How to host an amazing conference

After 14 years of running and attending conferences in the technology
space, I’ve learned about 20 things that I think are essential to
either making–or breaking–an event. I’ve been keeping track of these
in the back of my head, but have never really taken the time to put
them into an essay… until now.

Two questions (and I will republish your answers to the list with your
name, title, and url if you provide them!):

a) What was the best conference you ever attended and why?
b) Who was the best conference speaker you’ve ever heard and why?

Now on to Jason’s tips for a great event:

1. Every conference must have a purpose. A mission statement. A reason
to exist. If you can’t clearly say why your event exists, there is a
good chance it is not worth attending. If you look at the top
technology events out there, they all have fairly clear missions:

a) TED is a conference about ideas (worth spreading). It was previously

about technology, entertainment and design.

b) Foo Camp is based around informal discussions about technology (by
friends of Tim O’Reilly).

c) TechCrunch50 is designed to launch 50 brand new companies (for free
with a $50,000 grand prize, as opposed to DEMO which is almost $20,000
for startups–sorry, couldn’t help myself).

d) WSJ’s D conference is a place for the most senior executives in
technology and media to talk business.

e) The WEF/Davos is a conference for people to discuss issues
impacting the global economy.

f) Web 2.0 is focused on the second wave of internet companies (i.e.
Web 2.0 companies).

f) Le Web 3 is focused on the second wave of internet companies in
Europe (i.e. the Web 2.0 of Europe).

g) Burda’s DLD conference is essentially TED + WSJ D conference–but
in Munich and for Europeans.

h) Blogher is a conference for female bloggers.

You get the idea. The further away from a purpose you get the harder
it is for everyone–sponsors, attendees, and speakers–to know if they
should get involved. Be clear about your mission and make your
conference *essential* for some group of people. If it’s not essential
for some core group to be there, you will fail.

2. The best editorial format is a 15-20 minute solo presentation
followed by 10 minutes of Q&A. The reason this is the best format is
because individuals will perform on their highest level when they are
out there alone on stage. When you put two to five people on stage
there is massive diffusion of responsibility. Very few people need
more than 15 minutes to get their point across, and very few people
can be entertaining for more than 15 or 20 minutes (some can, of
course).

3. The best way to handle Q&A is to make a general statement at the
start of the Q&A session as follows: “We are going to the question and
answer session now. If you would like to ask a question please raise
your hand and someone will come to you with a wireless microphone. We
ask that you please ask a concise question, not a statement or
commercial for your company.” I’ve done this at all my conferences and
it works *very* well. Also, I’ve added–in a joking voice–the
following: “The audience should boo anyone who does a commercial for
their company instead of a question!” This typically gets a big laugh
and scares half of the self-promoting idiots who use the Q&A session
as a back door for marketing.

4. You must NEVER hand the microphone to someone during the Q&A. You
should hold the microphone in your hand like Phil Donahue used to so
that you can move it away from the person’s mouth if they drone on and
on. Alternatively, you can have two stand-up microphones and work out
a deal or signal with the audio folks so that they watch for a sign
from you to turn off the microphone if someone drones on and on.
Remember as the host of the event it is YOUR responsibility to keep
things moving along and if some jerk-off wants to waste 500 to 1,000
people’s time with a commercial for their startup you are WELL within
your rights to cut them off.

5. The best way to cut someone off is to say “Let’s give another
person a chance to ask a question.” This gives the person trying to
monopolize the Q&A a chance to be graceful. If they keep talking they
are basically saying, “No, let’s not give someone else the chance to
ask a question.” The best way to keep people focused is to say, “Your
question?” or, “Another question?” before putting the microphone in
front of them. This keeps everyone focused on asking a question.

6. Conference producers must–I repeat must–take 100% ownership of
what people present on stage. Most conference producers spend so much
time on logistics, marketing and sales that they don’t watch the
presentations of the people who are coming on stage. 90% of conference
bombing presentations could be avoided if the conference producers
asks for a run through one to two weeks before the event.

