Work Conferences

[MGMmjl]

I recently attended a virtual only conference that was 4 days long, 10 am to 4 pm each day. I don't mind virtual conferences, but I think that was a bit too long for a virtual only conference. They had originally planned on a hybrid conference, and a couple of us from work were planning on going in-person. But they said the response was not great for in-person attendees, so they decided to do virtual only.

What type of conference do you prefer? I like virtual conferences because more people can attend than if it was in-person, but some things are better discussed in-person. For me, it depends on the type of conference, and also the location and travel budget/expenses for the agency.

 

[hertamaniac]

In person. I've built many corporate/professional relationships having dinner after the daily conference. That then had a trickle-down effect to doing business with others just by word of mouth from those dinners.

Handshakes and eye-to-eye contact do matter based on my career travels.

 

[_19disnA]

Having a 4 day virtual conference is WAY too long in my view. Mostly I find any of these internal 'conferences' are a waste of time and mostly you get the types who want to rub elbows with the leadership in order to advance their careers. At least with the virtual types, you can avoid that nonsense and just watch whatever presentations are being made. Our company has held several internal conferences over the years and I would suspect most can't remember anything that was ever accomplished. Many see it as a day out of the office with free lunch/beverages.

Probably 2-4 hrs is the practical limit for any type of virtual conference. Even if it is for some type of training/program rollout, it is hard to hold everyone's attention much beyond that.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

I don't like and won't participate in virtual conferences. I can't stay focused in a virtual conference. And for me, the whole point of work conferences is the one on one conversations and networking that happen between the sessions.

 

[soccerdad72]

In person, if possible. I’ll do virtual webinars occasionally, but I wouldn’t qualify them as a conference.

 

[SC Minnie]

In person. I'm on the board of an industry conference and we do in person only. The networking is the key part of the conference.

We have multi day meetings internally at our corporate office for folks from our mills in attendance. We don't call them conferences though. An key part of these meetings is not only info sharing of best practices but networking with each other.

 

[EACarlson]

In person, my industry did a virtual conference during COVID and it went horribly. We are all much happier to get together a few times a year. I've learned much more and made much better connections between sessions, at meals or even follow up conversations on the beach than I did in the structured sessions. Now my opinion might change since I have to help put on one of the conferences this fall.

 

[China Expat]

I liked virtual conferences for a while during the pandemic, but I have zero interest in them now. Just got back from an in person conference in Miami. It was awesome.

 

[disneychrista]

I like in person because it gets me out of the office for a couple days. The only conference I would go to went virtually due to COVID and even though 2/3rds of it went back to in person this year. My section remained virtual and I have a feeling won't be going back to in person.

 

[tvguy]

A number of people I worked with belong to various professional associations and said the number of participants in their conventions increased sharply when they went strictly virtual during the pandemic. And instead of just sending two or three people, because of the cost of the travel/hotels, the company was able to pay the registration fees so that everyone that wanted to, could take part.
The social interaction portion suffers, but more folks got the benefit of the special sessions. So I can see where companies might want these to stay virtual because their employees get more that benefits the company for their money.

 

[SteveH]

Conference? In person or fuggedaboutit.
Training? In person preferred, but virtual if no more then 4-hours/day and aligned with my time zone.

 

[tony67]

For the most part I would prefer in person.

One big factor is location - if its in some not so great a place that Id want to avoid than I'll do the virtual if its an option or skip it if at all possible.

Also - if its at an Airport Hotel - Ill probably skip it.
What is the point of flying everyone into say Chicago and staying at the Airport hotel and eating and drinking Airport hotel food.

I used Chicago as an example because I've had that happen.
Fly to Chicago and not even have pizza, Italian beef or a hotdog - that is ridiculous.

 

[Christine]

Just got back from a work conference. 400 people attending. The response to go in-person was overwhelming and they didn't offer a virtual option. I honestly don't want to sit online all that long and do something like that. Of course, they held it in San Diego so I'm sure that helped.

