Many conferences on subjects involving HR, learning, and performance consulting provide more or less the same experience: Trainers and consultants show up and speak about their methodology or tools to other trainers and consultants. Only one thing is missing: an audience of customers, clients, corporate representatives, or anybody else who needs help in these areas. Over time we visit these learning events with lesser and lesser ROI, even though we learn a lot, the likelihood of our coming back is low.
Why do corporate representatives stay away? Here are some of their answers:
- The methodologies are smart but we do not learn how to apply them in our field. The sessions are one-way; someone speaks about his or her experience and there is no place to ask how I could use this for my cases.
- We have the feeling that the same people are always present. When I go to a certain conference, I can almost guess who will speak there. In most cases consultants speak about their tools and often give the same presentation over and over again.
- Networking is coincidental. Sometimes I meet people who would make a contribution to my efforts, but I must admit that it is often too much effort to find them.
- My company does not see value in these conferences. It becomes harder and harder to justify the ROI, because business applications are nowhere clearly visible in the program.
Many of us have probably heard one or more of these answers from time to time; still, most conferences do not change a single thing.