Kill the Keynote. Save the Budget. Elevate the Experience.

Kill the keynote! A split image: on the right, a large audience listens to a keynote speaker on a stage in a dark room; on the left, small groups of conference attendees sit outdoors around small tables in an arbor next to a garden and pond.Here’s something that many conference organizers suspect but rarely act on:

Big-name keynote speakers don’t make your event memorable.

In fact, they’re probably sabotaging both your budget and your attendees’ experience.

I’ve spent decades designing and facilitating conferences that people rave about. Along the way, I’ve watched countless organizers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars securing “top-tier” keynote speakers—only to discover that attendees barely remember what was said, let alone find ways to apply it. Meanwhile, the actual time attendees spend connecting, learning from one another, and getting what they came for is limited, under-designed, or completely absent.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

There’s a better way to spend your money—and your time.

It’s time to kill the keynote.

The real emotional experience of a keynote

Think about the last keynote you attended. Maybe the speaker was charismatic. Maybe the story was moving. But what happened next?

You clapped.
You left the room.
You remembered a line or two (maybe).
And then you forgot about it.

Keynotes are emotional performances. They make people feel, which has value. But those feelings are typically transient, passive, and unshared. Keynotes are one-way delivery.

What if, instead, your attendees:

☞Felt that they mattered?
☞Arrived to find a conference built around their real wants, needs, and questions?
☞Talked to each other more than they were talked at?
☞Left not just inspired, but changed?

Changed by:

☞Learning about what they actually came to learn.
☞The connections they made that had real value.
☞Becoming part of a community that truly mattered to them.

From stage to circle: Spend less, deliver more

When you shift your investment from keynote stages to meeting design and facilitation, you don’t just reduce costs—you multiply the value.

For a fraction of what you’d pay a big-name speaker, you can:

  • Design participatory sessions that attendees shape and co-create.
  • Facilitate peer learning that surfaces untapped expertise already in the room.
  • Foster real connection and trust—what attendees often say is the best part of an event.
  • Build long-term loyalty and community because people feel seen, heard, and engaged.

When participants have the chance to speak, listen, learn, and collaborate, they leave saying:

“That was the best conference I’ve ever attended.”

And they mean it.

Don’t keep this a secret

Here’s the kicker: Events designed for genuine interaction and transformation don’t just feel better—they perform better.

Sadly, too often, meeting conveners don’t know that better is possible. Or if they do, they’re afraid to give up the safety of the keynote model.

So don’t keep this a secret. If you’ve attended or created a participatory event that blew you away, share that story. If you’re a planner or convener, talk to your peers about rethinking the formula. And if you’re ready to move beyond the one-way stage model, reach out—I’d love to help.

You don’t need a famous name to make your event unforgettable.
You need the courage to design for connection, not celebrities.

And that starts by asking not, “Who will wow the audience?” but, “What learning, connection, and community will we create—together?”

Kill the keynote!

To Support Our Peers Prioritize Conversations Over Stories

How can we best support our peers? Two powerful approaches are learning from shared stories and engaging in one-on-one conversations. But is one more effective than the other?

This question came up recently during an Association Chat weekly group conversation. As we discussed challenges association professionals face, one of us shared how impactful it can be for them to hear individual stories from peers with relevant life experiences. related to their association or independent work. They proposed collecting and sharing these stories as a resource to help others navigating similar paths.

I agreed that shared stories can offer valuable insights. But in association work, where individual journeys, roles, and organizational dynamics differ greatly, I believe that one-on-one peer conversations and mentoring are even more powerful. These direct exchanges allow for real-time support tailored to the listener’s unique situation, something static stories can rarely achieve.

The Power of Peer Conversation

This idea is backed by recent data. A survey of association, corporate, and nonprofit event professionals conducted by Fuse, JDC Events, and Bear Analytics—“Future-Ready Events: A Blueprint for Connection, Growth, and Innovation”—highlighted the value of interactive formats:

This idea is backed by recent data. A survey of association, corporate, and nonprofit event professionals by Fuse, JDC Events, and Bear Analytics, “Future-Ready Events: A Blueprint for Connection, Growth, and Innovation,” highlighted the value of interactive formats.

