(This week, PR News editors Phil Hall and Aaron Jenkins agitate for more fun at trade conferences.)
AARON: Dear conference planners of the world: If you want to maximize the number of attendees of your one-day or multi-day event, may I suggest one simple ingredient:
Balance. In many multi-day business conferences, the initial "Welcome one, welcome all!" banner is waved in a carefree backdrop of hors d'oeuvre and spirits. But that celebratory
tone quickly nosedives into a snoozepalooza by day two - a day belabored by too many seminars and too little fun. Why does this happen when proper planning could prevent all of
this? Of course, it's necessary to pack all of those seminars in, but balancing it with light-hearted fare or spacing more of the planned entertaining activities out can prevent a
conference from being just another, er, conference.
PHIL: The worst PR buzz a trade conference can generate is the buzz of snores. People remember all-work trade conferences, and not with fondness. Yes, people are coming
to attend workshops, check out new products, network, etc. But let's live in the real world: People also expect trade conferences to have some fun attached to them. Aaron, you
were recently at the IABC's 2006 International Conference - how did they mix work and fun?
AARON: What was exciting about the IABC conference was its location in the up-and-coming city of Vancouver. This proved to be a worthwhile locale, which demonstrated
conference lesson number one: If a conference cannot deliver the goods in the business-entertainment ratio, then at least people have the event's surroundings to fall back on in
order to detox from daylong intensive seminars. Unfortunately, such was the case for the IABC powwow. From the opening, the conference proved to be promising - the welcoming
reception was held in the company of aquatic life at the city's aquarium (the beluga show was a whale of a good time!). But once the second day commenced, the conference lost its
wind. True, each day was capped by dinners, but those were either too pricey or sold out. What would've been welcomed was a day field trip to one of Vancouver's many hotspots but,
alas, it was not to be. However, one can't help but look with excitable anticipation at next year's IABC conference site: New Orleans.
PHIL: As we of the Creole world love to say: Laissez les bon temps roulez!