Guest comment with Ed Bernacki, founder and director of The Idea Factory

Talking about innovation does not make you innovative any more than talking about physical fitness makes you fit. The meetings industry needs to stop talking about value for money and return on investment and get on with creating more value in our conferences.

In 1998, Meeting Professionals International (MPI) in the US studied the effectiveness of meetings, and needless to say, found vast differences in opinions of how effective meetings are. It defined an effective meeting as one with a clear sense of organizational priorities, concrete action plans, improved interaction and an event where delegates remember important messages. It also found that participants want meetings to leave them motivated. Planners overwhelmingly think meetings accomplish this, while participants disagree.

The question we should ask in Australia is what executives define as effective. While learning and networking are useful, they clearly fall short of what manager’s say is important. To reach these objectives, we need to add collaboration to the mix. Brainstorming is a simple example. In just 10 minutes, you can collect content which can be turned into themes for articles, workshops or training. This feedback has value.

What I seem to hear from the industry is the need to cut costs to improve return on investment. I do not hear much about designing conferences to create more value, and I do not understand why. Just remember, talking about return on investment and expecting things to change does not create change. When will it be time for action?