Dare to Improve Your Conference

I have been talking about better conferences several times, but I’ve decided to stop doing that. A recurring theme at the DARE conference in Antwerp was:

Dare to be the change you want to see.

I want people to organize better conferences. Therefore, in order to find out what makes a great conference, I have decided to help the organizers.

An Event with a Purpose

Many conferences are organized around a single method or movement, such as Agile conferences, Scrum conferences, Kanban conferences, or Lean conferences. But methods and movements come and go. I believe it makes more sense to organize events around a purpose. For DARE the purpose is clear:

Dare to do something in order to enjoy better work. (Increase organizational performance and individual happiness.)

By organizing events around a purpose, we can invite representatives from any number of methods and movements, including Culture Hacking, Stoos, Design Thinking, Beyond Budgeting, Vanguard, Lean Startup, and many more… For DARE, it’s about the goal, not about the method.

It’s the Little Things

I am convinced that conferences can become great because of tiny little things. At DARE in Antwerp we had a barista making fantastic coffee. Instead of ugly conference bags full of sponsor crap we had a goodie mountain with valuable books and software licenses that people could choose an item from. And instead of boring badges we had brilliant buttons.

People also seemed to appreciate the regular newsletters, the conference app, the happiness doors and the great posters. But most important were the games, good wi-fi and fantastic catering. To top it all we had surprising speakers and controversial topics gathered together in an unconventional venue.

Faster Feedback Cycle

Maybe it is no surprise that some people said, “Looking forward to DARE 2014!” But why should we organize a conference only once per year? An iteration of one year is a very slow feedback cycle!

That is why I’m convinced we should have more DARE conferences, in different parts of the world. There should be a shorter feedback cycle, which enables organizers to learn faster and make each next one better.

Support from Happy Melly

Each next DARE conference can only be better if the same team is involved in the organization. That’s why Maarten Volders, Vasco Duarte, yours truly and our fellow organizers at Happy Melly are turning our experiences into a new service. When you turn your conference into a DARE event, you get access to our services.

This could mean: a great looking website, access to speakers and sponsors, a professional app, posters and other marketing materials, templates for contracts, game materials, newsletters, goodies, supplies, press coverage, and a direct line to Maarten, our conference wizard.

At least, that’s the idea! But this might change.

We’re just getting started. {8-)

Feedback on DARE

At the time of writing the average rating of the conference by participants is 8,5 (out of 10). No less than 88% percent of respondents say it is likely, very likely or extremely likely that they will recommend DARE to friends or colleagues. The Net Promoter Score of the DARE conference is 62%…

Feel free to contact me if you want to know more.