In 2010, Daniel Lamarre (CEO, Cirque du Soleil) longed for a new kind of business conference. One where business leaders from all walks of life might come together to explore, discuss and design best options to inspire creativity and innovation within their own companies. Lamarre shared his dream with Sid Lee, a creative services firm based in Montreal and the rest is history.

C2 = Commerce + Creativity

2012 marked the first C2-MTL conference with a powerhouse lineup of creatives on board, including Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Eisner and Guy Laliberte. For 2013, they moved C2-MTL to an edgier Montreal venue (Arsenal, former century-old shipbuilding facility) and invited more innovation champions, including Philippe Starck, Bobbi Brown and for the big crescendo finish, Sir Richard Branson. This video provides a glimpse at Day One of this year’s conference, plus Lamarre adds another layer to his C2-MTL vision.

Beyond the stellar speakers and programming, there’s a steady buzz that permeates every corner of C2-MTL. The peer-to-peer conversation meter is off the charts, so I’ve been observing, interviewing and inspecting up a storm. I don’t have all the answers, but I’ve managed to uncover a few smart ideas we can borrow from the C2-MTL playbook. As I write this post, there’s still one more day to take in. Stay tuned for a follow-up post where I’ll deconstruct these elements.

Partnerships As A Path To Better?

C2-MTL is curated by Sid Lee, in collaboration with founding partner Cirque du Soleil, content partner Fast Company and technology partner Intel. No doubt, that’s a powerful foursome, but it makes me wonder if we’re leveraging partnerships as effectively as we could be.

As you scan your own industry landscape, are there potential partners who share your vision for a spectacular conference experience? Would these partners be willing to step up and commit time, talent and resources to deliver on that promise? What would it take to replicate the C2-MTL success model in your space?

Are you more likely to be killed by a shark or a deer?

Did you say shark? If you did, you’re wrong.

You are 300 times more likely to be killed by a deer than a shark. (Source: Boyle Rural Wildlife Safety)

So why do so many people think the correct answer is shark? While shark attacks are rare, they are vividly stuck in our minds and connect with us on an emotional level. If you are over the age of 40, you can quickly recall Jaws with its pounding music and dramatic images. In addition to that, media often hype shark attacks even though they are thousands of miles away from you. But how often do you hear about someone dying because of a deer? Rarely, if ever. Although “deer in the headlights” and deer collisions are extremely common today!

The fact about how a deer is more likely to kill you illustrates the phrase, “What we don’t know is more important than what we do know!” It highlights our ignorance and the that that we need to unlearn some things.

Unlearning Necessary For 21st Century Success

One of the most important strategies we need for success in the 21st century is unlearning.

Unlearning is reflecting on our current knowledge, understanding and perceptions, and then stepping outside of those assumptions to view the situation from a different perspective.

We have to continually evaluate and assess our beliefs about our operating procedures, our understanding of how things work and our accepted theories. When we weigh our assumptions against current research and today’s evidence, we often face a tension that the facts are not aligned with our beliefs.

We have got to find ways to unlearn old habits, procedures and methods that have now been proven to be out-dated and irrelevant. We have to unlearn practices that stand in our way of our own success.

Four Tips For Unlearning

So how do we go embrace unlearning? Jack Uldrich is the master of unlearning. He has been studying and writing about unlearning for years. Here are four tips culled from some of his writings about how to embrace unlearning today.

1. Adopt A Mind-Flex Attitude

We need to realize that what we’ve learned in the past may have been true for that time. We have to be receptive to change and doing things in a fresh and new way.

2. The Question You Should Always Ask

Instead of asking, “What questions do you have?” we should ask, “Are there other questions I should be asking?” It illustrates an open and willing mind to learn. It also highlights our awareness of the things we don’t know.

3. Revisit Old Assumptions To Re-Understand

Most of us are not trained to revisit our beliefs. We need to adopt an attitude to regularly reassess and evaluate our assumptions in light of new research and evidence. We need to “re-understand” a subject or process that we already know. That means suspending “the why” we currently believe something and measure our knowledge from a different perspective.

