Evolutionairy Road

These days it seems almost impossible to take things slow. We are following trends and new ideas like greyhounds, hoping to be the first to catch on to the latest app, the breaking news, the next big thing. Always on the go.

I must be getting old, but I have the feeling we do not allow ourselves the time to focus anymore. To slow down. To see clearly where we are going, and still look at the scenery along the way. Allowing for distractions, even. Because these might just add new thoughts and meaning to whatever goal we have in mind. Allowing a little bit of trial and error.

Hah! That reminds me of our road trip to Italy this summer. Our car broke down three (!) times on our way from Amsterdam to Ancona, but we had the best view of the Adriatic see. And some quality time to reflect :-)

Well , I am planning to stop and use my breaks a little more from now on.  Smell the flowers, see the sky, so to speak. How?

Using event  research in a more relaxed manner. Sure I know my goals and the objectives, and I will still deliver on time. But hey, if I spend a few extra  hours to look at reports more closely, add new angles or combinations, I might stumble upon an idea that is worth investigating. Small and slow. The dirt road just might  be the connection we were looking for.

Using social media in a better way. Planning time during the weekend to really read those blogs. Think about their content, see who can benefit from them, and pass them on. Not just retweet, but making it personal. Adding thoughts, asking feedback. More with less.  

Using event technology more based on personal need. To use as a reference after the event, for instance. Allowing myself to follow sessions as I see fit, ignoring networking tools once in a while and just enjoying the conversation. Or the white space. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love event tech, but not when it dictates the way I should connect. And, especially, the pace I should do it in. Even at events, it is worth to take it slow now and then. One great conversation might teach me more than a quick scan of the entire room...

So there you have it. Relax! And allow yourself a few mistakes. With the speed that we are going now, there is plenty of time to  adjust. Happy travels!

Exhibitions say more than a thousand words

First of all: I am really proud of the research we (my company and partners) just concluded. It is a study under Gen X and Y visitors of trade shows and exhibitions. We wanted to know what makes them tick. What do exhibitions and trade fairs mean to them?

I have to say, even though we all belong to one generation or another and can predict  some of the answers, the results  were pretty amazing. We matched the answers with overall generational trends and studies, and this gave some interesting points of view. If you want to check out the research, you can do so here: Gen X & Y research

So what is my point in this post? 

Well…as I was reading through the results of the study, one thing really struck me.

A thing that I wasn’t aware of or did not think about before. A simple thing, really.  Just the word: exhibition. What does it say? What does it mean to you? What image or feeling, which sentiment comes to mind?

An exhibition or an event? Searching on images gives an idea.

As it turned out:

Gen Y sees a possibly  outdated product. Just in the label “ exhibition” or “trade fair”.

Hm. Do they have a point?  Truth is, no matter how much we engage in renewing and reinventing the product, the overall word has stayed the same. We added hybrid components, apps, interactive features, show-and-tells, talks, peer-to-peer sessions, experiences, surprises, communities, a whole new live look, feel and world……but still call it an exhibition. Or a trade fair. 

The content might have changed, the label did not. 

As a result our potential Gen Y visitors have an old idea about a new product. Wow, that IS something to think about.

So I am wondering…should we include the terminology in our reinvention package? Add a new vocabulary to reflect the new meeting architecture and exhibition design?

Anyway, food for thought . Should we  give "trade fairs" and "exhibitions" a new image, a new interpretation? Or do we need to come up with new brands to make sure that generations to come will find excitement and learning in events that we used  to call trade fairs? 

What are the words that sum up an exhibition?

I bet we can come up with more than a thousand!

Show and tell –a junior conference?

guess what David´s talk was about...

To start with: in The Netherlands there is no such thing as “show and tell” that American schools have; we are not taught to speak in public. So when we do, it is a big occasion. It is a once- in –a-year kind of thing.

The past few weeks all children in my son’s class (he is 11) we assigned a “spreekbeurt”, a Dutch word that literally means a “turn to speak”.

The rules for this class assignment were simple: talk in front of the class for 15 minutes, chose a subject that is a bit more complicated that “my cat”, have five research questions that include some history of the subject,  make a visual presentation in Powerpoint, and use your own words,  preferably refraining from written notecards (as we Dutch would call, spiekbriefjes).

I could not shake the idea that for them it was comparable to speaking at a conference.  Being a bit anxious,  checking your facts over and over again, trying out  several versions of your Powerpoint (best stay safe, there might not be a good connection for a Prezi). And then, at last, standing in front of your peers, connecting with them.

The funny thing is, as my son returned from school with his remarks about the presentations, he sounded like the content of some of the conference blogs I read:

Do not read your Powerpoint sentence by sentence: it kills your story. And try to use as little text as possible.

If you are not teaching your peers anything new,  you are merely filling time. Be critical.

No matter how nervous you are, own your story and tell it form the heart: authenticity works and your passion will shine through.

Do not stand still. Move around and engage all of your audience by asking questions during your talk; do not forget the people in the back of the room.

