Interesting comment you made about not being able to see the slides. That is Meeting planning 101 in my book. I hope someone called that out in evaluations.

Regarding Glenn Thayer, I get what you are saying, that it was planned, but I gotta believe no one knew just how bad the “canned” portion of that presentation would be. Glenn immediately brought life back to the session, speaking from a virtual perspective.

Thanks, Betsy for contributing to the conversation, your comments are greatly appreciated.

Mike

@michaelmccurry

It is a great addition to the conversation to hear the perspectives of those attending this General Session face2face. I love your comments about the “Pause” slide…. too funny!

I was also very impressed with the customer service and engagement of the MPI “knowledge” customer service team. They have taken a very courageous approach to this relatively new concept called Hybrid events.

I do have a VAP, as you know and will check out your sessions when I have some free time, hopefully soon.

Thanks for contributing to the conversation, Eli,

Mike

@michaelmccurry

Just as Dave mentioned, I did feel that Marty Neumeier’s presentation was a miss. Not because of the content, but because of the delivery. I left after he posted a slide as part of his presentation which was a picture of what i think was this scenic waterfall and the word “PAUSE” on the bottom corner. This was his cue to “pause for a drink of water”. Everyone at my table was in shock and hoping it was a joke. Apparently it wasn’t. I actually decided that from now on, in my presentations, I am going to put in a PAUSE slide. It definitely got people talking and made it memorable.

Unfortunately, I really didn’t hear anyone that came out of that room say anything good. In fact, it was interesting just watching people’s faces and reactions as they left. Yes, he is a great innovator and great thinker, but delivering great content on paper and in person are two completely different things. Glenn Thayer is a fantastic emcee and did a great job not just trying to maintain the flow of this OGS but the others as well and keeping the conversation going throughout MeetDifferent.

From what I have come to understand, the structure of the Opening General Sessions was to somewhat mimic or be in the style of the TED conference. Unfortunately, while a great idea, it’s important to either (1) explain to the audience the reasoning or what they can expect, and (2) determine if a TED-style conference is really in the best interest of the audience.

What I do love about the knowledge team at MPI is that they are very receptive to opinions of people and they do take comments into great consideration. They are great to work with (i had 5 programs this time around at MD). I already voiced my concerns about the OGS’ and they definitely appreciate the feedback.

On a personal note, and shameless plug, for those that do have the Virtual Access Pass (free to MPI members), two of my sessions (Meeting Management in Latin America and Overcoming Destination Misperception) were both videotaped live for VAP.

-Eli

Unfortunately, those “ask the experts” sessions were not available to VAP attendees. That would have been a great way to take more value away from the experience for sure.

Maybe that is something MPI will decide to do next time!

@michaelmccurry

Attendees did have the opportunity to get together with the MeetDifferent keynotes at the “Ask the Expert” session immediately following the general session. This allowed in depth questions with the presenters that was specific to the attendees’ careers. The people that attended those sessions with the presenters came away with a lot of value. They were able to tap into the great level of expertise in an interactive small audience format.

@glennthayer

There are two key things to remember here. First is that Mike is pointing out the virtual attendee experience. I am all for experimenting. Go for it, but don’t charge me a high fee to be part of your experiment. Charge the fee only when you’ve tested and have a complete experience ready to go…not something you just tacked on.

Second, we are talking about a keynote…not an educational session. Different skill sets are needed for different circumstances. A keynote MUST be engaging and entertaining as well as educational. I expect a keynote session speaker to be a generalist but they must be able to specifically address the needs of the audience. They generally get paid a good fee and they are there to engage the audience and yes even entertain them.

An educational session is a completely different thing. I’m a science nerd and attend a lot of science and medical conferences. Some speakers have a great ability to engage the audience and be entertaining while delivering a very narrow educational session. Some presenters are terrible speakers but their content is amazing and that’s more than OK with me. I wish they could be both but I’ll take content over just entertainment any day when it comes to this type of presentation. I’m completely ok with separating the valuable content from presentation style when need be.

But keynotes…I’m sorry, you have an obligation as a meeting planner to vet these people. Disappointingly many organizations do not. Motivational speakers are quite popular but to me they are a waste of my time to attend. The only motivation I need is to look at my mortgage bill every month. And just because some person wrote a best seller doesn’t mean you should jump at the opportunity should they deem your organization worthy of their time at $30,000 speaking fee. Vet, vet, vet these people!

You bring up an excellent point Pat.. we talk about understanding our customers, but it probably makes some sense that we ought to understand the people we engage to do work for us as well.

When you are writing a check for a big name speaker does it make sense to sample the product before you submit payment. Of course it does. Like any other business transaction you need to understand the value of the experience you will get before you reward the person providing it.

As Emilie Barta pointed out in her comments the only acceptable choice in a “keynote” speaker is someone that is “good content, good presentation.” Anything less than that is doing a dis-service to your organization.

Thanks for contributing to this discussion, it is much appreciated.

Mike

@michaelmccurry