“When it comes to fostering community at events, survey responses reveal that formats emphasizing interpersonal connection, collaboration, and practical learning rank far above entertainment or promotional content.”
Future-Ready Events: A Blueprint for Connection, Growth, and Innovation

Here’s how the meeting planners ranked the effectiveness of content formats at their meetings:
Support our peers! A bar graph of meeting content formats ranked by effectiveness Networking Sessions: Building connections within the community: 22.2%. Practical Workshops: Collaborative learning through hands-on activities: 18.8%. Educational Sessions: Learning together to deepen collective knowledge: 17.9%. Panel Discussions: Engaging in community-driven dialogue on relevant topics: 14.5%. Inspirational Talks: Sharing stories that unite and motivate: 10.6%. Entertainment Segments: Enjoying shared cultural experiences to strengthen community bonds: 9.7%. Product Demonstrations: Exploring new solutions as a community: 6.3%.
The four top-listed formats all involve peer conversation and interaction. “Inspirational Talks”—the sharing of stories—ranked fifth, with only a 10.6% effectiveness ranking.

The study’s broader findings align with this. It emphasizes that successful events “foster deeper loyalty, connection, and long-term impact.”

“The key lies in fostering a true sense of belonging and community, a sentiment that 42.6% of planners cited as the top priority for driving return attendance, and 52.9% included in their top two.”

In other words, what people need most at events—and, I would argue, in professional life—is authentic human connection. Not just curated narratives, but real-time, mutual presence. Conversation creates a space where people feel seen, heard, and supported. A space where they can receive and offer support and mentorship.

When we want to support our peers, stories matter. But dialogue meets people where they are.

Why trust is the deciding factor in whether I attend your conference

Do I trust you?

A woman about to enter a glowing teleportation pod.
If teleportation were free, would you still go?

I live in rural Vermont, so if I want to go to an in-person conference that isn’t close to me, I need to get on an airplane.

The closest airport to me is a two-hour drive. Unless the event is in the northeastern United States, I need a full day to get there and another to return, even longer if it’s abroad.

For me—and, I suspect, most attendees—getting there is one factor in choosing whether to attend. But it’s only one factor. As Seth Godin says:

“Getting to the conference in Santa Fe isn’t difficult. Someone will drive/fly you there. The hard part is deciding to go. And yet, it might take 8 hours to arrive.

If they invented teleportation and offered it for free, it would be very clear that where we went would simply depend on where we decided to go, not the mechanics, cost or time it took.”
—Seth Godin, At the speed of judgment

Even if we could remove all barriers of travel time, energy, and expense—even if you could snap your fingers and appear there instantly—many people still wouldn’t go.

Why? Because something else matters more.

Here are some obvious reasons people say yes (or no) to a conference:

  • Relevance of content
  • Potential personal and employer benefits
  • Opportunities for meaningful connection
  • Location
  • Cost
  • Time commitment
  • Sense of belonging or inclusion
  • Physical environment and experience design
  • Health and safety considerations
  • Employer support
  • Timing and life conflicts
  • Previous experience or word of mouth
  • Opportunities to contribute
  • Event marketing effectiveness

But one factor—quiet, powerful, and usually overlooked—can outweigh them all.

Trust.

If I don’t trust the people convening, designing, or running the event—if I don’t believe the experience will be welcoming, thoughtful, and aligned with my values—I’m not going.

If I suspect the event will be rigid, overly hierarchical, sales-driven, or soulless, no travel convenience, discount code, or high-profile keynote will convince me to show up.

And, if I believe I’ll feel like a passive object to be “delivered” content, rather than a human being invited to participate meaningfully, I’ll stay home and read a good book instead.

What kind of trust matters?

Attending a conference requires multiple kinds of trust. We often don’t articulate them, but they quietly shape our decision long before we hit “Register.”

