SANDCamp 2011 Meeting - May

Read http://www.justinkownacki.com/2010/04/26/the-golden-rule-for-conferences/ for the complete story. Very much worth it!

Always deliver more in person than you deliver online.

10 Tips for Conference Organizers

1. Promise attendees, speakers and sponsors one specific payoff; then deliver it.
2. Start on time, stay on time, stop on time.
3. Make it easy for attendees to network before, during and after the event.
4. Don’t enforce your event’s brand at the expense of your audience’s experience.
5. Nourish the attention spans of your attendees.
6. Sponsors deserve better than being chained to display tables and ignored.
7. Provide more value than the ticket price would suggest.
8. Would you pay to attend your own event? If not, add value until you would.
9. Be conscious of homogeneity; sexism, racism and cronyism damage when implied.
10. Promoting your event doesn’t stop when the event itself stops.

10 Tips for Conference Speakers

1. Stop repeating your bio; we can find that on our own.
2. Don’t thank the organizers for inviting you; save that for the VIP room.
3. Tell me a story. Data without context is just numbers.
4. If your entire presentation consists of information I already know, you’ve failed.
5. Ditto presentations comprised of things I could discover by Googling you.
6. The auditorium is your bedroom. Dazzle us. We paid for it.
7. Everyone in the room should want to hear you speak again.
8. Always leave time for a Q&A.
9. Don’t make your entire speech a Q&A; the audience paid to hear you, not itself.
10. Leave us with an action item, so your revelations will live on beyond your exit.
11. Bonus points if you rejoin the audience after your presentation; it reminds us you’re human.

10 Tips for Conference Attendees

1. You paid to be there (with your money, time or both). Use it.
2. Don’t come to sell; come to help.
3. You’re not required to listen. If the stage is dry, seek wisdom in the gallery.
4. Every conversation you have could change your life.
5. Spend less time documenting the event than experiencing it.
6. A speaker is more (or less) than a sound bite; anoint your saviors accordingly.
7. Nobody wants to hear your pitch; they want to know why you matter.
8. Identify one interesting thing about yourself; when in doubt, talk about that.
9. Always make time for the after-party.
10. Always leave the after-party before you can’t.

And one bonus tip for everyone:

Time Stops at Live Events