 

[EACarlson]

Also - if its at an Airport Hotel - Ill probably skip it.
What is the point of flying everyone into say Chicago and staying at the Airport hotel and eating and drinking Airport hotel food.

I used Chicago as an example because I've had that happen.
Fly to Chicago and not even have pizza, Italian beef or a hotdog - that is ridiculous.

For me the point of having everyone fly in is about the time you're not actually in sessions. If the only reason you go is the sessions I'd agree with you, virtual is better for that and usually you can record them too. So many contacts that I've made at meals or talking before a session starts have helped my clients immensely.
If you didn't get a decent pizza, beef or dog while in Chicago, that's on you. Unless you were at the actual O'Hare Hilton, I can give you a decent place for at least one if not all three within walking distance. And if you were at the O'Hare Hilton, walk across the street and take the El a couple stops.

 

[tony67]

For me the point of having everyone fly in is about the time you're not actually in sessions. If the only reason you go is the sessions I'd agree with you, virtual is better for that and usually you can record them too. So many contacts that I've made at meals or talking before a session starts have helped my clients immensely.
If you didn't get a decent pizza, beef or dog while in Chicago, that's on you. Unless you were at the actual O'Hare Hilton, I can give you a decent place for at least one if not all three within walking distance. And if you were at the O'Hare Hilton, walk across the street and take the El a couple stops.

Yeah - there was zero free time as there were lots of preplanned activities and such.
There were no chances to break away - especially for leadership.
It was a decent time - but everyone wanted to get local foods and we did not have any free time at all except to sleep a couple of hours.

BTW - It was a Marriott at Midway.

 

[EACarlson]

Yeah - there was zero free time as there were lots of preplanned activities and such.
There were no chances to break away - especially for leadership.
It was a decent time - but everyone wanted to get local foods and we did not have any free time at all except to sleep a couple of hours.

BTW - It was a Marriott at Midway.

I see two pizza places and a beef shop within a block, and a dog stand that's probably a half mile.
Sounds like bad planning, I've got a conference in Denver in June. I'm planning a breakout for a group from all over the country to the best Indigenous restaurant I've ever had. There is a gap in programming from 4 to 7:30 that night.

 

[_19disnA]

Sometimes the conference arrangement of preplanned time is by design so people don't disappear and go off to do something unrelated to why they are there. Some of the attendees act more like these are company paid vacations. We are talking in generalities also so there are any number of variations of this. If the conference is only an internal event for those working at your company is different to me from attending some sort of event organized by a 3rd party where people from many different companies will attend.

Is the event primarily training on some new process/procedures within your company or is it an industry-wide effort to discuss some new/improved ways of doing business? In some companies, the top people want to have an internal conference mostly to tell everyone they have to work harder this year to make the company profitable. I doubt any of the attendees find those to be of much value.

 

[tony67]

I see two pizza places and a beef shop within a block, and a dog stand that's probably a half mile.
Sounds like bad planning, I've got a conference in Denver in June. I'm planning a breakout for a group from all over the country to the best Indigenous restaurant I've ever had. There is a gap in programming from 4 to 7:30 that night.

No doubt it was bad planning with zero free time.
For example they brought in Marriott sandwich platters when they probably good have ordered a bunch of pizzas or just given us an hour to grab a lunch.

No doubt I've done that at other events and learned to come in a day early or stay a day late if at all possible.
So when we went to Austin I came in early as well as a few of my team and we waited for hours to get some BBQ.
They ran out before we got any, but it was still a good time.
We went to the secondary BBQ place and waited some more, but at least we got some really good BBQ and got to hang out and have a few beers well waiting in line.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

My experience is that virtual conferences are not taken as seriously. Too easy to skip a portion to attend an important meeting, have someone stop by your desk, or multi-task in another tab. When you're on site you have to leave the room which creates a larger barrier to distractions.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I think in-person conferences are best if the budget allows (and I definitely think it's important to leave some unplanned time!) but virtual is OK for shorter ones, and probably saves a lot of money and hassle.