  • Do I trust that I’ll be respected—not just tolerated?
    If I don’t see people like me in your program, if your language feels exclusive, if your agenda looks like it hasn’t changed in 10 years—I can’t trust that I’ll be seen, and my wants and needs will be met.
  • Do I trust that my time will be valued?
    Will the sessions invite participation, not just absorption? Will the breaks be long enough for real conversation? Will I be treated as a peer, not a lead?
  • Do I trust that the people there will be open, curious, and generous?
    One of the most reliable reasons I choose to attend a conference is because I’ve met someone who’s gone and said, “You’ll love the people there.”
  • Do I trust that the environment will help me thrive?
    This includes the design of the space, the facilitation style, and even the food and seating. Events that center human needs build trust before the first session even begins.
  • Do I trust the organizers to hold complexity?
    In a world full of nuance, competing needs, and uncertainty, I want to be in spaces led by people who don’t pretend everything is simple—or worse, try to sell certainty as a service.

How to build trust?

You don’t build trust with good intentions or glossy branding. Instead, you create it through design, invitation, and experience.

You build it when organizers:

  • Engage participants as co-creators, not just attendees
  • Tell the truth about what the event is, and what it isn’t.
  • Make the invisible visible—by explaining why things are structured the way they are.
  • Invite vulnerability and model it themselves.
  • Honor differences while creating spaces where people feel like they belong.

When I design and facilitate conferences, I spend just as much time thinking about how to establish trust as I do creating the event process.

Because without trust, nothing meaningful happens.

With it, almost anything can.

So… do I trust you?

That’s the real question every potential attendee is asking, whether they know it or not.

Before they register.

Before they book a flight.

And before they block out three days on their calendar.

They are deciding whether your event feels like a space where they can show up fully, safely, and meaningfully.

You may think you’re organizing a conference.

But you’re actually designing a trustworthy experience.

And the better you do that, the more likely I am to come.

A Participants’ Bill of Rights

I love the folks (especially my good friend, Jan-Jaap In der Maur) at Masters In Moderation, a company that has been providing meeting and facilitation services and training in the European Union since 2012. Why? Because their core beliefs about what truly matters at events are deeply aligned with mine. We recognize that events should be designed for and with participants rather than imposed upon them. We understand that engagement is not a gimmick but a fundamental right of every attendee. In short, we believe that participants have rights.

An illustration of three people gathered around a sign with the heading "THE PARTICIPANTS' BILL OF RIGHTS."
There are three bullet point on the sign:
• The right to belong.
• The right to contribute.
• The right to authentic, useful, and relevant conversations.
One of the people is saying "I love this!"

The Power of Participation

Too often, conferences default to passive experiences—attendees sit, listen, and leave without feeling seen, heard, or meaningfully involved. But Masters In Moderation and I reject this outdated model. Our work champions interactive, participant-driven approaches that transform meetings from stale information dumps into vibrant, co-created experiences.

Jan-Jaap has eloquently outlined these principles in The Participants’ Bill of Rights, a manifesto that articulates what every attendee deserves from an event. It’s a call to action for organizers, facilitators, and speakers to respect, empower, and prioritize the people in the room.

Some highlights that particularly resonate with me:

  • The right to be more than an audience, to belong. Participants should be active contributors, not passive spectators. Active engagement grows belonging.
  • The right to contribute. Events should provide structured ways for attendees to share their knowledge and perspectives.
  • The right to authentic, useful, and relevant conversations. Surface-level networking isn’t enough; meaningful dialogue should be built into the experience.

Jan-Jaap provides many more important details about participants’ rights in this Bill, which is well worth a careful read. As an event participant, how many of these rights do you find you have at events? If you’re convening events, how many of these rights do you give to your attendees?

Why This Matters

In my decades of experience designing conferences, I’ve seen firsthand how adopting these principles elevates events. When participants feel valued and engaged, they don’t just attend an event—they co-create it. When event conveners design and facilitate events honoring these principles, the result is a richer, more dynamic, more impactful, and ultimately better experience for everyone involved.

Jan-Jaap and Masters In Moderation are doing essential work to reshape meetings for the better. If you’re serious about making your events truly participatory and improving them for everyone involved, I highly recommend exploring their approach—and taking The Participants’ Bill of Rights to heart.

Improve your meetings: Make attendee status a real-time construct

Aside from my first book, I haven’t written much about the effects of attendee status — attendees’ “relative rank in a hierarchy of prestige” — at events. It’s time to revisit this important topic because you can improve your meetings by making attendee status a real-time construct.

