Thinking Aloud: Conferences as Experiences

As someone who has delivered keynotes and breakouts at many conferences around the world. As well as hosting the main stage and smaller stages at conferences, and even designed and hosted my own leadership conference, I have often wondered why we are doing the same thing over and over again when it comes to conferences.

Surely this whole model is ripe for disruption. No?

Walk with me.

For years, conferences have banked on one simple formula. Find the biggest names you can afford, put them on the stage, and hope their presence alone sells tickets. It’s not unusual for organisers for the larger gigs to spend six figures on a "celebrity speaker", gambling that their star power will justify the cost.

To be sure, the big-name keynote looks good on a brochure. It fills seats. It gives sponsors bragging rights. But let’s be real and honest here. Most of the time, the talk itself could have been a YouTube clip. The same story, the same anecdotes, the same carefully rehearsed beats delivered a hundred times before. When was the last time a marquee speaker really blew you away?

I would argue that what delegates remember isn’t always the rockstar, unless they are just thirsty for selfies. What they remember is the moment that felt unique, the conversation that cut through, the experience that couldn’t have happened anywhere else. What happened off the stage

That for me should be the shift. The future of conferences shouldn’t be about paying for stars, it should be about paying for experiences.

The celebrity model works in the short term, but it’s fragile. People are more sceptical about hype. Attention spans are shorter. I honestly believe that delegates don’t want to be passive consumers of polished speeches. They want something raw, interactive, and real.

The value of a conference isn’t information anymore.

We are drowning in content.

What’s scarce is context.

What’s rare is connection.

What’s priceless is experience.

What Experiences Look Like

Instead of blowing a budget on one speaker, imagine investing in immersive formats:

Think of Learning Labs. Essentially hands-on workshops where participants create, test, and play with ideas.

Or Story Circles where small groups of people share their experiences associated with the conference them and draw out lessons together.

Heck I think more conferences should have Hackathons. Not just for tech but spaces where teams build prototypes or tackle live challenges during the conference itself.

While I am blue sju thinking, how about Field Trips? Where delegates leave the venue to see ideas in practice on a factory floor, a community project, or a hidden corner of the city.

These formats turn a conference into something unforgettable. Not something you watch, but something you do.

Here’s the business truth, people will still pay a premium but not for access to content they can Google. They’ll pay for experiences they can’t replicate.

When you design a conference this way, the product is no longer the speaker. The product is the experience itself, and experiences scale differently. They generate stories, memories, and emotional resonance. Delegates go back and tell their colleagues, “You had to be there,” as opposed to whipping out a camera to take a pic of Shiny Sam or Susan.

That’s marketing you can’t buy.

Are Speakers Still Relevant

This doesn’t mean speakers disappear. It means their role shifts. Instead of being the headline act, they become facilitators of experiences. A great speaker can lead a story circle, drive a debate, or coach a hot-seat session. They bring expertise, yes, but they also help create something dynamic in the moment.

I have always relished the idea of someone paying me to speak on my subjects of expertise but rather than a polished keynote, it's a reverse keynote, where the audience sets the questions/topics first, and I, the keynote speaker, respond in real time. Or hot seat coaching, where a delegate or two gets to be coached in real-time on an issue they are facing at work. (My wife did that at her last summit, and it was dope) and then I use those principles to round out a talk.

That makes the value of speakers less about celebrity and more about craft. Less about how many books they’ve sold (although please my book innit) and more about how well they can spark transformation in a room.

The conference of the future isn’t a lineup of stars. It’s a landscape of experiences. It’s designed like a festival where every touchpoint matters. Delegates don’t leave with tote bags and notes (why do we still do this?) they leave with stories, tools, and relationships that last.

And the best part? When you stop pouring money into one name at the top of the bill, you free up resources to design richer, more diverse, more creative experiences for everyone.

The speaker doesn’t become the product. The experience does.

And that’s what people will pay for.

Thoughts (and prayers) in the comments