Conferences are more than just keynotes: How to make the Audience a Part of the Conversation
With the abundance of online conferences, if you choose to travel to a conference these days you expect it to be worth your time. You didn’t travel that far to just sit in an audience and be talked to. The most connections and conversations happen in the random hallway conversations after the sessions. What if more of the conference was like that? An opportunity to connect.
At this year's AppFolio FUTURE Conference, I saw an opportunity to create those connections by introducing an Open Space session, giving attendees a space where their expertise and perspectives could take center stage.
This wasn't just about making the conference interactive; it was about positioning the audience as the experts.
As I’ve summarized in previous posts, Open Space is a self-organized meeting where those who shows up are the ones to suggest the topics, assign those topics to different tables, choose which discussions to take part it, and then choose to spend their time at one topics to switch as many times as they want.
In my previous sessions, I knew my audience and could share out information beforehand. Here is how I adapted the format to fit this new audience:
I anchored the session around a strategic theme informed by the conference content: "What is the future of performance management?" Since the session was held toward the end of the conference, attendees had the benefit of new product ideas and other speaker insights. That made this session a good reflection point to end the conference.
There was also limited time, just 45 minutes, not the 3 hours I was used to before. So, I had to quickly and effectively explain the format, limit the number of topics, and make sure to we could spend more of the time focused on each other.
With around 30 highly engaged attendees, three related topics emerged for discussion:
How to best use virtual assistants across property operations?
Best practices for training teams on new AI tools
How roles and team structures will change as AI capabilities mature?
Attendees were happy and engaged. People shared challenges, personal experiences, and, even created from some new professional connections. All in 45 minutes!
This Open Space experience proved that even a short, well-structured interactive session can add to the value of an in-person conference. By designing for connection and empowering the participants to own the agenda, we created a unique and memorable experience.
If you are looking to turn your next summit, offsite, or large-scale team meeting from a series of lectures into an engine for collective problem-solving, I would love to help you design and facilitate a powerful, participant-driven event.