Traditional event attendee status is pre-determined

Traditional, broadcast-style events assign attendee status in advance. A person’s status is determined before the event by whether they’re speaking and the context. For example, keynoting is of higher status than leading a breakout session. The program committee bestows status on certain attendees. Their status is publicly proclaimed on the pre-conference program, giving attendees no say in the decision.

Status at traditional events follows a power-over model, rather than designs that support power-within and maximize power-with for participants.

Peer conference event attendee status is real-time

At peer conferences (and some traditional events), attendee status is dynamic, shifting from moment to moment. Here’s how pre-determined and real-time attendee status compare:
A two column table contrasting the differences between pre-determined attendee status and real-time attendee status at events. Pre-determined attendee status —Assigned before the event. —Based on role and hierarchy. —Publicly communicated by the event program. —Controlled by organizers or a program committee. —Implies passive participation from “lower-status” attendees. —Reinforces pre-determined hierarchical divisions. Real-time attendee status —Changes dynamically during the event. —Based on participant contributions and engagement. —Event design minimizes assumptions about status. —Fluid and can change throughout the meeting. —Empowers attendees to influence discussions. —Reflects a more inclusive and participatory environment. Notice that events designed to support flexible, real-time attendee status:

  • Empower all attendees — not just a chosen few — to contribute and engage; and
  • Support inclusive, active learning by providing a participatory environment.

Minimizing assumptions about attendee status at traditional events

With careful design, even traditional events can minimize assumptions about attendee status.

Read the rest of this entry »

We need alternative platforms for communities and events

alternative platforms: An illustration dramatizing the difference between corporate and community owned platforms. On the left, an image of a decaying urban scene with the sign "Corporate Platforms" above a rusty locked gate. On the right, an image of an attractive small town open street with small shops and cafes, groups of people talking and walking around, trees and plants, and a sign that says "Community Owned Platforms"The corporate-owned platforms we rely on for professional and personal communities are increasingly failing to meet our needs. Major social media networks have become saturated with advertisements, data mining, and algorithmic controls that hinder authentic engagement. This shift poses significant threats to the integrity and autonomy of our online interactions. We need alternative platforms for communities and events.

The threats to online communities

Professional, cultural, and social online communities are at risk. Xitter is in the final stages of enshittification. Facebook is inundated with advertisements and extensive data mining practices. LinkedIn groups’ algorithms bury most comments and reduce the visibility of posts with links. While private groups on major platforms remain functional, opaque and ever-changing algorithms control what users see, and the future viability of these groups is uncertain.

In addition, all corporate platforms are vulnerable to changes imposed by the owners, who can sell them at any time to new proprietors with different visions for operation or monetization, potentially further compromising the user experience.

The Case for Alternative Platforms

Read the rest of this entry »

Why event planners often overlook the importance of attendee conversations

Event planners often overlook the importance of attendee conversations. Why does this happen?

For a clue, read this AT&T advertisement promoting telephones in the 1900’s!

Attendee conversations: AT&T advertising proof, 1909. "The Implement of the Nation." (File 1, box 1, series 1, N.W. Ayer Advertising Agency Record. Reproduced with permission of the Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Behring Center, Smithsonian Institution) https://www.researchgate.net/figure/AT-T-advertising-proof-1909-The-Implement-of-the-Nation-File-1-box-1-series-1_fig3_258184088
A 1909 AT&T advertisement that promotes the telephone as broadcast & messaging technology.
The_Implement_Of_The_Nation

Here’s Kevin Kelly’s analysis of what AT&T totally missed about how telephones could be used.

“Advertisements at the beginning of the last century tried to sell hesitant consumers, the newfangled telephone by stressing ways it could send messages, such as invitations, store orders, or confirmation of their safe arrival. The advertisers pitched the telephone as if it were a more convenient telegraph. None of them suggested having a conversation.

Kevin Kelly, “What Technology Wants” (p. 245)

Early telephone ads marketed it as a better telegraph. They focused on the value of sending messages rather than fostering conversation.

So, perhaps it’s not surprising that many conference organizers today make a similar mistake by emphasizing broadcast content over attendee interactions.

