Think about the last time you received one of those emailers for the very latest “thought leadership” seminar.  An opportunity to spend anything up to £2,000 a time seeing the latest greatest most cutting edge thought-leadership speakers at some cool conference with an even cooler name: Weird, Zeitgeist, TED XYZ, Smorgasbord, or Whatever.  Tempting and sounds interesting you think, but is it really worth it?  

There has been an explosion of formats, venues, providers and sponsors of ‘thought-leadership’ events.  Joining the established conference organisers, a great plethora of publishing companies, technology start-ups, professional associations and recruitment consultancies are striving to land chunks of a global market.  While many content creators provide online access, there still seems to be a growing demand to actually be there, in the room.  

In the UK, the Marketing Society showcase big name speakers and captains of industry at mega conferences, flashy awards dinners and ‘masterclass’ seminars. The annual Festival of Marketing in London flies in former Space Shuttle commanders and Mindfulness experts to help you realise your strategic ambitions.  These events cost almost a £1,000 a ticket.  In April this year, PR Week announced that their 2016 event would last 4 [yes four] days at £1,800 a ticket.  Your CEO has to stump up a six-figure "patron fee" to get an invite to (real) TED or sell and lease-back their corporate headquarters to secure a place in a seminar room at Davos.  

So are these events worth the money?  Well if your objective is not just personal content consumption; but thought-leadership sharing, then we think so.  If you need an opportunity to collate and share smarts back with the leadership team at HQ, then some are better than others.  One of our favourites in the UK is WIRED which is wonderfully inventive and eclectic.  At £2,000 a ticket for a two day conference, the attendees have either had to personally dig very very deep, or play a blinder with their line-manager to get the ticket cost picked up by their employer.  But because of that, you get a rather extraordinary group of people in the room.  Nor just presenting, but in the audience. 

THE ACHILLES HEEL

So, come on!  I get the sharing smarts bit, but are they really worth the money?  Well if your objective is broadening your network, then we think not.  Where these conferences consistently fall down is in their stated objective to enable networking.  It's the number one registered "reason for attending" by delegates.  It is seldom fulfilled.  

The reality is that networking does not magically happen just because the event producers have allotted a time slot for "networking" in the programme, or (as I saw recently) by placing a banner above the coffee station with the words NETWORKING AREA emblazoned in 4000pt Helvetica Bold.   

Networking needs guidance, facilitation, encouragement and needs to be designed into the flow of the programme, the seating arrangements, the layout of the room, the content design and most importantly the philosophy and mindset of the hosts.  Otherwise, delegates seeking real networking opportunities will move onto event formats that have more connectivity and ambition than a series of well-lit predictable presentations and panels.  

The real value of these events is found, not in the content, but in connecting the people in the room.  The events organisers and programme designers who get this aspect more right than the current underwhelming norm are the ones most likely to get returning delegates, recommendations and referrals.