The Power of Participation: Creating Conferences That Deliver Learning, Connection, Engagement, and Action

"This is a book that should be OPEN on every meeting planner's or event marketer's desk, and used every day."
--Paul Salinger, VP of Marketing, Oracle

In his bestselling book Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love Adrian Segar taught readers how to design and execute remarkable conferences. But this book focuses on improving meetings at a finer level--the individual meeting sessions.

Today, the most common reason that people give for attending face-to-face meetings is making valuable connections. Yet, time and time again, "networking" is relegated to meals and socials outside the sessions, and events are filled with lectures followed by a few minutes of audience questions. The Power of Participation provides conference presenters, organizers, and marketers with a comprehensive toolkit of simple techniques for creating participative sessions that involve the audience in their learning. Adrian Segar shows how you can turn passive attendees into active participants, which boosts learning, adds opportunities to meet and learn with peers during sessions, builds community and engagement, and improves desired action outcomes at your events.

Smart presenters and meeting organizers are integrating experiential learning and peer connection into their events. This book tells you how to do it. Buy The Power of Participation to learn why it's so important to incorporate participant action into every aspect of your event, what you need to know to create a meeting environment that supports and encourages participation, and when and how to use this extensive compendium of specific, detailed techniques to radically improve your sessions and meetings.

Praise for The Power of Participation
"Warning! This book may have radical ideas. If you plan or attend meetings and just want people to passively sit and listen to you or a presenter talk then please do not read this book. It’s dangerous to your mindset. Seriously. It may be a radical idea to turn attendees into participants, but in an environment of information overload and disconnection, we need it more than ever. The Power of Participation can transform how we act as workers, learners, citizens and "participants" in our globalized world. This is a book that should be OPEN on every meeting planners or event marketers desk, and used every day."
--Paul Salinger, VP of Marketing, Oracle

"The Power of Participation is a must for anyone who needs guidance in modernizing meetings. We are moving into a new stage of post industrial meetings where all participants are valued, not only those behind the microphone. Well designed participation is key, and Adrian Segar shows us the way. Buy it, read it and do it!"
--Eric de Groot, Meeting Designer, and co-author of Into the Heart of Meetings

"Adrian Segar’s work is crucial for the evolution of the event industry. This book is a mandatory read for the modern event professional. Adrian shares a logical approach to changing our outdated event designs, and guides you with practical techniques towards a value centered model, where the clear winners are both the conference organizer and the attendee. The Power of Participation provides the first step towards achieving conference success."
--Julius Solaris, Editor EventManagerBlog.com, and author of The Event App Bible, Social Media for Events and The Good Event Registration Guide

Adrian is an acknowledged innovator and speaker on participant-led event design, and facilitates two popular opening and closing plenaries--The Solution Room and A Personal Introspective--at conferences in North American and Europe. He has presented at just about every major meeting industry conference. Adrian is the community manager for the weekly #Eventprofs Happy Hour Hangout. He organized and facilitated two EventCamps--volunteer-run, innovative, experimental conferences for event professionals--in Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

Adrian has been honored as a BizBash Event Industry Innovator & MeetingsNet Industry Top Online Influencer, and been quoted on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. He blogs regularly on event design, logistics, presentations, and many other related topics at conferencesthatwork.com.

At the age of 25, Adrian was awarded a Ph.D. in elementary particle physics from University College, London. 37 years later, the experiment he worked on was awarded the 2009 European Physics Prize. He has owned and managed a solar energy manufacturing company, taught college level computer science, and was a sought-after independent information technology consultant for over 20 years.

Adrian lives in Marlboro, Vermont, is the founder and president of two non-profits, and loves to sing and dance.

Even more biographical information--what, that wasn't enough?--can be found at conferencesthatwork.com