Just as advertisers missed the phone’s potential to connect people in real-time, many events fail to prioritize the natural value of attendee conversations. When organizers structure conferences as one-way content delivery sessions, they overlook the simple, high-impact power of peer-to-peer dialogue. By designing events that actively support and facilitate attendee conversations, conferences become spaces of meaningful connection, creativity, and insight that go far beyond passive listening.

Event planners must shift their mindset to seeing attendees as active participants, not just an audience. Facilitating genuine exchanges can turn an ordinary event into a transformative experience, helping people connect, share ideas, and solve problems together—things that no amount of broadcast content alone can achieve.

Reducing No-Shows at Free Events: A Bold Approach

Back view of people sitting in rows of chairs in a conference room. One of the chairs is empty and has a sign "No-Show Fee" hanging on the back.Liz Latham, co-founder of Club Ichi and a brilliant event marketer, recently shared an intriguing idea she plans to test to increase attendance at her free events.

Having registrants not show up has become a big problem for the meeting industry, especially for free events. Not long ago, registrants would reliably attend events they signed up for, barring unforeseen circumstances—a far cry from today’s reality. Price incentives for early registration worked, and predicting attendance rate and attrition was a science, not an art.

Those were the days!

Today, with the multiple impacts of easy online registration, FOMO rivalry, and more choices for events than ever, it’s far more likely that registrants don’t appear on the day.

For event conveners, this is at best dispiriting and at worst financially disastrous.

So anything we can do that might reduce the uncertainty and percentage of no-shows is worth considering.

Liz’s idea

Liz noticed a relatively new trend, that you may have experienced too. Some restaurants, fitness programs, hair salons, dentists, doctors, and other types of businesses have begun to charge a fee if a customer doesn’t show up for an appointment.

So Liz is considering taking credit-card information at registration time, and charging a “no-show fee” to the card if the registrant doesn’t attend.

Although this idea may be new to the meeting industry, the above links show that many appointment-based businesses routinely use this approach.

No-show fees aren’t needed for paid events, which can have cancellation policies that offer partial refunds, compensating, at least financially, for no-shows. Rather, Liz is thinking of testing no-show fees for the many free events she organizes, where attendance rates are often well below 50% of registrations.

Could no-show fees work for the meeting industry?

Pros: From a meeting organizer’s perspective, the implementation of a no-show fee may deter folks registering who only expect to attend if nothing better shows up at the time of the meeting. This minimizes waste by better aligning logistical preparations with actual attendance. Implementing no-show fees can also benefit registrants who do show up, since the promoted event size (including, optionally, a list of registrants) is more likely to be accurate.

Cons: Requiring credit card information at registration may frustrate those confident they’ll attend and adds security and logistical challenges for organizers. In addition, the organizers will need to create a refund policy for no-shows with a defined and legitimate reason (such as a death in the family, travel disruptions, etc.), and implementing this could be cumbersome.

Your thoughts?

Do you think implementing no-show fees at free events is an idea worth exploring? Have you tried or experienced no-show fees at a meeting? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!

Learn how to transform conferences with my meeting design workshop

If you are serious about improving your conferences, my meeting design workshop can be the game-changer your organization needs. Here’s what happens at a typical one-day workshop.

In a world where passive listening no longer satisfies attendees, traditional lecture-based conferences are ineffective and outdated. Today’s participants crave authentic engagement, meaningful connections, and interactive learning experiences. Are your conferences delivering the engagement, learning, and connection attendees expect? My meeting design workshops equip event professionals with the tools and techniques to create truly participatory and impactful experiences.

I’ve spent years helping organizations transform their events into connection-rich, engaging experiences through my hands-on meeting design workshops. Every workshop is customized to align with the organization’s goals and stakeholders’ wants and needs.

Here’s a peek behind the curtain!


Program for a typical one-day meeting design workshop

“You don’t take a workshop. You are part of one.”
Seth Godin

A diagram of the core process in Adrian Segar's meeting design workshops: cycles of workshop experiences, subsequent debriefs, and associated theory and backgroundThis one-day workshop offers a hands-on opportunity to learn through direct experience of participatory meeting formats and techniques. Participants will engage in cycles of interactive experiences followed by debriefs, interspersed with short “theory bites” that provide critical background knowledge and concepts. These formats will be introduced in the approximate order they might appear during a typical participatory and connection-rich event.

