Professional conferences have an interesting business model. We charge hundreds or thousands of dollars for attendees to participate in education programming primarily delivered by their peers (who receive little to no compensation).
These peer presenters benefit with the hope of being viewed as an industry thought leader or, as in the case of scientific and medical meetings, advancing their careers.
Most industry presenters have had little to no training in how to design and deliver a meaningful learning experience. This fact puts the core of our conference business model at risk.
One of the smartest ways of lowering this risk is for conference organizers to invest in developing their industry presenters. The ultimate goal is to help them become better designers and facilitators of learning experiences. If you are able to develop a faculty as an asset, your business model is substantially improved.
Reprinted with permission from Velvet Chainsaw’s Sticky Conference newsletter.