If someone is not willing to run through their presentation, they
shouldn’t speak at your event. I’m constantly shocked by conference
producer who ask me to speak at an event and never talk to me about
the audience, what they might expect or what the goals of the event
are. Now, sometimes these folks have seen me speak and trust me, and I
understand that. However I would make high-end folks like Doug
Rushkoff tell me their plans ahead of time. The way you can get away
with this is to say to them, “I’d like to make this the best
conference presentation you ever give… if we go over it once or
twice we might be able to make it 10-20% better each time.” No one
will give up the opportunity to get 20-50% better.

7. Fireside chats are only appropriate for very opinionated, blunt and
insightful speakers. Do not put just anyone in this format, because if
they are not absolutely entertaining and insightful it will fail.
Barry Diller and Mark Cuban are fantastic fireside chats because they
don’t filter themselves like most people do–they just talk like real
people.

Most CEO/founders are so on message that fireside chats turn into bad
infomercials. When you do a fireside chat format be honest with the
subject about this fact and ask them if they are “ready to bring it!”
Get them pumped up. Ask them what they are really inspired by or
pissed off about in your pre-interview. Ask them what the biggest
mistake they’ve made is and ask them the hard questions in an upfront
way. If they don’t answer the question, you are within your right to
say “I don’t really feel like you answered that question fully… can
you drill down a little more?”

8. Panels are the weakest form of conference editorial. Only one out
of ten panels I’ve been to are interesting, and they are typically
interesting despite the moderators and because there is some conflict
on the panel. Conflict equals both drama and that there is something
at stake. It’s hard to manufacture drama–it either exists or it
doesn’t. So, if you must do a panel, talk to prospects early about
what topics they’re passionate about. Then, after you have a list of
what they’re passionate about, ask them, “Who takes the opposite view
on this and why?”

A panel full of bloggers talking about how great it is to blog is pure
death. A panel with five journalists talking about the problems of
blogging is also death. A panel with bloggers, journalists, bloggers
turned journalists, and journalists turned bloggers? That’s going to
be interesting.

9. Most panel moderators are self-aggrandizing lightweights who do
more damage than good. The best moderators *pull* information out of
the panelists, cut people off, and move the conversation on. To be a
good moderator you only need 3-4 questions to get things going, the
rest of your questions should come by *listening* to the answers and
asking follow-up questions.

You can ask folks to expand upon their ideas by saying things like,
“You mentioned blogging as a public relations tool–could you unpack
that a little bit?” or, “I’m not sure I understand what you mean by
blogging being dead–can you expand that a little?” These types of
follow-up questions are typically the best. Also, address each
question to a person–never say, “Anyone on the panel want to
respond.” That’s lame. You should know which panelist is best suited
for a question, and if they are all equally suited pick the person who
has participated the least thus far. Say their name clearly: “Jason!
What are you thoughts on blogging and PR?” Short questions are best.
You don’t have to explain the question in detail–you’re no Charlie
Rose and this is not PBS. Say it quickly and let them speak.

10. NEVER let panelists introduce themselves, that is the job of the
moderator. Lazy moderators don’t take the time to research their
panelists and memorize their introductions. As a result people
introduce themselves and that leads to two horrible things: a) modest
people understate their background and b) losers talk about themselves
for five or ten minutes.

If I’m on a panel I say, “I’m a serial entrepreneur. My first project
was a magazine, my second was a blog company, and my current company
is a human-powered search engine.” That’s it. To the point and done.
When I ran my conferences in New York and Los Angeles, I introduced
*everyone* in tight bullet points then got right to it. News flash: No
one cares about your bio–it’s in the book/on your website. Let’s get
to the discussion!

11. Not having a Q&A period is almost always insulting to the
audience. If a speaker will not do Q&A, then tell them not to come to
the event. The converse of this is that you can’t let the folks go
wild in the Q&A asking stupid questions or doing self-promotion (as I
mentioned above).

12. Unconferences are generally filled with 80% weak/bad content and
20% good/fascinating content. If you’re considering doing a conference
where the audience self-organizes and makes the content you have to
take the time to have anchor presentations. If you don’t have some
ringers setup ahead of time, you risk having a lot of boring/inane
stuff.