The following program is designed for a one-day, eight-hour schedule.

Opening

Workshop Introduction, Overview, and Agreements (~20 minutes)
Establishing explicit group agreements ensures a shared understanding of expectations and participant behavior, creating a collaborative foundation for the workshop.

Learning About Who’s in the Room (~60 minutes)
One of the most powerful ways to begin an event is by helping attendees discover key information about each other. This session will explore questions such as:

  • Who are my peers here? Who understands my work because they do what I do?
  • What are the nature and sizes of other attendee groups?
  • Which attendees work across groupings, and how?
  • Who else here lives or works near me?
  • How many years of experience are present? Who are the novices and the veterans?
  • How can we display the degree of consensus on a topic and make visible the distribution of participant opinions?

Using tools like human spectrograms, we will visualize participant data, uncover shared connections, and explore questions suggested by attendees.

Break (~15 minutes)

The Three Questions: Uncovering and Satisfying Participants’ Wants and Needs (~75 minutes)
How can we create a conference that becomes what participants actually want and need? This opening format allows participants to:

  • Learn fundamentally useful information about each individual present.
  • Share personal and collective wants and needs for the event.
  • Uncover the learning resources available within the group.

Insights will inform the design of the afternoon program. The session concludes with a debrief to reflect on the experience.

Lunch and Afternoon Session Determination (~75 minutes)
During lunch, participants will use the Post It! For Programs format to propose session ideas by answering the question: “If you could pick a session to hold at this workshop, using the people and resources around you, what would it be?”

Participants can:

  • Ask for or offer to lead a session.
  • Propose internal topics relevant to the organization or request specific formats, such as:
    • Ask Adrian Anything: (AMA).
    • Fishbowl Sandwich: Facilitating discussions on large group problems.
    • The Solution Room: Obtaining confidential peer-supported advice.
    • Open Space and World Café: Formats for short participant-driven conferences (Open Space) and dialog in small groups about predetermined questions (World Café).
    • Reminders, Sparks, Questions, Puzzles: A short format that allows participants to efficiently engage with and explore presented consent.
    • Voting formats: Exploring techniques like hand/stand, Roman, card, table, dot, and anonymous voting.

The outcome will be a tailored afternoon program that meets the group’s wants and needs.

Middle

The customized afternoon program will feature sessions chosen by participants, including opportunities for facilitated discussions, problem-solving, and peer learning. Breaks will be scheduled as needed. (~130 minutes)

Closing

Personal Introspective (~60 minutes)
This two-part session helps participants reflect on their learning and determine actionable changes to implement. This session may be adjusted or omitted if additional time is allocated to the afternoon program.

Break (~5 minutes)

Group Spective (~40 minutes)
A combination of retrospective and prospective feedback, this plenary session allows participants to share insights about the workshop and collectively reflect on its impact. It also fosters a sense of community and provides valuable feedback for future events.

This one-day workshop promises a rich, participatory learning experience that equips attendees with tools and techniques to create engaging and effective conferences that support the connection and learning attendees want and need.


Why choose a participatory meeting design workshop?

Meeting design workshops like these empower event planners and participants to:

  • Enhance Engagement: Move beyond passive listening by learning how to foster authentic and useful participation.
  • Build Meaningful Connections: Help attendees uncover relevant shared interests, expertise, and experience, and develop lasting professional relationships.
  • Maximize Learning: Leverage the expertise and experiences of the group to create valuable, participant-driven sessions that meet their wants and needs.

Every workshop is customized to align with your organization’s goals and the wants and needs of your audience.

By learning how to design participation-rich conferences, you’ll not only meet the expectations to learn and connect of today’s attendees but also elevate the impact and value of your events for all your stakeholders.

Ready to transform your events?

If this outline inspires you, let’s connect! I’d love to discuss how a participatory meeting design workshop can help you reimagine your events and deliver exceptional value to your stakeholders. Contact me today to explore how we can work together to create engaging, effective, and memorable conferences.