Sound n' Sight

Building a Conference Together: The W2W Experience

Imagine a conference community in which you are warmly welcomed online weeks before the event.

I'm not talking about the obligatory online event community where lip service is paid to pre-networking and the only information you receive is from conference organizers who send out the occasional press release.  I'm talking about a living, breathing community that has been in existence for years, yet welcomes you, a newbie, with open arms.

There you are encouraged to share about yourself, your personal life, interests, hobbies - even what kind of personality you are.  You are also encouraged to learn about the others who will be attending the conference.

Updates, memories, tips all shared online

Notices are posted by everyone on things they find interesting, updates about the event abound and memories of past events are also shared. Tips are given about travel, or booking amenities like massages and facials.  The group also shares traditions like games that are played and a charity activity that is crowd sourced on the online group.  Content you ask? Well of course, as with everything else, the content is discussed and decided on by the attendees - an open space format that has been working for nearly 7 years.

This has been my experience of the W2W community and it's closed online Yahoo Group, weeks before the event is scheduled to take place, March 17-20.  W2W is a yearly invitational conference, for women in the meetings and events industry, which began in 2004.

It was born from an idea by Joan Eisenstodt, chief strategist, Eisenstodt Associates LLC, Conference Consulting, Facilitation & Training, Washington, D.C., and Vanessa Vlay. The two wanted to stop talking about problems in the meeting industry and move toward solutions.

Not much has been written about W2W, but year after year it serves as a think tank, focused on creating an environment that fosters learning and creativity; and trusting that the people who attend are capable of creating an experience that meets the needs of each individual.

Freedom to experiment is key

What makes it special? Well, I'll be able to tell you more when I get back from W2W, but for event co-founder Joan Eisenstodt it has to do with the venue, the freedom to experiment with format and the women who attend.

"We tried, for example, doing a hybrid meeting and it was awful!" she explained. "It didn't allow us to focus on the here and now and those in the room. We were focused on trying to include those who had been there before and couldn't be that year.  I think being f2f and focusing on ourselves and each other is part of what makes it special."
 
The venue, which has remained the same since the inception of W2W, is Chaminade Resort & Spa in Santa Cruz, California. "The staff knows us and is always happy to see us... Those of us who have been steadily involved know that place and comfort have as much to do with outcomes as do content and delivery."


The women who attend, Joan notes, are of different ages, needs and places in their lives and industry.

"There is something," she says,  "about gathering with others of like-minds face to face, in a setting that, regardless of the weather (tho' it is lovelier in sunny weather!) is where we need to be and where we can talk about so many things and come away renewed and energized about what"s next for whatever it is we individually want or need."

'Smaller, richer conversations'

At a time when industry organizations seem to be trying to out-do one another in the breadth and scope of their meetings, W2W and conferences like it can be a breath of fresh air. It seems that the founders had this in mind.

""What I think is missing from most of the industry meetings (and I exclude GMIC because it is focused and smaller)" says Joan, "is intimacy and focus. By the nature of the memberships, the other meetings have to be broad in what they do. It's why so many of us spend more time in the hallways than in sessions - because we crave smaller, richer conversations."
 
W2W is also special because of the struggles the group undergoes in learning what makes a meeting/gathering good or not so good, according to Joan. As the women who attend talk about it, bring it to their work and industry organizations and back to W2W it seems our industry may be enriched without knowing why. 

As for me, I'm excited and feeling very fortunate to be able to participate. I am looking forward to the camraderie, wisdom and brilliant ideas of some very forward thinking women.  I will let you know how it turns out.

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