Wonder why most conferences feel the same, sometimes feeling like glorified networking sessions that bring little new insights for your learning needs? Explore a new concept of designing conferences that bring back the feel-good values and human experiences people will enjoy. Invest your effort into things that matter to your audience. Challenge yourself to think about curating conference experiences from a human-centered approach, beyond the operation efficiency and cost effectiveness.

1. Designing conference experiences
that matters to your audience
Raven Chai, UXSG community

2. I’m a
UX person
who is involved in a…
consulting biz ground-up community non-profit professional association

3. Organiser of 4 conferences in Singapore, Shanghai and London

4. Share 3 stories
of my personal journey in event organising
Reference: http://www.fastcompany.com/52831/creating-design-centric-culture

5. How the idea of organising a conference came
about in the first place (year 2011)?
1Story

6. The triggers…
“Why do I started to feel indifferent about attending these
events and the experiences are kind of similar; uninspiring,
impersonal and unfulfilling?”
… after attending a few hundreds of events

7. Started the habit of taking notes, observations on
fellow attendees’ reactions and engage in meaningful
discussions in every event I have attended or spoke in

8. Having a sense (and validates) whether a
conference is needed in the first place
what if no one buys the ticket???

9. Implications > fears, anxiety and stepping into unknown

10. Live with no regrets.
Life’s too short, take a chance.

11. Making the dream a reality,
turning thoughts into action.
2Story

12. Assemble a team of like-minded leaders and supporters

13. Understand your users (audience) -
What they hope to learn, what are their challenges.

14. Conduct user research to validate hypotheses,
gather honest opinions and feedback from attendees.

15. Curate a holistic experiences as if you are inviting your
loved ones and best friends to attend the event

16. Think about content, speakers, marketing, operation, f&b etc
Yes but design it from a human-centric point of view

17. Marketing
seek to inform and educate, not to sell.
17 personalised eDMs from pre to post event

18. Welcome pack for your speakers
Help them to understand your audience and perform to their very best

19. Operation
Transmit the passion to the venue ‘landlord”, and what it means
to have a win-win partnership

20. Food & Beverages
Imagine yourself as one of the attendees, what would you love to
have for food & beverages

21. Community Spirit
When you do the right thing with sincerity and authenticity,
your audience will response with unconditional love and support.

22. Reward your volunteers
They are the people who makes things happen

23. Most importantly - you must have fun!!
despite how difficult it is to run a conference event

24. Define success as how much we learnt
from the experiences
3Story

25. De-brief to learn from each other and
identify areas for improvement

26. One of our most successful experiments:
“Super Garang Early Bird Ticket” concept

27. Continue to engage with your audience to
add value to their professional lives

28. Keep the things that are successful,
find ways to improve others.
7
Design Principles

29. Making conferences feel personal again
1
“The organisers treated us like people, not numbers. I had fun learning with other
attendees and was able to network with the right people.”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ameotoko/4334357860/

30. Investing in things that matter to people
2
“It feels great when everything works well – Wi-Fi, good coffee, delicious food
served fast, slides available quickly & keynote recordings. What else could I ask for?”
http://www.ifood.tv/blog/tips-for-planning-a-food-photo-shoot

31. I feel at home
3
“It was so awesome meeting others with the same passion or experiences
as myself. I am not alone in the journey to better UX.”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyromasci/9872083473/

32. I know what I signed up for
4
“I had sufficient information to make an informed choice on workshops
and felt confident they were going to be worth paying for.”
https://www.flickr.com/photos/comode/2420378711/in/photolist-4FT5gr-dNgPKa-5CRsuP-5KVtSt-Bu5oM-8puUm-dUjaP-dt2a1D-5D1E2X-9d7Lwu-dt29RK-5uNfgC-8em1zq-7MvT8r-5noFd7-x1YQo-ecSnBf-adnuwZ-c5jgoj-gHqCpf-dgKsnQ-k9Jh5-

33. I feel guided all the time
5
“Never did I once feel lost. There was always clear signage or
someone around to help. I knew where to go for help if I needed it.”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ameotoko/4334357860/

34. Approachable, inspiring, engaging
6
“I felt like I could change the world after the conference. The speakers joined us for
drinks, it was nice to see they are human too.”
http://www.theworldspeaker.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/group-of-happy-people-2.jpg

35. Delight in the details
7
“Loved how much thought went into the conference –
there were many nice surprises which I did not expect.”
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jirka_matousek/9419564765/in/set-72157634894819171

36. Conclusions

37. Always organise a conference event from a
human-centered perspective.

38. Assemble a multi-disciplinary team to run the
event with a product life-cycle mindset

39. Always focus on your users -
audience, speakers, partners, volunteers

40. Create impact beyond the event itself,
focus on what people can take away from your event.

41. Evolve the team’s thinking into
“To go fast is to go slow"

42. Start . Stop . Continue

43. So the answer is “YES”, conference experiences can be designed

44. Thank you!
Raven Chai
Email: raven@uxconsulting.com.sg
Twitter: @ravenchai
Website: www.uxsg.org