Laurent Haug breathes fresh air into conferences

Laurent does not see himself as someone “from the [meetings] industry”. And when you listen to him it’s easy to understand why: he breaks the traditional thinking of our sector with complete ease. The result of this out-of-the-box approach is his 2006 creation, Lift Conferences, which he organises three conferences a year, all focussing on technology and society. But more than a conference organiser, he sees himself as a community moderator. Perhaps it’s time to think different?

What are the main characteristics of your conferences?

• Format: we have a very participative format. More than 50% of the programme is crowd-sourced, from small workshops to giving 5-minute, onstage presentations to participants. All sessions also combine a conference with time set aside for debate among participants.
• Variety: we include artistic and sensorial sessions, and we tell participants: “go to the session whose title interests you the least”. Ideas come from different fields! People go to conferences attracted by the big star, but leave with new ideas by a less-known speaker. For in- stance, last year, the presentation on matchmaking sites in Cameroon was a stunning success.
• Web-based: our communication is mostly online; we use blogs and social networks to communicate with our participants, to find speakers, even ticketing is virtual.
• Democratic: all topics are
Photo: Bread & Butter
suggested by visitors via online debates. However, there can be manipulations so we keep a cer- tain level of control. We are the curators of our community.
• Broadcast: all our conferences are online a few hours after taking place. We are not a conference: we are a community and people will still attend even if the content is online.
Some services that our industry provides (like transport management) are less needed, but new needs (like content providers for conferences) have yet been met

You do a lot online... you don’t believe virtual events can threaten meetings? You go to a conference for network- ing and for the moment. Nobody attends virtual conferences for three days because it is simply unbear- able. We follow the conference a bit online, then we move on to some- thing else, especially when there are lots of presentations. Only in a real conference can you have the discipline of getting into the subject, [and then] listen, think [and] focus. Also, online communities will foster events: the more virtual relation- ships people create, the more they want to meet in real life.

So networking will be saved by technology? No: the segmentation and matching is usually not effective: people have a problem filling lots of fields before a conference so profiles cannot be searched. Also, everyone wants to meet the CEOs, but sitting with someone you don’t know could bring you the solution you need. Conferences are human; it is the chance of the meeting industry that you can’t systematise.
To foster networking, we create activities where people are forced to meet. For example, we created a photo studio: the photographers would fetch people from both ends of the room. Shoot a portrait of the duo, and you can be sure that they will have a coffee together after. The numbers are stunning. 20% of Lift participants tell us they found tangible value (contract, new
job) at the conference, and 45% found a lead.

Could you give an example of a technological innovation which can offer a very high ROI? It will come soon: a membrane be- tween the meeting and the outside world. Emails, twitter, Facebook, other channels... People will want to participate in the conference from outside, sending SMSs, drawings, voice comments, videos... We will need to integrate all this. Pathable is a first step. But this innovation cannot be only technological. We need a global solution, including many types of media like papers handed out by attendees, a voice, etc. A conference is what goes on inside the room, but also what happens outside in an infinity of formats.

How innovative is our industry?
Concepts like barcamp and pecha kutcha are real innovations, but they haven’t come from the big guys of the industry. There are some interesting innovations in online tools, something like Pentabarf (an open source integrated solu- tion for event management), tools to manage speakers and slides to facilitate communication between organisers and speakers, Amiando’s viral tickets where each participant becomes a seller, etc.

More than 50% of the programme of our conferences is crowd-sourced

A few event agencies have acquired online marketing and virtual event companies: will tomorrow’s event professionals need to have online and offline skills?

It depends on what your responsibility is: if you do video capture, you will have to learn to offer web spreading, comment moderation, etc. Margins on traditional AV ser- vices will go down so you have to find new services. Online activity is becoming the centre of attention of people, and that requires new services.
There are services the industry of- fers and which are less needed than
before (e.g. most management of transport can be done online with a tool like Kayak.com).
People go to conferences attracted by the big star, but leave with new ideas by a less-known speaker
Then, there are the services we need and cannot find. For instance, conferences need to find providers to help generate content and spread it online: on-demand bloggers who will help value speakers, spread the word on Facebook and elsewhere...

Laurent talks on Wednesday, 13.00 to 14.00, in the Generation Y Debate, Conference Room 4.2.