The objective of this blog is to stop you from wasting your time and money.
All business conferences can be a really profitable use of your time and money
Most business conferences are a total waste of your time and money.
Blimey he’s old
I have been in business for 40 years and in that time I’ve attended at least 180 conferences everywhere in the World. They generally cost hundreds of thousands of Dollars or Pounds to set up and put on.
The organisers tell you it is all about the staging and the lighting and the sound systems. Well, they wouldn’t they? That’s how they make their money.
The truth is that within 3 minutes of the first speaker (CEO, MD, President, Chairman, ‘Burt-from-Accounts’ or Gordon-from-The-Cabinet-Office ) stepping (tripping?) on to the (very expensive) platform, doing the whole, “Err good morning…bomp! Bomp! Umm…is this thing working?”, [unnatural hand gesture] thing, 95% of the audience has already stopped listening.
Defending the Caveman
You see, when it comes to successful human communication it isn’t the set, the lights, the sound, and all the ‘rah-rah’ that actually motivates inspires, and informs. [Think about the last time YOU attended a conference as a delegate. How soon did your mind start to wander? …Exactly! and 95% of the audience was the same as you.]
The fact is our ancient, anthropological, brains haven’t moved on much in the last ten thousand years and none of the technology actually influences the human-audience brain very much at all. The process of communication is much more animalistic. And women are five times more sensitive to the process than men are. [Ask any woman how rapidly she assesses the potential ‘alpha-male’, qualities of a strange man who has just entered the room? The usual answer is ‘instantaneously’] So something else is going on which we need to know about
With my own business (Bob Etherington Group Ltd) I often get to facilitate at conferences ( This means I’m the man who does the warm-up, introduces the different speakers, and delivers a keynote or two.)
The darkest hour
As these conferences often run over two days, I always get the ‘graveyard’ warm-up slot at the beginning of ‘Day 2’. And, because it is very revealing, I usually ask the audience the same questions. I say, ” Good morning ladies and gentlemen. How are you feeling?….[ “Great!”LOL] Did you have a good day yesterday? [“Yesss” ]….”Please raise your hands if any of you recall that somebody stood up here and made a 30-minute speech at this same time yesterday morning?” [Half the hands go up] ” Could anyone of you stand up and give me a 30-second precis of that presentation?” [No hands go up] “Do any of you recall the subject of the presentation?” [No hands go up] “Do any of you recall the name of the speaker?” [ No hands go up]….That is the impact that 90% of conferences have on 95% of delegates; a big fat ‘Zero’.
It is such a common dilemma, that there is a standing joke amongst all conference organisers> Q: ” What is the objective of most conference attendees? A:” To get out of the room”….Q: “And what is the objective of most conference presenters?” A: “To get out of the room”.
But it should NOT be like this. Pay attention to the basics of successful human communication [Body Language, Voice Tone and Content in THAT ORDER] and INSIST on rehearsals for all and you will magically turn your waste of time and money into a big accolade for Yourself!
More on all this very shortly
Bob