The value of an unconference is that more non-traditional folks get to
speak and that leads to some diamonds in the rough. If you host one,
make sure you lower people’s expectations and do everything you can to
keep the presentations very short: 10 minutes tops, unless you’re a
ringer.

13. Turn off the backchannel: its so distracting for everyone and
typically devolves into making fun of the person’s appearance. For
those of you who don’t know about the backchannel at a conference,
it’s typically an IRC chat room where folks hang out and respond to
the speakers. It can be fun and informative when it’s good: folks post
links, challenge statements with data they find on the web, and riff
on what they are hearing. However, chat rooms quickly become inhuman,
and I’ve seen folks make fun of people’s accents, their weight, and
other such things.

When the backchannel first started, folks would put it on the
projector–now most folks understand that’s a bad idea because
typically the speaker is the only person who doesn’t see the comments.
So, folks laugh at something, it throws the speaker off and they turn
around and say, “What’s everyone laughing at?” It was a neat idea at
first, but most of the time it’s a distraction. I suggest skipping it,
or just don’t endorse it.

14. Classroom style seating with power and ethernet cables is the best
setup. Folks sitting at desks pay attention and have room to settle
in. There is room behind them to walk in and out typically, and since
they can have their laptops open, they tend to camp. Theater seating
(without the desks) is great to pack folks in, but typically you have
folks knocking into each other and spilling coffee all over the place.

15. Have water and hard candy in the room–preferably on the tables.
This will keep people in their seats and keep them from coughing.

16. One track conferences are best because people have a shared
experience. People typically have multiple tracks because they are
trying to pack in more speakers. Then folks have to decide between
conflicting panels, all of which are lowered in quality on average
because you are doing so much. Most conference folks have three tracks
packed with panels so they can have 15-20 folks speaking at a
time–this is death. Again, diffusion of responsibility. Your job is
to curate the event and have only the top 20% of the speakers you
could have. As an exercise take the last conference you were at and
cut the weakest half the speakers and leave only the best speakers and
ask yourself, “How much better would the conference have been?” That’s
the job you need to do BEFORE the event.

17. Have fresh fruit, drinks, and energy bars available all day long.
Having only cookies, coffee and ice cream is a really bad idea. Folks
get wired and then tired–plus they get fat. People appreciate healthy
choices, and you’ll have a more lively audience.

18. If you want people to listen to a speaker, make sure that they
have a seat and take their alcohol away. I’m always shocked by junior
conference folks who think that you can put 500 folks in a hall with
no chairs and an open bar and then get them to pay attention to a
speaker. If you want folks to listen give them a seat and close down
the bar. If you want them to network and drink, don’t force a speaker
on them. Cocktail hours are for networking–not for speeches.

19. As the conference host you *must* stay in the room the entire time
and ensure that things are running smoothly on stage. I’m always
shocked when I go to an event and I see the host running around the
registration desk, the green room or the lobby. GET BACK IN THE ROOM
and make sure the audience is having a good experience. At my Silicon
Alley events and TechCrunch50 last year, I didn’t leave the room at
all. Even when I wasn’t moderating or speaking I stayed in there so I
could have the experience of the audience. If something went wrong, I
would get on it (i.e. audio problems, spilled coffee, a broken
projector).

20. Follow your muse. The best conference are the ones where the
host(s) put things on stage that matter to them. When I host an event,
the first thing I do is make a list of the 20-30 things that I’ve
found fascinating over the past year or two and try to figure out how
to share that fascination with the audience. This is the model that
Esther Dyson, Stuart Alsop, Richard Saul Wurman, and countless others
have followed and it works. It’s *your* event and *you* are
responsible for the content. Focus on it and be the best curator you
can… if you do, everything will work out.

Note: Folks can still sign up for the email newsletter, but all
subscriptions are reviewed to make sure the person uses their real
name, etc. You can signup here: http://www.tinyurl.com/jasonslist or
you can email me at jason[at]calacanis.com

All the best,

Jason