OK, I have to admit it...The Annual Meeting for ASAE/The Center far exceeded my expectations...and I'm happy about it.
I say this only somewhat sarcastically because I always have exceedingly high expectations for conferences. Expectations that are pretty hard for any organization to attain, I willingly admit. In fact, I was so disgusted with a national education and training conference (by the way, it wasn't an ASAE or Center event) two years ago, I wrote an article for Executive Update magazine where I ranted about said conference. Now keep in mind, the association that hosted that conference claims to be at the cutting edge of learning - so I was all too happy to point out that their conference was nothing more than any other conference, where participants sit in cold convention center ballrooms with dim lighting listening to boring PowerPoint presentations....
This being my baseline for most conferences I wasn't sure what to expect this past weekend. However, ASAE and The Center pulled out all of the stops to host a very delightful conference. I carefully chose the word "delightful" because each day provided new surprises that were actually entertaining, educational, and sometimes even fun.
While my primary purpose for attending Annual in the past is to present a session on eLearning and catch up with my buddies in the halls during sessions, I actually spent the majority of my time in conference sessions with provocative speakers. Here is what I liked about the content and format of the conference design...
- There were "conversation cafes" where participants could sit down in comfortable seats and chat with colleagues
- There was free coffee and beverages available all day long (near the conversation areas) - not just during break sessions
- Big name speakers presented very appropriate content relevant to associations
- There were plenty of computer stations available to check email - and the lines were never that long
- There was a country band that played three songs at the beginning of the opening session each morning - each song was about association life to the tune of a famous country song (I'll get a link so you can hear it for yourself). They were very funny.
- ASAE and The Center did a great job of keeping the pomp of awards, etc. from taking up all of the time during the opening sessions (a huge complaint in everyone's book from years past)
- The overall quality of the conference content was excellent
Anyone looking for some great ideas on how to add value to a conference really needs to model some of the great things that ASAE/The Center did with Annual.
Kudos to the education and meetings staff for such an excellent job well done! It takes a lot to "wow" me and you guys did it!
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