Lessons from Helsinki: Kill the Speaker / Attendee Divide

The best bit about Like Minds Conversation Helsinki was when the panel got up and crossed the invisible divide that separates speaker and attendee, and began chatting with the people in the crowd like equals. Because guess what – that’s what they are.

Almost a year ago, when I was forming the ideas for Like Minds, I knew that ‘attendee’ would never be a word in our vocabulary. Everyone at Like Minds is a participant.

Here’s what worked and what didn’t in Helsinki:

Worked: Preparing keynotes and panels. All too often a keynote is being prepared on the plane and the panel in the corridor beforehand. Preparation means you’ve thought about what the community present needs to hear.

Didn’t work: Laptops for keynote speaker notes. The best TED talks are so focused and well-oiled that speakers can connect to the audience, free from standing behind a laptop.

Worked: Panelists going into the crowd and chatting with clusters of people. Several people said they enjoyed this more than the keynotes. We called this Crowd Discussion.

Didn’t work: Un-facilitated panels. We need facilitators more than moderators – someone to keep the panel focused and draw questions from the floor.

The future of events is participatory. Not because speakers want to satisfy their ego, or listeners want to criticise – but because people remember 70% of what they say and only 20% of what they hear. Let them say.