Communication Nation: Mapping the future of conferences

What is the future of conferences? What is the future of church services? The current model for conferences and church is to provide information. Do people really need more information? Most information is already available 24/7 on the Internet. Is there a new purpose for people to gather? Dave Gray at Xplane pointed out a visual map of the future of conferences that was created by Eileen Clegg at Visual Insight. You can click on the image to hear dialogue around the ideas. Here are some thoughts that were discussed:

-Increasingly, people will go to a conference for a new purpose. No longer will people be looking for a conference to collect information. The purpose for a conference of the future will be to co-create new information.

-In order to keep everyone engaged in the conference experience, a conference of the future will give people many options happening simultaneously so that no one has the same experience. This was described as a 30 ring circus.

-“Learning is a process not an event.” Conferences have traditionally been an event. What would a conference look like if it was a process?

-Visuals are a great way to capture emergent learning.

-Innovation is at a new intersection of ideas rather than new ideas running in parallel.

-Staying in silos inhibits innovation. Conferences need outsiders and even "heretics" to enable fresh thinking.