11 New Event Concepts That Will Make Your Conference, Meeting, or Trade Show Stand Out from The Crowd
Written by Sarah Hill, content writer at Seven Events Ltd.
1. Silent Conferences
Silent conferences have never been more popular and this is a trend which you won’t want to miss. The way it works is that instead of guests walking to a certain breakout room to attend a session, instead everyone dons wireless headphones and tunes into a specific session. Not only can this safe on room hire or provide options when venues do not have enough space – but this is also an effective way to save time.
2. Unconferences
Another new conference concept is the “unconference”. Essentially this is a conference which has no structure or assigned topics but is more constructive conversations facilitated by industry professionals. Typically, guests are asked what they would like to discuss and are broken up based upon this.
3. Lunch Club
Lunch club bases its origin from the 1999 movie Fight Club and has been pioneered by the company LunchBeat, but instead of attendee’s turning up for a fight during their lunch to vent any frustrations, this concept focuses on the less violent activity of dancing. In place of a typical office lunch, guests must follow 10 rules of the manifesto which focus on having a groovy hour.
4. Speedy Presentations
In the age where speed and time is on the essence, an emerging trend is Pecha Kucha presentations. Basically, each presenter is allowed to show up to 20 images, with 20-seconds of speaking time for each image. Once all images are shown, their time is up, and they must clear the stage for the next presenter.
5. Secret Events
This concept is rather a classic but is still very popular and effective. Using a combination of quiet instructions and unique, undisclosed venues to increase guests experience. The key to get this concept to be as effective as possible is to not reveal the secret location of your event until a few hours before the start time.
6. Inclusive Events
Inclusivity is another emerging trend within the event world. This inclusive approach has been pioneered by the Burning Man Festival in which attendees are work in collaboration to display and create various pieces of art. This inclusion of participants is fundamental to the event theme meaning there are no passive observers and only active participants.
7. Project – Based Events
Project-based events are heavily utilized within the technology industries. A fantastic example of this is start-up weekends. These events are used and are used for creation for developers, designers, marketers and product managers to come together to share ideas, form teams, build prototypes and ultimately launch start-ups.
8. Hackathons
Leading on from project-based events is hackathons. These events are based upon combing and collaborating to work towards a specific project. These projects can vary in length from one day to a whole week. The events can have a range of objectives from creating innovative events to producing usable software.
9. Speed Networking
Speed dating is a popular concept in social circles however this is now being transferred into the corporate world as a way to meet viable business partners. The format works similarly to that of speed dating except instead of swapping mobile numbers for a potential future date, you swap LinkedIn profiles and business cards.
10. Campfire Sessions
This concept doesn’t actually require a camp fire to be set up in your venue! This is an approach to peer learning and promoting conversation. This is the attempt to bring a laid-back atmosphere of campfire storytelling to conferences. This originated by MPI, who regularly holds such sessions at its annual congresses, EMEC and WEC.
11. Virtual Tradeshows
This type of event is great for online engagement. This is basically a traditional roadshow but instead of exhibitors having to meet at a geographic location to exchange information they are connected with one another via the Internet.
About the Author
Sarah Hill is a content writer at Seven Events Ltd – a leading event management, incentive travel, conference venue finder, corporate team building company in London. The event company has successfully managed in achieving its goals in creating events that exceed expectations and adding value to their client’s businesses. In her role, her best dive is corporate event ideas and event management tips.