Thank you so much for coming by – I'll order your book now. It seems you've run a good race thus far and there'll be much I can learn.

Do you have a website / Twitter / etc?

Scott

I like how you think. I'm a slow thinker, but for the last 18 years I've been working on an approach to conference design that answers many of the issues you raise. During this time I've been an amateur events organizer, creating events around whatever field I was working in at the time. My core goal has always been to create the best possible event for each person who attends.

A few years ago, after a few thousand people had enjoyed my conferences, I felt I had something of value to share, so I decided to write about how what I've discovered works.

Some of the resulting features: participant-driven; ground rules that encourage attendees to safely interact beyond their normal comfort zone; opening sessions that uncover the themes and ideas participants want; session topics, themes and formats chosen by participants; and closing sessions that allow attendees to personally and collectively integrate what has happened at the event and plan for the future.

I think the hardest thing to work out in event design is the right type and combination of top-down and bottom-up process. I'm a member of the “just-enough-top-down” school.

My book Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love describes the why and how of all this, and was published in November. If you read it, I'd love to hear what you think.

A hub, a continuation of thought and talk – these are things that need the community to help create. I'll have a think. Even then, though, having all our stuff online doesn't help people integrate it. I need a way to help people put things into action and make then happen.

For me the Like Minds event is beginning to symbolise the education of the growing complexities and importance of social media. The sole purpose of attending is to soak up (person/persons/people-to-people), all the useful information with a view to debating, adapting and applying what I learn into new working practices and those of my clients.

I'm not the first person to say that the Like Minds lunches are a great idea. The only unfortunate fact is that places are limited, so not immediately accessible to everyone. Sure this isn't logistically possible, but will there be, have you thought of, building a coherent central resource where attendees can share and pickup on the many ideas/discussions generated across the whole event (including content from each lunch session)? A transparent hub everyone can learn from and of course participate in as more ideas and 'conversations' continue post Like Minds, instead of valuable dialogue privately floating off somewhere in the Twitterverse™.

Well that's my 5 pence for the morning… I better do some work )