redesign

How can we improve conferences? Well, consider a bucket.

A bucket. A container with a handle. Pretty basic. Unchanged in design for thousands of years.

Until now.

Home Depot hired the design firm Herbst Produkt to design a better bucket. Scot Herbst watched people using buckets and noticed the traditional design was:

• uncomfortable to hold;
• didn’t pour liquids well; and
• hard to lift and maneuver.

So he designed the Leaktite Big Gripper bucket to provide a better bucket experience. The handle has a comfortable molded grip, the lip is shaped to provide a smooth pour, and two added grip pockets make it a cinch to pick up the bucket and pour its contents.

Yet, the new bucket is no more expensive to make than a traditional one. It just works better.

Similarly, it’s not hard to notice that traditional conference designs are:

• largely unresponsive to the actual needs of attendees;
• lacking significant experiential flow or arc; and
• poor at supplying and supporting connection, engagement, and community.

If we want to improve these aspects of our conferences we need to redesign them. We know many ways to do this—the Conferences That Work format is just one possibility. These redesigns are no more expensive than the old ways. They just work better.

Good meeting design can radically improve your conferences. It’s available now.

Why not add it to your bucket list?

Hat tip to Wired for the story and Brad Wilson for the bad pun.

Photo attribution: Herbst Produkt