How Events & Conferences Should End

Yesterday I gave the closing talk, How To Champion Ideas, at An Event Apart Seattle (If you saw me at AEA Boston, those slides are here) . It was a new talk, requested by organizers Marci Eversole, Jeffrey Zeldman & Toby Malina. From their observations and attendee feedback they knew one big challenge for all events is how to help attendees bring ideas with them back to work. As an experiment, they asked me to do a talk on this as part of the event itself. I thought it was great that both they were thinking about this issue and they were willing to do an experiment. I wish more organizers were as thoughtful and as brave.

One primary observation: events should end with a happy hour. Or perhaps, like Webstock, with an after party at the venue. Most events end as soon as the last speaker finishes speaking. It’s a cliff of an experience: all of sudden there’s nothing. Why not invite people out for an informal social gathering, where they get one last chance to connect, share stories, and talk about highlights from the event, now that it’s over? As an experiment I invited everyone out to a drink after my talk, and the result was great. About 45 people joined me, and we took over most of Black Bottle.

I discovered that most people want this, but are afraid to take the social risk of trying to organize. It’s exactly the kind of thing an event, or the last speaker, can facilitate. Pick a place, a time, and announce it. Boom. Instant extension of the energy of an event, giving everyone more value for coming to the event at all. Thanks to everyone who came along and validated this little experiment. It would have been sad  if I ended up drinking there alone.

Of course at a big event you can’t just invite 500 people to go to a bar together (But I basically did this, guessing 5 to 10% would come, which was about right. You might not be as crazy as I am though). If you’re worried about the logistics, simply make it an unofficial but encouraged activity. Offer signup sheets during the day, and find 5 or 6 volunteers willing to lead small groups out for a beer. Maybe ask each volunteer to call ahead a local bars to see who  wouldn’t mind a nice rush. Events are often on weekdays which are slow nights for bars: they’ll be happy to hear from you. The key thing the event needs to do is announce it and provide the structure (time, place, etc).

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Here are the slides from my closing talk, which offers a range of advice on how to get the most out of an event (as it’s ending). Thanks to everyone who commented on my related post.

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17 Responses to “How Events & Conferences Should End”

  1. Jess Vetter

    Great presentation, Scott and you organized such a fun happy hour. So glad to have an ‘unofficial’ event night. You’ve inspired me to do this more, back in my own city.

    Reply
    1. Scott

      Thanks Jess – kudos to you for coming along and helping prevent me from looking like a fool.

      Reply
  2. Lois

    I like this idea. A lot of times the last session or two, let alone a gathering afterwards, is seen as completely dispensable, because going to it means that you will have to miss the last flight of the day home. I’m not sure of a good solution to that, other than to suggest that the end may be more important than the beginning.

    Reply
    1. Scott

      Often many people don’t leave until the next day – and for those who leave earlier, they might make different plans if even the informal closing happy hour were on the schedule somewhere.

      Reply
  3. Michael D

    I was surprised and entertained to come across slide 42 with pictures of both Don’t Think of an Elephant and Words That Work, probably the two books I read in high school that most shaped by world-view. I’d love to know more about the context of this slide that prompted you to bring these two books up, and I’m entertained you’ve read them too.

    Reply
    1. Scott

      Happy to surprise you in this case.

      The context was about how metaphor and language shape how people respond to the same facts. For people returning to work after an event (or reading a book) who want their organization to change, how they frame those changes will have tremendous impact on how successful they are or not.

      Did you have a favorite among the two books? Many similarities.

      Reply
  4. Daniel

    This really highlights an aspect of Webstock that they do so well. Brilliant decision to not only finish on a Friday (end of the week, no pressure to get back to work the next day / can sleep in on Saturday morning), but also have the party night at the end of the conference. Keeps the energy high and offers another great chance to mingle in a more relaxed context (don’t have to worry about taking your seats in time for the next session).

    I guess it also helps having the party at the same venue (St James foyer this year) rather than somewhere else to keep numbers high. Though to be fair, previous years’ parties have been similarly populated at the Embassy Theatre.

    Reply
    1. Scott

      Excellent point – I added a brief mention of Webstock. I’d forgotten about their after party.

      Reply
  5. Judah

    Great presentation and a great idea. I really enjoyed attending the happy hour, it was like a bonus AEA event. Thanks for organizing it.

    Reply
    1. Scott

      Your welcome. Thanks for coming along and making it a success.

      Reply
  6. Todd Greer

    Great to see the slides (only wish I could hear your audio – my loss). Interesting to think about how each of us can work to integrate these practices into our “conference lives”.

    Reply
    1. Scott

      It’d be good for conferences to at least float tip sheets for how to get the most of a conference. I’ll see about putting one together.

      Reply
      1. Todd Greer

        Love the idea as a conference starter. “Idiot’s Guide to Getting the Most Out of This Conference”!

        Reply
  7. James Robertson

    Nice idea Scott!

    I’m adding the post-conference meet-up to our list of ideas for our Intranet2014 conference in Sydney. Hopefully we can make it happen!

    Cheers, James

    Reply
  8. Lauren

    Hi Scott,
    Interesting idea. As an event organizer we know that many people are rushing out to catch flights after the last talk (if they haven’t already left). For those staying an extra night (especially out on the west coast), this is a welcome activity. I like the idea of having it as an impromptu idea where it’s mentioned perhaps earlier in the day via announcements and Twitter and it’s not an official organized activity by the conference itself. We’ll test it out at this year’s UI19 conference.

    Lauren

    Reply
    1. Scott

      It’s not much data, but I’ve given this talk twice now, once in Seattle and once in Boston. Both events were 300-500 people total. In both cases I had about 10% of the attendees join me, which to me is more than enough to validate the idea. It also took very little effort to do – all you need is a crazy person like me who was going to have a beer anyway, and a simple reservation at a place so they know a group is coming (hotel bars often work well since they’re often pretty empty, but have plenty of room).

      Reply
  9. Cathy

    Until recently I used to attend 3 day Waste Management conferences with 2 or 3 colleagues, but one of them was a particularly good speaker, and well able to entertain an audience. We would attend as many sessions as possible, but our note taking each evening was to capture any amusing or out of the ordinary incidents. We knew that our talented speaker colleague would invariably be asked to finish the conferences with a summary of the event, with an “unofficial” and “behind the scenes” view of what had happened, so we fed him our nuggets of humor, as did many others. Our last lunchtime became, a hectic briefing and impromptu scripting meeting for our colleague’s “warts and all”, Conference Summary speech. The result was that our little team was repeatedly complimented by the organizers for retaining a much larger audience than normal right up until the very end of the last day. http://wastersblog.com

    Reply

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