Recent events in the world economy have turned the budgets of most companies inside out and upside down. Stock prices have dropped, earnings are being impacted and travel budgets are being limited in many cases. Both industry and individuals are looking for value as they deal with the economic situation. But ruling out the opportunity to meet and learn may not be the wisest way forward. Conferences and workshops are opportunities to network, learn and develop new strategies, and those needs still exist. How can we move forward to meet these needs in the current economic environment while adding value?

Why we meet
Meeting colleagues, customers and the public is considered an important investment for most companies and individuals. Contrary to many observers initial thoughts, we meet for many reasons, not just to market goods and services. At conferences and workshops we learn about each other’s work, interests and strategies. In any cases education is a key component of a conference or workshop with lectures, discussions and demonstrations. These events also provide us with an opportunity to learn what our competition is up to, as well as providing a means to meet prospective new customers. Through each of these interactions we invest in employee’s, enabling them to grow, become more effective and to develop new oppportunities for both themselves and their respective companies moving forward.

Evolution does not stop in difficult times
As the economic situation changes and develops, for whatever reasons, the needs of individuals, cities, regions and countries continue to change, grow and alter. It is incorrect to assume that growth is not taking place when economic challenges abound. Challenges are constantly being presented, and in the current climate we can see evidience of this being manifested in terms infrastructure needs, a move to energy efficiency, growth in more localised events and offerings among others.  Remember, a decline of 2% in GDP in growth still means 98% of the economy is growing.

People’s needs change as budgets tighten and travel is currently being impacted. But their needs to fulfill the goals of what they would learn through travel remain.

Conferences, workshops – understanding
We have come through a strong period of growth in the geospatial industry, just like so many other industries. Our goods and services, I think, are under-priced at the moment, given that most of our technologies and products are not based on paper non-realities, but instead, are dynamic, real and valuable products that can actuallychange reality!

As we have grown, so too have the number of conferences and workshops across our industry grown and expanded. In fact, we have seen a growth in these events as profit-centres themselves – conferencing becoming a major form of income creation. In some cases this has resulted in some sectors becoming more insular – a negative.

But in a down turning economy, people’s attention hardens toward the value of the conferences they choose to attend. A shift moves from conference provider to conference attendee in a bigger way. Attendee’s want (and need) to define their travel costs and learning investments based on greater value. This has important considerations for conference organiser’s and raises the spectre of what constitutes value in terms of conference attendance and travel budgets.

Most large conferences (>5000  attendees) are self-sustaining. They tend to be global in nature, have large numbers of distributors and ancillary employee’s and can support a wide ranging education component.  While these events may be impacted, it is the smaller-medium sized events where attendee’s may be seeing a need for rationalisation. They may be asking themselves, “what if I could combine 2, 3-5 of the events I like, into one single event?” That argument constitutes value in many minds.

Going about the business of rationalising
Take 4 of your favorite small-medium sized conferences. How would you feel if you could attend them all, if they were in one place together? How can we get people moving toward this idea? Provided it is a worthwhile idea. Do we necessarily have to have all surveying, all GIS or all sensor companies at the same single conference? What if a conference had a theme outside of traditional ‘geo’ thinking, and more in line with environment, energy, transport etc. and could your company fit into such an event.

It is interesting to see some of the larger conferences in Europe. Many of them see 50,000 or more visitors. Is it worthwhile to insert a geospatial section inside of one or more of these events, as a way of adding value to the attendee?

The key point here is to add value to the attendee. Simple things like keeping conferences near large -centrally locatable airports go a long way toward reducing travel costs. Last year I had the opportunity to attend a conference at Stansted Airport in the UK. This was a brilliant choice for a conference because most European regional carriers fly into Stansted. Centrally located events on high-speed train lines are also good places for events.

The mix of education into events
European events (outside of institutional events) do not often feature education into the main program. This is quite different as compared to N. American events which often feature education into the program. I’m not sure why this is different than Europe, but it is unfortunate. Education is where applications are realised, understood and value is realised. It is important to include educational programs into conferences, and these could be broadened out if 5 or more smaller events got together. Who knows, some creativity here could add some dymanic programs. One point: virtually every event I attend, does not leave enough time for people to ask questions. Many attendee’s derive huge value through being able to participate in a question period. This is where collaboration and sharing grows!  If you plan an event, then leave time for questions, don’t avoid it.

Summary
The current economic situation means that companies and individuals are looking for value in their travel budgets. It is important to understand the need for meeting still remains. What is needed is a rationalisation of events and workships that would integrate some of them, providing more value to attendee’s and opening the doors to new ways and means for people to share and grow – in a tight environment.

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Note: This column alternates weekly between Vector1 Media editors. Matt Ball is editor Americas/Asia Pacific for V1 Magazine and V1 Energy magazine.