4. Acknowledge That Ignorance Isn’t Bliss

It is impossible to know everything. We have to frequently remind ourselves of what we don’t know. As Uldrich says, “With an estimated 3,000 new books being published daily and the rate of scientific knowledge purported to be doubling every seven years, it is safe to assume that there is a growing body of knowledge which is relevant to you and your business but which you remain blissfully unaware.”

Remember, what you don’t know can kill you—almost as easily as a deer! Embrace unlearning.

How should we try to re-understand our knowledge? What tips have you used to help yourself leave behind assumptions?

In order for conferences to compete in this new digital age, conference organizers must view conference education not as the place where content is delivered, but as a place where the content is discussed, analyzed and evaluated by the attendee.

We have to move from our old school, out dated thinking that the conference education session is just about delivery of information.

Providing Conference Content Is Not Enough

With information available 24/7 online, why would an attendee pay to come to your conference just to receive information?

Younger generations and veterans won’t! Instead, they want to dissect, describe and summarize the content. They want to construct their own meaning and respond to the content. They want to compare the content to their own experiences and discuss how to apply that content.

This is very different than sitting passively listening to the speaker present the content. That is not enough.

Transitioning From Familiar Terrain

Conference organizers and meeting planners too often stick with familiar terrain. We plan our meetings the way we’ve always done them. We secure speakers to present content.

We’ve got to adapt our old ways to our audience’s new expectations. We’ve got to transition from familiar terrain to new surroundings.

We’ve got to open up our perspectives and see that the world is changing fast. And as the world changes, so do the needs of our stakeholders. We need to open new lenses to interpret a new world and learn about the new ways of doing things.

Conference organizers need to value the learning process over distributing information. We need to value questions over answers. We need to value thinking over control (trying to control the information flow and therefore their thoughts.)

We have to transition from the old ways that don’t relate or apply to today’s future.

How can we begin to make this transition from dispensing content to valuing the learning process for our attendees? What barriers keep us from making these transitions?

Recent research shows that conference organizers should focus their conference education efforts more on learning design and less on delivery of information.

Too often, conference organizers and meeting professionals secure speakers to present specific topics and then think their job is done.

Their focus is completely on the content and the delivery of the information. Research is showing that those steps are not enough.

Learning Design Trumps Delivery Of Information

Education Professional Nick van Dam reviewed more than 355 studies on learning, education and knowledge retention. He discovered that the most important factor in knowledge retention is the quality of the learning design, rather than the delivery method. These studies all pointed to the need for more intentional learning design and less focus on delivery of information.

Focusing on information transfer via a typical conference education session lecture is not enough to insure that the audience retains the information. Instead, meeting professionals must begin to focus on the learning design of the session if they want their audience to really learn the information and retain it so they can apply it on the job.

Defining Learning Design

Learning design is a focus on the activities and exercises that attendees will participate in during the education session. It centers on the presenter-learner process that takes place during the education session with more emphasis given to the how the learner receives and interprets information as well as how they construct their own meaning of the content.

Learning design activities also refers to the different learning objects (PPT, visuals, video, stories, models, handouts, case studies, etc.) that are used in the activity. It also refers to the service (wiki, discussion, pair-squared, online and face to face chats, comparison and contrast, reflection, etc.) that is used to collaborate and communicate during the education session.

Securing a speaker to talk to an audience is no longer enough. Securing three panelists and a moderator will not lead to attendee attitude, behavior and skill change. The research from 355 studies shows that it does not lead to knowledge retention which is the first step needed if the learner is going to apply the information on the job.

Ultimately, we as conference organizers have failed at providing effective education and learning opportunities for our stakeholders. Our focus on content and delivery of information is misdirected at best. We’ve got to start focusing on learning design.

Collaborative Learning Outranks Lecture

So what are the best learning design activity approaches for our conference stakeholders?

