Bring On The Conference Calcutta

Growing up in sports and having worked with some of the biggest stars in sports and entertainment, including Emmy Award winning actors, Gold Medal capturing Olympians and Grammy winning musicians over the years has given me a fairly good idea of what it takes to be a star. In watching the behavior of some speakers from top tier technology companies its time to jump to the defense of the conference paying attendees who already realize those guys are behaving like stars. Unfortunately, they're not stars.

Real stars know they paying public are there to see them. They understand that the public is hungry to not only watch them perform, but also to get their chance to talk to them. For many years soccer star Pele, baseball greats like Mickey Mantle, NHL heroes Bobby Hull, Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky would stand for hours signing autographs, making public appearances or just sitting down with kids to share their perspective. 1980 Gold Medal Olympic Heroes Mike Eruzione and Jim Craig would spend hours charming the public years after the Gold Medal had been won. I remember the time when actors like MacGyver's Richard Dean Anderson and the Cheers (and later Frazier) star Kelsey Grammar would sit with the sponsor’s family of Celebrity All Star Hockey games for hours on end for one reason. They sponsors and fans paid to see them and to get close to them.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people on the technology speaker's circuit who have a very altered state of reality and have no problem showing up a few minutes before they have to speak, and then within minutes of when the lights are out of their eyes and the PowerPoint has gone off the screen to be like vapor, and be in the wind.

It's a problem. And I have the solution.

Introducing The Conference Calcutta.

Think of the Conference Calcutta as the NFL Draft. You don't know whose up next until the speaker is picked.

Here's how it would work.

Speakers, keynotes, panel members and moderators all would be told that they are speaking on a certain day of a conference. To speak you have to arrive by the start of the conference. Rather than there being a keynote right off the bat, there would be a morning coffee break. There the attendees and speakers would get to mingle (without handlers keeping them in tow) and actually talk to the paying conference attendee who likely has paid to see them.

At the start of the conference sessions the first name would be drawn to speak. When that person is done speaking then the next presenter would be chosen, and so forth. Of course there would be more breaks throughout the day, plus the other speakers would actually be in the audience, able to ask questions of other speakers and of course be talking with attendees who paid to see them. The Conference Calcutta would also get the press out. Now the media, and bloggers would have the ability to get commentary from true giants of an industry easily, just like sports reporters get quotes from players and coaches after the game, right after a friendly rival or industry foe has spoken up on stage.

The Conference Calcutta also adds the level of unpredictability as to who talks when, and that keeps people in the audience as well or drives more hallway conversation as those not speaking move in and out of the main hall. Now some conference producers might challenge the fact that this breaks the flow, but other than DEMO, I've yet to attend a conference this year where some presenter didn't show up, or called to say they would be late, forcing the event producer to juggle the line up, the way hockey coaches juggle lines because someone went in the penalty box or got a charley horse.

In an era where openness fueled idealism seems to be the coin of the realm in technology, The Conference Calcutta bring that approach of "we're all here and want to be more open" to the forefront. I for one look forward to some adventurous conference organizer taking the lead and staging the first Conference Calcutta.

Comments

[Brad Templeton]

Andy, you can't be serious. Yes, when I am invited to speak I usually hang around, but this isn't something you can always do. There are a lot of different speakers at conferences, but many of the ones you are talking about are not paid for their appearance, and have busy schedules to boot, usually setting up meetings when in a different town.

If you're talking about paid speakers, getting fat speaking fees, that's another story. In this case the people are paying the speakers to see them. Otherwise they are paying the conference, and the speaker is there because they want to raise their profile, or get a certain message out, and it's up to them how they're going to do it. It would be nice if they stayed but if you put down this regime, a fair number of them simply wouldn't come.

Even if they do have the day generally open and want to attend the rest of the conference they will want the ability to schedule meetings with people during sessions they don't wish to see. If they appear at a random time they can't schedule meetings with anybody.

This could only work in a very limited subset of circumstances. Very limited. (I go to conferences where speakers all are paid conference members too, it might work there.)

For paid speakers, this would simply be part of their contract. Don't play the random game -- which also makes it harder for attendees to schedule their own day, and their hallway time and meetings. Just pay them to be there all day. If you don't pay them for that, don't expect it.