Business, Environmental and Economic Events Seminars, Conferences and Conventions Around the World That are a Waste of Time and Money!!

Live events, conferences, seminars, conventions and meetings were some of the most prominent fabric of the business, organisational and economic fabric that the COVID Pandemic disrupted immensely. For many of the organisatiners in the businesses of these events, this was a huge financial shock. At the same time, the pandemic shifted the whole dynamic towards online meetings and events, a phenomenon that was, before the onset of the pandemic, in its nascent stages.

Business, environment and development and economic events, unlike social, entertainment, political, sport and arts events, are supposed to address specific issues and solve specific problems. They are, or must, be organised and convened because there is an issue or problem or situation that requires people to converge in the same place for a collaborative approach to address the issue or issues or craft out a solution. This objective is in contrast to other events that are mainly for entertainment and socialising and making money for the organisers.

Now, too many events like conferences, seminars, awards ceremonies, symposiums, exhibitions, and conventions are now just money spinners for organisers and, if they are international, an opportunity for tourism. The organisers moot these events not with a genuine desire or objective to solve a problem that affects the attendees or to provide the attendees with any real value in terms of providing them with solutions or ideas or opportunities that can justify their paying money and their attendance. You may think I am talking about events organised by small and medium business players only; even some big, high-profile, international events organised by big institutions are completely worthless from a strategic viewpoint. They bring nothing of any value to the issues of discussion. Delegates attend these events mainly because they are “paid for” by their “organisations”, and not from their own pockets, and the events also provide them with an opportunity for travel or to break from the office routines.

The money-making formula from events that they use, especially in business is this;

Step One: Come up with a fancy topic, preferably around some trending concept for example,

1.    “Post-Pandemic....or Navigating the Vuca World or…..

2.    How to Become a High Voltage Marketer or

3.    Achieving Economic Transformation Through Fourth Industrial Revolution or

4.     Transforming Africa’s Economy Through Integrating  STEM into Mainstream Strategic Economic Positioning or

5.    Climate Action Agenda 2030: Leveraging on Global Partnerships for Rapid Financial Mobilisation for Galvanising Accelerated Global Inclusive Climate Action

Step Two: Identify People that You Think Can “Pull the Crowd” and Recruit Them as Speaker.

If you are in Africa, also invite the President or Vice President of the Country to be Guest Speaker.

If dreaming up purposeless, high-sounding themes and titles is an appetizer, this second step is where things really get interesting.

The event is supposed to be a practical event where things of substance are to be discussed, meaning you need serious thinkers, philosophers, experienced or expects as speakers depending on the core them of the event, but event organisers are more interested in getting “crowd pullers” instead of seeking out people who are competent or who have the potential to provide serious, situation-specific solutions, insights or perspectives. This effectively translates the event from being a serious strategic, technical solution-seeking event into a commercial entertainment show. And guess what, true to human nature, many people attend events not because of the actual expected personal benefit but because there are “big names” on the line up even when it is as clear as a 30-carat diamond that the big names are unlikely to deliver serious value to the event except for pulling the crowds because the big names are thrown into topics in which they lack depth and they then rely on shallow research and become mouthpieces of other prominent thinkers and thought leaders in the areas they accept to speaker. While I personally believe that it is important to provide the best possible delivery including getting ideas from other prominent people and scholars, but if all what you do in a presentation is quote and paraphrase other people’s work and regurgitate other people’s ideas especially from their books, audios, videos, articles and other presentation, then your value is questionable. I have seen this from many “crowd pullers” who come to simply downloaded what they have loaded onto their presentation media and platforms from other sources. Yes sometimes all what audiences need is information but if that is all that you can give, why not just email your presentation so that your audiences can read for themselves? Better still, why not give them your list of references? Serious event organisers must be willing to pay people who can provide such information without actually wasting time on stage reading from papers and from Power Point Slides.

In Africa, event organisers especially conferences and conventions, even professional ones, have made it appear like inviting the President or Vice President or Minister to the event is a must. I do not think in principle there is anything wrong but in terms of value, it is often a waste of the precious time of a whole president, vice president or minister to any event whose real value with expire as soon as the event is over like a musical show. I say this because most business, economic and environmental events do not produce serious outputs that have a serious practical impact on the issues they are meant to deal with. Event organisers rarely produce reports. People come present, talk and “discuss” and leave everything there; no report , action items no immediate follow up activities from event. In fact, the majority of events are pretty stand-alone and not part of a strategic continuum toward any specific end goal in the future. Have you ever attended business, environmental and economic events that are no different from academic symposiums where researchers come and present their research work and that’s it?

Step Three: Advertise or Invite Participants to Attend the Event

Participants are invited to attend the events. Some events are open to the public and anyone who can afford to pay can attend. The event organisers in this case are more interested in numbers and anyone who can afford can attend. This is business!

Then we have sponsored events that are supposed to deal with some issue of economic, social or economic interest where participation is by private invitation. These events are supposed to be attended by serious people with expertise, information, experience, knowledge, and thinking and problem-solving abilities including those with creative, analytical, strategic or technical minds, but in many cases organisers often invited colleagues and buddies with no capacity to make any significant contribution to the issue or issues at all. Surprisingly, many organisers of such events see nothing wrong at all in bringing unqualified people and even screening out those who can make serious contributions. Their event is a “success” because there were enough participants to fill the venue even when the output was substandard and even completely valueless in terms of providing a solution or dealing with the issue.

The pattern is very simple;

1.    The event is organised in an ad-hoc, tactical way and without any serious strategic objective

2.    People attend

3.    After the event everyone goes back home and into the society

4.    No reports on events or thick volumes of conference reports mainly proceedings reports but no decisions, no follow up paths but without any specific program of action to take up the issues, decisions and resolutions and put them into action.

5.    Nothing serious in terms of application of outputs from the event

6.    No immediate follow-up activities

7.    Chapter closed

8.    Back to step one on the same theme or another theme

If we were to work out the sums of money and time spent of high-profile but worthless business, economic and environmental events around the world, the figures would be shocking. These billions go into the various pockets but with little if any return on investment.

The big issue with events is that many event organisers and event conveners do not know the differences between the different types of events and what they are supposed to deliver and produce. For example, many have no idea or only have vague ideas on each of the following types of events and what they are supposed to deliver and how they are supposed to be organised,

1.    A conference

2.    A convention

3.    A seminar

4.    A workshop

5.    A meeting

6.    A symposium

7.    A breakthrough session

8.    A training camp

9.    A class

10. A program

11. A clinic

12. An exhibition

13. A Lecture

14. A Presentation

Business, Economic, Environmental and Professional Events Must Deliver Practical, Actionable Results

The world is facing serious challenges. Businesses and economies are underperforming. Our planet is at peril. Poverty and unemployment are reaching frightening proportions. Events provide a golden opportunity for people to converge and leverage on each other’s talents, knowledge, information, skills, and expertise. They must generate serious solutions, trigger serious action and create and maintain momentum toward desired long-term outcomes. The one event for itself and profit for no serious value approach just won’t do. We have to change. We cannot afford to confuse business, environmental and economic events with entertainment where it’s just a game of numbers.  

These events, whether they be workshops, seminars, conferences, conventions, and exhibitions, must deliver serious practical actionable value for all stakeholders including participants.

Organisers of such events, if they do it for commercial purposes, deserve to make a profit out of them, but that profit must be linked to a serious return on investment for all who contribute money, time and other resources to make it happen. Now is to change.

simonsbere@gmail.com   +263-77-444-74-38

©Simon Bere