Education professional Jane Hart has released the results of the best type of learning activities that today’s workforce wants.

So what do our conference stakeholders want in their conference learning opportunities?

• 85% of today’s workforce wants collaborative, learning experiences!

Not formal, structured, lectures! Collaborative means that they want to be involved, participate and active. It does not mean passively sitting in classes listening to a talking head!

• 81% want access to resources on the web.

This gives strong support for providing ongoing conference content capture, handouts and additional resources online.

• 79% want learning opportunities where they can have discussions, conversations and meetings with others.

They want opportunities to share and learn from their peers. They want to exchange stories, experiences, knowledge and what works! They want conference learning opportunities that focus on peerology.

• 75% want to be able to access personal and professional networks.

They want learning opportunites designed around their specific needs where they can learn and share with likeminded individuals in their community and networks.

• 70% want social learning from blogs and external news feeds.

Your conference stakeholders want a mix of content from industry peers and outside sources. Don’t get stuck on just providing presenters from inside the industry only!

• Only 32% want formal, structured lectures or e-learning opportunities.

Yet most conference organizers focus their efforts on securing lectures only.

Why do you think our meeting industry organizations do not focus more on helping meeting professionals learn about learning design? What does the meetings industry need to make a shift to more strategic thinking about effective education sessions such as learning design and collaborative learning?

With information accessible 24/7 online, networking has become one of the primary reasons people choose to attend your conference.

The opportunity to connect face-to-face is too critical to be happenstance.

Creating Conference Connections That Matter

Conference attendees want dedicated time that they can connect with individuals to share stories, insight and experiences.

Speed networking is not enough. People want to connect on a deeper level than spending five minutes with an individual and then moving on to the next person. It’s about more than collecting business cards and contact information.

Early-career professionals want to meet seasoned colleagues who can help them learn the ropes. Experienced professionals desire to tap and amplify their existing network. Suppliers want conversations that will accelerate deal making. Today, everyone turns to events to make connections with like-minded people who will share knowledge, opportunities and ideas that will help them do their job faster, better and easier.

Creating Conference Connexity

Organizations that host conferences are in a unique position to deliver two things that attendees crave and value most — connection and community. The hi-tech industry coined the word “connexity” to refer to the merging of these two concepts. In your conference-experience design, you should be intentional about fostering community and creating connections, rather than adding connexity to the meeting as an afterthought.

Our pursuit of individualism and the emergence of virtual teams and telecommuting have left us hungry for human connection, which can’t quite be satisfied through digital or off-line interactions. When an attendee meets a person in the buffet line or seated next to them in a session who shares some know-how intelligence that is exactly why s/he came to the conference — that’s magic.

Your conference should be designed so that these serendipitous moments happen more frequently. What if you could guarantee connexity for all attendees? If you positioned your conference as the gathering place for your global village and intentionally created “watering holes” where your attendees shared best practices and new ideas?

Three Ways To Pump Up Connexity At Your Next Conference

Here are three easy ways to pump up connexity at your next conference.

1. Make it easy to find like-minded individuals.

Instead of creating conference tracks by job function, SIG, industry, or specialty, consider a track methodology around significant problems to solve or opportunities to seize. Like-minded is defined by your attendees’ pressing priorities, not necessarily by the demographics that you collect or the committees that you created years ago.

2. Bring networking into the session rooms.

Rather than cramming every concurrent session with end-to-end lectures, panels and Q&A, instruct and coach your presenters to incorporate at least three small-group discussions or networking activities into the session design and set up the room accordingly. Crescent rounds work well for programs that alternate between speaker presentations and table talk. Even if you need to maximize seating at every session, put the networking-friendly seating up front and use the back 25 percent of the room for theater seating.

3. Pay special attention to two groups.

Make igniting connexity the No. 1 priority. Involve as many veterans, staff and volunteer leaders as possible. For those participants who are attending for the first time and/or are the only registrants attending from their organization, develop a plan to reach out to them shortly before the conference to offer assistance with their connexity.

