Simon on: Predictions for 2013

It is a great tradition to offer predictions at this time of year. 

Given the exaggeration about some aspects of technology, could it be that we’ll be told that the iPad mini will revolutionise the meetings world so desktops and laptops will be burned? Or that “The cloud” will mean that everybody can have all of their documents safely stored in a mystical place run by someone else? 

Somebody is bound to claim that NFC will mean that nobody needs to carry cash, credit cards, business cards or a name badge. And no doubt, by the end of the year the whole planet will be signed up to Facebook so there won’t be any need for any other communications channels.

Why stop there? Surely within 20 years, your smartphone will be wired directly into your brain and will know more than you do so you’ll no longer need to go to conferences or exhibitions.

Perhaps this is a slight exaggeration but I have a horrible suspicion that it isn’t much more ridiculous than some of the stuff we’ll actually read.

Originally published in Conference News

Simon on: Interactive presentations

Over recent years there has been a marked growth in the number of people claiming that presentations need more interaction. The latest voice in the clamour is Meeting Professionals International (MPI) which has published a series of papers looking at the future of meetings. One deals with content. Among other things it says ‘Shorten content and add lots of interaction…’.

A few days before reading this, I sat through several presentations. Some were good but some were delivered by incompetent presenters with appallingly bad PowerPoint material. The idea that those sessions could be made compelling by adding ‘lots of interaction’ is obviously misguided. All we would have would be sessions delivered by incompetent presenters with appallingly bad PowerPoint material and badly executed interaction.

No technology in the world will make a poor presenter look good and their sessions won’t suddenly become riveting by the inclusion of interaction. They have to be shown how to do the job properly. Only when they have become competent presenters should anybody even think about teaching them how to incorporate interaction.

Originally published in Conference News