In the past several months since I’ve started to work with PRISM, I’ve been asked more than once: “Why is PRISM still holding so many conferences and meetings when most associations seem to be decreasing the number of conferences and meetings they hold?”
Between the high price of gas, the pricier and less convenient nature of air travel and the renewed focus on productivity, there appear to be all sorts of reasons to predict the death of face-to-face conferences or meetings.
The answer is simple: Our meetings and conferences are working. The just-completed PRISM Data Protection Workshop is a great example of this. A day before writing this, I left a conference room full of more than 70 attendees, who told me this workshop was one of the most valuable and worthwhile events they have ever attended. The presentations were excellent. But, I would argue that just as important as the information presented in the formal setting of the event were the conversations that took place before, between and after the workshop presentations as attendees met to share a cup of coffee or another beverage.
While I’m proud of the success that PRISM has experienced with our conferences and meetings, we are not alone. The Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) has released a report detailing the value attendees and exhibitors place on face-to-face interactions at exhibitions, conventions and annual meetings relative to other face-to-face settings. The results of the study suggest that these events have the strongest value among attendees, with 48 percent noting that face-to-face interactions experienced at exhibitions, conventions and annual meetings are more valuable today than they were two years ago. Forty-three percent of respondents say they anticipate these settings will be more valuable in the next two years. No other face-to-face interaction alternative comes close to these results.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, it turns out that the reports of the death of meetings and conferences have been greatly exaggerated.
Throughout the next several months, PRISM will leverage the value of face-to-face meetings with many outstanding events, including the Annual European Information Management Conference Nov. 5-7, the PRISM Latin American Forum Nov. 29-30 and the Fundamentals of Records and Information Management Workshop Dec. 4-5. Please visit www.prismintl.org for more details.
Dave Bergeson is the incoming executive director PRISM International, Chicago, and can be reached at dbergeson@prismintl.org or at 847-375-4866.