What are some other tips for creating conference connexity? What have you seen done successfully to inspire more networking and community at conferences?

Adapted from Dave’s Forward Thinking column in PCMA’s Convene. Reprinted with permission of Convene, the magazine of the Professional Convention Management Association. ©2013.

In order to be successful in the 21st Century, organizations must make continuous learning and unlearning a core competency.

If your organization’s team cannot learn quickly, unlearn outdated processes and data, and adapt and apply new knowledge and insights to current challenges, then it will be left behind.

Organizations need team members committed to learning and unlearning. These organizations also need the best tools to rapidly disseminate and share the best learnings as well as information on how to apply them.

Top Ten Traits

The best learning opportunities are uniquely tailored and delivered to meet the needs of that organization and its stakeholders.

Training Magazine recently recognized its Top 125 2012 education programs. These programs used a wide variety of non cookie-cutter approaches and formats. While the programs varied in approaches, they all had some common characteristics that other organizations should follow and implement.

So how do your learning opportunities compare to these top ten common traits of successful education programs?

1. Support from senior leadership and executives.

2. Education programming with learning outcomes that directly support organizational goals.

3. Solid evaluation and measurement of learning outcomes and attendees’ needs.

4. Blended learning (both face to face and online) programs and user friendly technology platforms.

5. Learning opportunities are directly linked to attendees’ business needs and objectives.

6. Competency-based learning opportunities

Programs are directly connected to skills, abilities and expertise needed for successful job performance.

7. Leadership development learning opportunities

This is a topic area more organizations should offer as it is paramount for success in the 21st century. Too many organizations ignore this as a “soft-skill” and don’t realize how critical it is for success today.

8. Video-based content both for face to face and online learning opportunities.

9. Capitalizing on internal expertise

Savvy organizations are tapping their own employees and volunteer leaders to share their expertise with others.

10. Learning opportunities that leverage social and informal learning.

Training’s Top 125 education programs also fully respect, appreciate and value learning obtained from social and informal learning opportunities. These organizations have found ways to mine those insights and share them with the entire organization.

Learning Agility Rules

Successful organizations today know that they must foster learning agility. They have to continually remake themselves and not rest on yesterday’s success.

Today’s organizations “…will need to see the market and comprehend it quickly and adapt, discarding ideas, products, services and business models that no longer make sense. In order for organizations to become as fluid as the market, organizations need people who are equally agile…

All of those attributes that describe the business world of today are tailor-made for someone with learning agility…. It’s almost become a price of entry for success now, especially in leadership and executive roles.”
~ The Importance of Agility, Andrew R. McIlvaine, Human Resource Executive, January/February 2013

Which of the above traits are most reflected in your learning opportunities? Which traits do you need to work on more?

Moms! We all have them. We need them. We love them. Once a year we celebrate them.

In honor of Mother’s Day, the Velvet Chainsaw Consulting Staff compiled some important lessons we learned from our mothers.

Dave Lutz: Lessons from Mom (Mary Lee Lutz)

My professional success and personal happiness has been strongly influenced by my Mom. She taught me how to lead and more importantly, how to love.

Mom had lots of balls to juggle! We had a pretty full house with four sisters and my brother. I learned that matching socks, digging potatoes and cooking are fun. She encouraged my independence and trusted that I’d make good decisions. When I screwed up (often), she’d quietly pull me aside for some one-on-one coaching. Mom modeled the way for how I’ve lead and managed over a thousand co-workers.

My Dad was an alcoholic. Mom had it pretty tough, but she hung in there – for better or for worse. She taught me to be loyal. In the 39 years since Dad’s been sober, Mom has helped many others through similar situations. Because of her, I know the more I help others without expectation, happiness follows.

Donna Kastner: Two lessons (among many) that I learned from Mom

1. Make time to help others in need

With a house full of kids, I’m amazed when I think about Mom’s servant heart. For years, each week she’d load her station wagon with bread from the local bakery and deliver it to Mother Teresa’s soup kitchen in the Bronx.

