Conferences. You know the sort of thing: long queues, presentations where you feel you need a fast forward button, complicated and conflicting schedules, sore shoulders from a mountain of brochures and freebies. And yet, what do people repeat, over and over, when they return? The best bits were talking with like-minded people, sharing ideas and experience, eating, drinking and companionship.

So. If we were to redesign the idea of a conference, to give the best and most valuable experience for every delegate, how would we go about it?

I've noticed several rumbings in the blogoshpere about this sort of thing recently. Doc Searls has some suggestions. He wants comfortable surroundings, sessions based on subjects, not personalities (nor, I assume, on blatant product marketing), and a chance to get your hands dirty actually doing stuff. Chris Corrigan repeatedly waxes enthusiastic about "Open Space Technology" (a fancy name for a way of organizing adaptable meetings that actually get things done), and I have many fond memories of "delegate-organized games" at UK GenCon.

I can't help thinking that there's also been a lot of educational research that might help with this. The "constructivist" approach to teaching and learning recognizes that some of the greatest value comes from the interaction between learners and teachers, rather than some direct absorbtion of a hosepipe of presented material. The most effective modern education tends to be interactive, creative, and continually adapting to the changing needs of the learners. If we consider our ideal conference largely as some sort of learning experience, it would seem crazy to ignore all this research.

I'm sure you'll all have your own ideas about how to take this forward, but here's a few of mine to be going on with.

• Bring and Share One of the powerful aspects of the Open Space Technology and Delegate Organized Games experience is it's "bring and share" nature. Everyone can propose topics for discussion, or bring games to run. And if something grabs your attention during the event, there's a way to publicize it and gather other participants then and there. This encouragement to participants to get involved with making things happen helps to blur the divisions between presenters/teachers and delegates/learners, which must be a good thing. So in our redesigned conference, everyone is encouraged to think in advance about what they want to gain from the event, and what they have to offer, and come prepared with information, resources, issues and questions.
• Tools to Create From constructivist theory comes the idea that people learn while creating - new ideas, new products, explaining to others. So our conference would make sure that the tools for this creativity are everywhere and encourage people to use them. Plenty of paper and pencils, wireless networks, computer workstations (or ask delegates to bring what they need), a bunch of cosy "booths" with tables and whiteboards, a central "store" where people can buy/borrow a range of other creative and thinking tools. Whatever seems appropriate to the scope of the event.
• Suggest, Schedule, and Contact Join "bring and share" to the "tools to create" by providing a simple way for people to contact each other, seek like-minded groups to work on something, or raise topics for discussion. Pinboards, paper blu-tac'ed to walls, an interactive web site, whatever works for the delegates.
• Choose and Change Your Mind From "Open Space Technology", comes the law of two feet. Your time is too important to waste on something that's not doing it for you, and there are so many other things that could make better use of your attention. So, if a a session is not what you were expecting, go choose something else. After all, with everyone at the event ready with their own topics, ideas, problems and questions, there's bound to be something else more suitable...

I'm sure there are logistical problems in a model like this, but wouldn't it be a buzz! And those corporate marketing presentations would really need to work hard to gather more interest than fast-moving, lightweight, catch-the-meme-of-the-moment individual suggestions. Think about this next time you are fidgeting your way through an hour or two of droning powerpoint slides that you could have skimmed on the web.

Any more suggestions? What would you like to see in conference version 2.0 ? Do you know of any events that actually work anything like this?