My Books

Find out more about my three books: Conferences That Work, The Power of Participation, and Event Crowdsourcing: Creating Meetings People Actually Want and Need.

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Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love

Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love (2009) condenses 30+ years of experience convening, designing, and facilitating hundreds of conferences into an information-packed step-by-step guide to a proven design for creating productive relevant conferences that people love. A free supplement that updates the book with the latest improvements is included with all purchases from this site (or download it here).

What reviewers and peer conference participants say:

“Fantastic!…One of the first books that really talks about design aspects in a whole new way.”
—Janet Sperstad, CMP, Program Director, Meeting and Event Management, Madison College

“If you’re going to read ONE book on events this year, make it Conferences That Work by Adrian Segar.”
Rob Davidson, Managing Director, MICE Knowledge

“A brilliant discussion of the idea of peer conferences.”
—Nick Morgan, Public Words

“If you’re unfamiliar with small, friendly, interactive, energizing, everyone-gets-to-know-everyone, participant-driven, learning-with-and-from-each-other conferences, this book makes a compelling case for them.”
—Naomi Karten, Naomi Karten Associates

“Conferences That Work is one of the best books ever written on a new generation of organizing meetings and conferences.”
—Hulya Ceren, @Madagascar LIVE!

“In this book, the author outlines a unique and innovative model for conferences and other events that engages the collective wisdom of those present. Reminiscent of Open Space Technology but with slightly more structure, this model revolutionizes the conference experience and provides a deeper level of learning and connections that traditional conferences woefully lack.”
—Marty Jacobs, President, Systems In Sync

“There’s a relatively new, growing trend towards unconferences, sometimes organized using open space technologies. An excellent ‘how to’ book on organizing this type of conference is Conferences that Work by Adrian Segar.”
—Gregg Marshall, American Institute of Inspectors

“Awesome. Your book has helped make @TEDxCanberra what it is.”
—Stephen Collins, Founder, acidlabs

“Thank you for opening my eyes to how wonderful, informative, and engaging a conference can be!”
—Melissa Chambers, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School

“…one of the most innovative and eye-opening professional experiences I’ve had. Aside from coming back with lots of new tips and ideas, I easily established triple the number of new contacts, and formed stronger relationships with them, than at any other conference I’ve been to.”
—Howard Givner, Founder and Executive Director of the Event Leadership Institute

“I’m an introvert. I’ve never shared as much at a conference before. Your process is brilliant. Thank you.”
—Conference participant’s public testimonial to Adrian at September 2017 peer conference

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The Power of Participation: Creating Conferences That Deliver Learning, Connection, Engagement, and Action

Reviews | Table of Contents | Five sample chapters
Smart presenters and meeting organizers are integrating experiential learning and peer connection into their events. This book tells you how to do it. Buy The Power of Participation to learn why it’s so important to incorporate participant action into every aspect of your event, what you need to know to create a meeting environment that supports and encourages participation, and when and how to use this extensive compendium of specific, detailed techniques to radically improve your sessions and meetings.

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Event Crowdsourcing: Creating Meetings People Actually Want and Need

Reviews | Table of Contents | Five sample chapters

Do your conference programs contain sessions you belatedly discover were of little interest or value to most attendees? If so, you’re wasting significant stakeholder and attendee time and money — your conference is simply not as good as it could be. Now imagine you used event crowdsourcing to routinely create conference programs that reliably include the sessions and session content attendees actually want and need. How much value would that add to your event; for your attendees, your sponsors, and your bottom line?

Event Crowdsourcing: Creating Meetings People Actually Want and Need will show you how to create conference programs that reliably become what your attendees want and need. The product of my 33 years of participant-driven conference program design experience, Event Crowdsourcing clearly explains everything you need to know to successfully integrate effective real-time event crowdsourcing into your meeting programs and sessions.

The book clearly explains program and session crowdsourcing and how to use it to improve your events. It also includes a comprehensive set of crowdsourcing techniques and describes how to choose the right ones for your meetings. When you read it and apply what you learn, I guarantee your events will be better!

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