2. Have faith and keep smiling

I’ve watched Mom push through many difficult life moments. There’s this quiet grace she displays as she watches her children and now, grandchildren bobble through life’s upturns and downturns. She takes it all in stride, prays hard and manages to find a smile (sometimes even cracks a joke) when the going gets tough.

Michele Frania: What I Learned From My Mom

My mom has always been a hardworking, loving and extremely selfless person. She puts others first and has a positive attitude; both attributes which she brings into the workplace each day. I’ve learned from her that the relationships you form with your coworkers are extremely important both personally and professionally. She takes the time to get to know her coworkers and together they work hard while enjoying their time in the office together.

What I learned most from my mother isn’t necessarily about project management, ROI or even conferences & events. My mom taught me something which to me is way more valuable – she taught me that it’s not always the work you do, but your interaction with the people you do the work with that matters most.

Sarah Michel: Lessons From My Mom

My mother lived in the present. She never spent a lot of energy worrying about the past, she simply made adjustments if necessary and moved forward. She taught me to trust my instincts and live in the moment. To this day as a professional speaker, when I start to rehearse too much or over think my message, her voice appears in my head telling me “speak from your heart and be yourself” which is the only way to truly connect with an audience.

Thanks Mom! (That’s Sarah’s mom on the cover of 1954 Vogue and her daughter recreating the photo for a Mother’s Day gift.)

Jeff Hurt: Mae’s Magnificent Lesson On Staying Young

I learned a lot from my mom, Mae Hurt, (and dad)! I’ve found one of those lessons to be so true as I grow older.

Mom taught me that it was really important to embrace new things and adopt new ways that society was adopting. I can remember her saying, “Try new things. Don’t get stuck in old ways. You’ll get old if you refuse to change and adapt to new ways. And you don’t ever want to get old! Then you lose touch with the world around you.”

I know that’s why my mom was an early adopter of texting and Facebook. She says texting is just another form of shorthand which she learned at an early age. I know that’s why she stays current on trends and pop culture. While her body may continue to age, her mind and ways seem very young and youthful. Embrace change, it helps you stay young.

What lessons have you learned from your Mom? Share them with us in the comments section.

“How much are our attendees willing to pay?”

It is a question that many conference hosts and organizers frequently ask when they begin planning their events.

It’s like asking the question, “What topics do you want to hear at next year’s conference?” Instead of asking, “What’s keeping you up at night?”

Challenge is that this stumble is classic. It is something that happens all around us on a daily basis.

The Typical Grand Stumble

Higher education and universities keep pushing the same old stale education methods, when students clearly want something more effective. Higher ed is training graduates for a world that no longer exists.

Politicians exclaim they listen to their voters when in reality they listen to large donors who interests rarely stray from greed. These politicos don’t understand what the voting public is really dealing with.

Fast food restaurants keeps pushing the same old combo meals when in reality consumers are looking for fast, healthier options.

Automobile makers insist on luring us into the car sales’ den instead of letting us shop online!

Faith organizations rarely ask potential attendees what they seek in their communities. Instead they consider how to promote their own programs and services.

Conference organizers secure sponsors that want their messages, logo and name pushed into attendees’ experience. It is not about what is in the best interest of the attendee. It’s about making as much sponsoring dollars as possible so the organization flourishes.

The Audience-Held-Hostage Conference Function

Too many conference hosts/organizers see the conference as an opportunity to promote what the organization already does. They see the meal functions and general sessions as the chance to push self-promotional propaganda. It is the time to shovel information into attendees’ minds as we’ve held them captive.

They think, “Hey we have the audience held hostage at this time, so let’s push our products, our agenda and our information.”

Why do we continue to push our conference hosts/organizers’ needs over our attendees needs? Why do we continue to pick up the wrong end of the telescope and ask, “How can we use this moment to get what we need? How can we turn this conference experience into our benefit?”

Disruptive, new things are happening beyond the conference organizers’ control. It starts when the conference planning staff realizes that the event is about the paying attendee and not the hosting organization.

