The ‘Slow Movement’ for Conferences! Is technology taking over a ‘face to face’ people connection occasion?

Recently I attended a few conferences, which have been terrific. One was a digital media conference, the other a recruitment and technology related conference, so there was a lot of strong technology flavor. Upon reflection however I have to wonder if I gained the maximum benefit from these conferences thanks to technology taking over my life!

While presenters were speaking, I observed that delegates (including me) were on their laptops working away, on twitter, texting and emailing the office and the like. It seems we are so time poor and have so many different people competing for our time and attention that we are maybe missing out on a lot of valuable opportunities, such as meeting real people. Have we lost focus and control of our working lives – and as a result forgotten the purpose of attending these conferences in the first place? Are we not there to learn from the presenters and delegates? Should our time not be spent interacting and communicating with delegates about the topics of the conference and to learn from one another in a face to face forum?

It is interesting to note that as soon as break time comes, everyone is off out the door on their phones and laptops hurriedly working away before the conference convenes, offering little personal interaction time, which is ultimately where a lot of the benefit comes from. (Granted conferences could also include more interaction and networking time as well as listening to presenters.) Think about it, this is why people choose to study their MBAs etc on campus rather than via correspondence. The greatest learnings often come from interacting with your peers and the networks that evolve from this are extremely beneficial from both a personal and career perspective. So while we try to cram as much into our time – and perhaps even feel guilty about being away from the office and educating ourselves – that we continue to work away before, during and after the conferences we attend to make up for ‘lost time’. Are we truly leveraging the opportunity or just going through the motions – ticking off another thing on the endless work list.

After one of the conferences I attended I spoke with a delegate on the phone, who like so many delegates there I did not have a chance to meet face to face. The delegate in a somewhat annoyed and justified manner made the comment that so many of those she was on a table with had their laptops or iphones and were engrossed in twittering and working away and were not interacting with each other.

While Twitter is great and you can communicate real time what is happening to those who are not able to attend the conference, at the same time you’re sacrificing the opportunity to really be learning from the speakers and engaging with others who are sitting beside you. Strangely, a growing number of us find it easier to be Twittering to the world and the online community than communicating with real life people beside us. Which then begs the question, if you are going to spend your time at these events doing everything but be present to what is going on and those around you, is there any point in really attending? Perhaps these types of events should simply be streamed so we can participate from our desks and multi-task away. They have the ‘slow movement’ for many areas, which began with food and the protest of McDonalds, and has moved to travel, shopping, art, parenting and design. Perhaps conferences are next!

I myself am guilty of this behavior and am working to ensure that my time is more focused and that I truly benefit from attending conferences and events, where I can interact face to face with passionate, educated and interesting people. After all that is a key component in business and also in personal development. It is nothing to feel guilty about. You should only be feeling guilty if you don’t leverage these opportunities due to technology and day to day office matters taking over your focus so that you are not reaping the rewards of being involved in such conferences and events.

Are we losing the ability and desire to make face to face connections, preferring the ease and convenience of online connections? Or have the rules changed and we just need to adapt to how it is done now?

Do you see an issue with the new conference practices? Or is this how the future is going whereby we are present to some degree at the conference, however also equally or more present to the online community and our workplaces?