end of the event. Janssen: It is essential that you are aware before you go home of the next steps to address the actions you want to take. ree months later we send the participants a self addressed postcard as a friendly reminder of their Solution Room resolution and next steps. According to Janssen, there is more and more demand for these kinds of precision engineered action meeting designs. ose in instructional design and the

professional trainers worldwide have de nitely become used to doing that with small groups; but the question does arise: is it also possible with a thousand or more participants? I am convinced it is. I also think that in due time eighty per cent of future meeting formats could be designed to be shelf ready, much like Ikea packages its furniture. Designing it to be standardised and fashionable tools

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MEETING DESIGN

MEETING DESIGN

is one task, the other is creating bespoke customised formats for the remaining twenty per cent of events that require tailored approaches. Were already working on making this happen in the foreseeable future. Amateurism around social media When it comes deploying new media and interactive technology the experts are clear: only use them if it o ers a solution for something that the stakeholder needs, when it is physically impossible to come up with a live alternative. Peekel: Twitter can link participants, but it can also draw attention away from the speaker. Casting votes by machine or via mobile telephone is only useful when you are also actually going to do something with the outcomes. Otherwise a simple

ALL THAT YOU LEARN, BUT DO NOT DIRECTLY APPLY, IS QUICKLY FORGOTTEN
Erik Peekel Aaaaha! The Actor Factory Aaaaha! the Actor Factory works on assignment for associations and Professional Conference Organisers or PCOs. The communications agency brings participants together and gives them an active role in the programme. Erik Peekel and his team provide the added value of networking and interaction. Aaaaha! The Actor Factory produces various session formats: workshops, talk shows and guerilla actions. The Actor Factory has discussion leaders, comedians and actors available who ensure that these sessions are a success.

show of hands is faster and simpler. Janssen sees a lot of amateurism around social media and it can become a weapon of mass distraction and frustration unless deployed properly. It is good that there is so much experimentation with social media. In the meantime, it is becoming a sought after competence and profession alike. People who do not pause for thought about that can end up doing more harm than good. It is a like the granddaughter of the chairman of the board who plays violin and is sometimes allowed to perform during the intermission. Van der Vijver adds: Modern communication methods and social media o er countless extra opportunities, especially in the communication taking place before and after a meeting. You can, for example, allow participants in a simple online survey to select in advance from a range of subjects. At the end of the meeting, you can provide follow up information for participants in all manner of ways, even if practice has shown that there is little use made of the option. I think the most useful aspect is the freedom with which new contacts can be incorporated into networks that remain long after the meeting has ended, and less in the substantive follow-up. Behavioural change Knowledge sharing and crowdsourcing during, before and after conferences are two developments that should not be stopped. Of that the interviewees are convinced. Participants visit a conference in the hope that afterwards they will better be able to practice their profession, says Erik Peekel. All that you learn, but do not directly apply, is quickly forgotten. Interaction at the conference o ers you the chance to build a bridge between new insights and your own practice. at interaction makes knowledge more relevant and also increases appreciation.

CONFERENCES ARE LAGGING ABOUT FIVE TO EIGHT YEARS BEHIND ONLINE DEVELOPMENTS
Ruud Janssen - TNOC | The New Objective Collective TNOC | The New Objective Collective bring ideas to life with use of live and digital communication. The collective provides innovative community management and services for live, hybrid and digital events. Ruud Janssen focuses on strategic consulting, facilitation & moderation, online and multimedia marketing, community building, online collaboration, mind mapping, new media training, meeting architecture and service design consultancy.

Events in and of themselves have no value, submits Ruud Janssen. Value is only created once the conference causes behavioural changes by the stakeholders which include the participants. at is why you should ask the following question: what change in behaviour does the stakeholders need to happen as a result of attending the event? You must determine what the objectives for each stakeholder are for attending the conference. ROI methodology has been applied already for twenty years in the training and the HR world. Objectives and results can also be measured very well for conferences. Remember that it is not su cient to just give participants a feeling or something to think about. Each participant must do something, undertake an action. Only then does the conference have a chance at delivering real value.

3 Edwin Nunnink is editor in chief of Conference Holland and QM. He can be reached at edwin.nunnink@ hetportaal.com or @edwinnunnink on Twitter.

A PUBLICATION OF HET PORTAAL UITGEVERS B.V.