What Do Our Stakeholders Need?

When we start with the wrong end of the telescope – what do I want? – there isn’t much room left to ask what others need. It’s time to ask what our stakeholders need instead!

How do conference committees foster or limit our ability to focus on the real needs of the paying customer? How can you tell when a conference organizer has picked up the wrong end of the telescope and is focused on their host organization instead?

The experience matters!

It is one of the most (over?) used business phrases today.

Most business professionals agree that the experience matters to consumers. As consumers, we even agree that our experiences with brands and organizations drive our future buying decisions.

So why is it that most conference organizers do not focus on designing the best conference experience possible for all of its stakeholders? Instead, we focus on logistics and details claiming that “designing the experience” belongs to someone else.

It is time for meeting professionals across the globe to step up to the plate and say, “I am responsible for the outcomes of my decisions! I am responsible for the attendees’ experience.” And that means we must focus on designing the right experience for our stakeholders!

The Experience Matters!

Your conference attendees’ experience matters!

Seriously, it really, really matters!

Your attendees do not return to the next conference because your registration, schedule and F/B ran smoothly. They do not return to your next conference because the room sets were organized and there was enough food during breaks.

They decide to return to your next conference because they had a great experience at the last one.

And when they have a great experience, they tell others about it in addition to returning to your next conference.

Jack Morton Worldwide recently released the results from the second Best Experience Brands study. This study focuses on the impact experience has on consumers in the US, UK, Australia and China. The research demonstrates that the organizations that will rise to success in the 21st Century will be those that focus on customer experience.

The study also highlights how the experience gap is real with more than 80% of companies. Another way to say it is that 80% of organizations surveyed thought that they provided a great experience while in reality, they did not! I suspect that the experience gap is even higher for conferences as most conference hosts/organizers think they provide a great conference experience yet their attendees label them average at best.

Five Experience Principles You Should Adopt And Apply

The Jack Morton Best Experience Brands 2013 study identified five core principles for great experience. These principles apply to all audiences, touchpoints and media.

1. Invite participation.

It’s official. The customer’s active participation in your experience is critical for success. We’ve got to become more design-driven providing simple, accessible, active not passive, easy to use and relevant experiences. Providing a one-way, passive, speaker/expert centric conference experience that is consumed by attendees is not enough. It will fail! It has to provide opportunity for attendees to become participants with active engagement and involvement. No more sitting in theater room sets, listening to panelists drone on and on about nothing and catching up on our sleep!

2. Build the conference experience around the participants.

It’s time to stop seeing our conference attendees as consumers of information and see them as active participants. People want their experiences to feel customized to their needs and challenges as well as relevant to their context. For example, deciding on speakers and content based on the completed call for speaker proposals will not cut it! We have to become more intentional.

3. Make the conference experience easily shareable.

Experiences, both good and bad, spark conversations. We need to land on the side of providing great conference experience that ignites positive recommendations and excitement. Conference experience should tap into today’s technology as well as our primitive need to share. Just remember, bad experiences stick with our customers too and status quo experiences just get forgotten.

4. Create connexity (VCC’s choice of words, not Jack Morton’s).

We must become more intentional about designing conference experiences that connect us to others as well as connect us to the larger community. Thus the tech term connexity. The more information we try to push at attendees, especially when we feel we have a ripe opportunity because we are holding them hostage at a general session or meal function, the less connected they feel with each other and the organization’s community. We must stop the hostage-style information push and pull in our attendees through connexity.

5. Make the conference experience useful!

It seems so simple yet we fail here the most! We must start asking, “Is this decision in the best interest of the conference attendee? Does it provide useful, appropriate, solutions to the participants’ pain points?” If the experience does not align with the conference participants’ context, it will fail!

What are some ways conference organizers and hosts can begin to track and improve their customers’ experience? What are some of the qualities of a great conference experience that make you want to share it with everyone?

The Facebook 2013 Saga infographic