A focus on conferences

ABSTRACT

Conferences are still valuable for established attendees and potential new audiences, and the overall audience for events can be increased, helping alleviate competition between professional organisations.In addition professional organisations need to avoid conferences being run-of-the-mill, and taking their audience for granted. They need to widen their primary and secondary audiences by helping potential attendees and presenters find out about events, evaluate those they might attend, and benefit in other ways from participating in; professionalising presentation and documentation; facilitating more controversial discussion; improving media relations (including with informal commentators).Some of the solutions involved re-designing and re-programming events, greater inter-organisational cooperation, technical developments, and greater intelligence when thinking about audiences and stakeholders.

REFERENCES

• 1: 'Conference madness' Alice Twemlow, Eye issue 49, Autumn 2003 http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=71&fid=469
• 2: Aspen 2004 conference review, John Maeda, Creative Review, October 2004
• 3: '1989: Roots of Revolution' Michael Bierut, March 6, 2004. On the biennial conference of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. http://www.designobserver.com/archives/000110.html
• 4: 'Does Aspen Have A Future?' William Drenttel, October 9, 2004. Comment from Michael Bierut: The purpose of design conferences is still somewhat mysterious, and I say this as someone who has organized more than a few. http://www.designobserver.com/archives/000208.html
• 5: Doors of Perception conference http://www.doorsofperception.com/
• 6: February 9-12, 2004: O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference {http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etcon/} (San Diego)
• 7: October 23-26, 2003: AIGA National Conference: The Power of Design {http://powerofdesign.aiga.org/} (Vancouver, BC) and March 21-23, 2002: Voice: AIGA National Design Conference {http://www.voice.aiga.org/} (Washington, DC).
• 8: November 12-14, 2004: Design Engaged {http://www.heyotwell.com/engaged2004/} (Amsterdam)
• 9: October 16-17, 2003: HITS: Humans Interaction Technology Strategy {http://www.id.iit.edu/events/hits}/} (Chicago, Illinois)
• 10: During December 2004 on the CHI-ANNOUNCE list alone there were almost 20 calls for participation for conferences and workshops (some part of bigger conferences). Over a year an industry professional might have to decide between 20 to 200 events they might submit a paper to or attend.
• 11: The conference committee for the 2002 Symposium on Designing Interactive Systems (of which I was a member) attempted this, with some success. See Proceedings of the conference on Designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques. 2002. ISBN:1-58113-515-7
• 12: February 23-25, 2005: TED2005 {http://www.ted.com/ted2005/} (Monterey, CA). TED is the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference, founded by Richard Saul Wurman.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.m Miscellaneous

Keywords:
conference attendees, conference discussion, conference documentation, conference formats, conferencing reporting, information sharing, presentation references, presenters, weblogging