使会议更有价值的4个简单方法

4 Simple Ways to Make Your Conference More Valuable

作者·Author / David McMillin

译/ 张丽娟

 “明年我将自己付钱来参加。”这可能是一项活动能从参与者那里获得的最高赞誉——这正是PCMA的数字内容总监Rebecca Schingel参加完3月28-30日在德克萨斯州奥斯汀举行的CXL Live活动之后告诉我的。在此次活动中，组织者给了她一个免费的通行证，但是她说她从这次活动中得到了很多东西，并很乐意支付超过1500美元去参加下一届活动。是什么让她的经历如此特别？这个活动除了由Airbnb、戴尔、Instagram和其他一些领先公司分享见解之外，在活动设计上有四个关键要素值得我们借鉴，可以考虑一下如何将这些经验应用到下一次活动之中。 

This collaborative research project conducted by the Foundations of the major incentive travel and meeting associations--Site and MPI --is an excellent illustration of the power of teamwork. Sensing a growing convergence between inventive travel and meeting functions in areas of planning and program delivery, the two associations joined forces to document this trend for the first time.

1  雇人做笔记

Hire Someone to Take Notes.

走进任何一个常规的会议，你很可能会发现许多与会者在ipad上疯狂打字或者潦草地记笔记。这是一个很好的迹象，表明他们在寻找值得记住的信息，但同时他们可能就没有足够的精力来跟进对话的进展。但是在CXL Live上，观众都在专注于思考和参与——这要感谢一位记录员，在整个活动中，他都把笔记录入了一个Google文档。整个文件有46页，都是一些有价值的会议笔记，而且该文件在活动期间和活动结束后对于参会者来说都是可用的。

Walk into any regular conference session, and you’ll most likely find a number of attendees typing furiously on iPads or scribbling notes. That’s a good indication that they’re finding information worth remembering, but they may be racing to catch up with the conversation. At CXL Live, the audience focused on thinking and engaging — thanks to a transcriptionist who typed notes into a Google Doc throughout the entire program. The entire document — 46 pages of post-it-note-worthy insights — was available for all attendees throughout the conference and when they returned home.

2  分享一切

Share Everything.

谷歌文档并不是与会者在返回办公室时可以看到的唯一文件。“他们分享了每一场演讲的幻灯片，”Schingel说，“所以我可以看一些我喜欢的演讲者的幻灯片来回顾我想要实现的想法。

The Google Doc wasn’t the only piece of the conference that attendees could review when they returned to their offices. “They shared the slides from every presentation,” Schingel said. “So I can go back through some of my favorite speakers’ slides for reminders of the ideas I want to implement.”

3  拥有单轨思维

Have a One-Track Mind.

CXL Live取代了通常的多轨思维，不是同时进行好几个分论坛，而是采用了一种简单的模式：同一时间段只有一个日程，参与者没必要在演讲者和讨论话题之间做出取舍选择。“这是一个单轨会议，”CXL Live的议程中写道，“你可以看到每个人。”

对Schingel来说，这是一个特别有价值的好处。她说：“每个环节都有30分钟长，且每个环节都值得一看。”“这也确实推动了与会者之间的讨论。因为我们都在看同样的环节，所以我们在休息的时候都可以就相同的内容做出讨论。”

CXL Live replaced the usual multi-track, concurrent-session approach with a simple model: one agenda with no need to choose between speakers and topics. “This is a single-track conference,” the CXL Live agenda read. “You get to see everyone.”

For Schingel, that was an especially valuable benefit. “Every session was 30 minutes long, and every session was worth seeing,” she said. “It really helped drive discussions among attendees, too. Since we were all seeing the same sessions, we could all have conversations about the content during breaks.”

4  让演讲人就在附近

Make Your Speakers Stick Around.

对话环节也不局限于参加会议的大约500名与会者，那些出现在舞台上的专家也都可以参与讨论。“所有的演讲人都会呆在那里，并参与对话讨论”，Schingel说，“他们很容易找到。所以，如果你听到一些与你产生共鸣的观点，你可能会在另一个会议上与那个演讲者坐在一起，有机会和他/她一对一的谈话。” 

Those conversations weren’t confined to the approximately 500 attendees at the conference, either. The experts who had appeared on stage also joined in. “All the speakers stay for the program, and they participate in sessions, too,” Schingel said. “They’re very accessible. So if you hear something that really resonates with you, you’ll probably be sitting close to that speaker in another session with an opportunity to talk to him or her one-on-one.”