Have humor, make a joke, wake up tour audience every five minutes or so: their attention span is not that big and they will remember that they laughed.

It’s all about experience: If you talk about ”911” and you know an ambulance driver, let him drive it to the school and show the real thing.

Engage your audience: share your story, don’t just tell it. Encourage questions and ask them.

Give a speaker immediate feedback and share it with the group : learning points are not just  for the speaker.

Nice tips, thank you class 7b! Sounds like good advice for me, too. I wish I could be more often in this classroom, I would probably  pick up some great tips for my day-to-day work routine as well. I wonder what we would learn if we could let them stage  a trade show J

Slow, small and simple.

I have not been keeping up with my blog posts lately. Beginner’s block, probably. Trying too hard to find a fitting story, making it too big a deal. I assume it happens to all of us. The need to live up to a certain self imposed standard – well, big surprise, it did not work.

So much has been happening in the events world in 2011. I have been running around like crazy to keep up with it all. It used to be checking out a few databases and a few websites besides my day-to-day work, and it became al lot more. Blogs, slideshares, webinars, online events, tweetchats, …almost as if I was leading two lives, a f2f and an online one. So much going on, so many channels to follow. And it was all so worthwhile, so interesting, so inspiring. I felt like my son in a games store… just could not get enough.

Until the cup runneth over.

How much do I actually NEED? Maybe less is more, once again.

So here’s my New Year’s resolution that I will try to apply to everything from now on.  And yes, I can apply it to meetings and events. Especially in a time when we can do virtually everything at any time and place. From now on I will keep it SLOW, SMALL and SIMPLE.

Slow is the magic word. Slow as in “slow cooking” when it comes to trendwatching and writing reports. Taking the time to let ideas grow and mature, and allowing myself to take that time. Let the ingredients mix and give their full flavor before I make up my mind. No rush decisions, no quick analysis. And mind you, I will not become a turtle. I will still get the job done pretty fast. And as a delegate? I will not jump onto all opportunities given to me, will look at the big picture and focus. Set my goals and then find my way. True ROI. So maybe a little less random learning, and a bit more reflecting.

Small in my resolution means delicate, fragile, personal. No big messages out to all, but a person to person message. Staying close to home and close to heart, so to speak. And keeping it focused and true. Maybe I will get it wrong more often, but I will learn more. This is how I hope to interact in events as well. Personal, building relationships. More unconference, less keynotes. Working and learning together. Actually, in that respect small means that I need to share more – a big idea, come to think of it.

Simple is never easy. I tend to give people more than they ask for and this confuses them. It gets the message blurred, unfortunately. I just get carried away .... There is so much good research out there, so many interesting leads to follow, so many topics to discuss. There is always a reason to do a little bit extra. And in a way I can still do that, as long as the output is focused and clear. Hah, it really IS that simple.

Last but not least: keeping it simple is the best way to keep it slow and small, too.

So the next event that I attend will find me focused, attending a prepared selection of sessions, interacting with heart and head. Just having a great time learning and interacting. Can’t wait….

Under the surface, life is good

I guess it is common knowledge: in The Netherlands a lot of us live below sea level. I was born in Amsterdam, and my life started on a level where fish swim in most parts of the world. I often wondered if that has an impact on you through life. My star sign is  Pisces, by the way, but of course THAT is a coincidence.

Sometimes I wonder whether the Dutch are so tall in general because they have to compensate for their surroundings, and that we all want to be as close to the sun as people that live on mountains and hills. But I am not tall, feel plenty of sunshine and kind of like being so extremely down to earth.

Here, under the surface, there is a community just like any other. But yes, my house is below sea level and the garden where my son grows his school vegetables, used to be a lake. My home town Amsterdam is built on poles to prevent it from sinking even deeper, and we see dykes and dunes as natural parts of our wildlife: a created environment that looks as stunning as the Alps, the Appalachians, you name it.

If you  think about it, life online is also a bit under water. Beneath a flat screen there is a world of knowledge, entertainment, friends and foes that mirror anything you can find in real life. I enjoy that world, too. It allows me to learn, engage, meet new people and find old friends, and to travel to cities all over the world to attend meetings and events. It is a world with no boundaries and no time zones. Real time, real life.

So is that why I enjoy being a researcher, finding stuff that lies below the surface? Digging up material that is hidden so deep that it would take an archeologist to find it in Google or any other search engine? Maybe. But not just that.

The thing for me about research is that I can find all  these little treasures and then give them away. Whatever I find out about people, science, leisure, tech, generations, associations, communities, meetings and events : I pull it out of the water, give it a good look and turn it into something that will hopefully give it a Dutch touch. Literally, since I try to find good events for Amsterdam .

And I love doing that. Nothing more rewarding then seeing  the sharing of ideas and thoughts you helped to accommodate. People from all cultures communicating, learning and doing business. Often with different languages (who speaks Dutch anyway?) but with a common goal. Via new ways of connecting people and old ways of connecting people.

I am happy to be the invisible part of it. Because life under the surface is good.