EDITION 2013 HET PORTAAL UITGEVERS B.V. Veerdijk 40-i, 1531 MS Wormer The Netherlands P.O. box 125, 1520 AC Wormerveer The Netherlands Tel: +31 75 647 57 47 Fax: +31 75 628 49 14 E-mail: info@hetportaal.com Website: www.hetportaal.com EDITORIAL STAFF Editor in Chief Edwin Nunnink edwin.nunnink@hetportaal.com Senior Editor Judith Munster judith.munster@teksthuys.nl Contributing Editor Allard Frederiks Contributing Editor Jos Goossens Industry Specialist Eric Bakermans ebakermans@holland.com Industry Specialist Nicolette van Erven vanerven@congressbydesign.com Industry Specialist Tons Soons ton.soons@winningwords.nl PHOTOGRAPH & ILLUSTRATIONS Cover Illustration Erwin Kho / Shop Around www.zerbamine.nl / www.shop-around.nl Contributing Photographer Thomas Fasting www.fastingfotograe.nl Contributing Photographer Eunice Lieveld www.eunicelieveld.com DESIGN & PRINT Company SDA Print + Media www.sdaprintmedia.nl Creative Director Aryen Bouwmeester Graphic Designer Dirk van der Burgh ADVERTISING STAFF Sales Director Philip Lasance Sales Manager Ferry Aaftink ferry.aaftink@hetportaal.com Account Manager Arjan Woortman Trafc Manager Monique Zijlstra Production Coordinator Natasja Groenink trafc@hetportaal.com MANAGEMENT Director John Michael Swaab john.swaab@hetportaal.com Director Hans Janssen hans.janssen@hetportaal.com Copyright 2013 by Het Portaal Uitgevers B.V.

MADE TO MEET
Its actually astonishing to think that we Dutch invented something like Madurodam a place that displays the Netherlands in miniature format because our country is already a small one. Lay a map of Greater London over a map of the Netherlands and it will cover the entire metropolitan area of the Randstad an area that includes our four biggest cities, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, e Hague and Utrecht.
BY EDWIN NUNNINK

Our small country is home to no fewer than 16.7 million people, so you can see why we need to be a well-organised people. Its in our natures to organise things and them together. Every village has active associations, where volunteers come together to organise a wide range of activities. We invented the polder model, a type of meeting where the parties involved handle an issue until they reach a compromise. Were also a nation of businesspeople who travel and export a great deal, and who operate over national borders. is means we are used to dealing with international company, and the large majority of us speak the English language. Logistics is a part of trade, and a professional eld in which the Netherlands excels thanks to our international key ports: Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and the port of Rotterdam. All these things combined means we have a highly developed conference and meeting industrythat embraces the organisational, faciliatory and service provision aspects. Our magazine, called QM [Quality in Meetings] and our QM Meeting Planner handbook have been a source of information and knowledge to this industry for more than twenty years. We have also been providing digital information for more than ten years now on websites, in e-newsletters, and in digital publications. We believe it is our job to inform conference organisers, associations, and meeting planners who live outside of the Netherlands of the trends and views in the Dutch meeting industry and of the opportunities that Holland has to o er as a conference location. at is why we put together this rst edition of Conference Holland. It follows the same pattern as QM:its substantive, independent, critical, and written with love for the organisational eld. I would love to hear what you think of it.
About Conference Holland is the most comprehensive guide for association managers and meeting planners who consider or decided to organise a conference in The Netherlands. Conference Holland is a special edition of QM [Quality in Meetings] a publication of Het Portaal Uitgevers. Het Portaal Uitgevers supplies trade and industry information in the trade fair, meeting, promotional

WWW.CONFERENCEHOLLAND.COM
@ConferenceNL www.facebook.com/conferenceholland

marketing, corporate gift and promotional product domain. We aim to improve knowledge in those who use these marketing and communication media to increase their returns and to stimulate and support further development in the relevant industries. We organise printed media, digital platforms and events to this end. These activities are carried out under the Expovisie, QM, and PromZ brand names.

PLANNER Iris Allebrandi: a practical view of affairs

from nice to have to must have

TOOLS Conference app:

FAREWELL Jaap Westerhuijs:

Industry veteran speaks one nal time

MYSTERY GUEST The weakest link:

Ton Soons opinion on the international liver congress

searching for the lowest VAT load

FINANCE The hidden tax:

MEETING DESIGN Wisdom of the crowd:

how to cause behavioural changes

Jan Rotmans sketches that abrasive reality

SPEAKER Sustainability icon: