International Conferences Made in Poland (Dreams, Illusions & Aspirations for 2024 and Beyond)

What do you value most about Poland's event industry and the overall progress it has made over the last decade? For me, it would probably be its technological flamboyance and organizational prowess. In short, no conference format today is too complicated or too ambitious for some of the best event-management companies in Poland. Needless to say, perhaps, sophisticated design language and the growing recognition of innovations and storytelling creativity are very important factors, too.

So why are we not the Silicon Valley of Global Events...yet?

There are many answers to this question - many of them legitimate (more of them excuses) in the face of existing strategic gaps. What I personally still find (disproportionately) lacking is the fundamental awareness that a lot more emphasis should be given to CONTENT (as in content quality supervision, content creativity and content presentation discipline), especially when juxtaposed with its No. 1 competitor, i.e. content quality available online, often free of charge, across hundreds of disciplines, no matter how specialized!

Don't get me wrong, there are annual conferences out there with great (industry-specific) content, but, overall (as in "statistically speaking"), a lot more attention continues to be given to event packaging and promotion than on-stage substance.

Beyond surveys and intuition: How do you measure content quality?

Perhaps the easiest way to quantify things in this somewhat elusive department is to start by asking yourself one of these questions:

1. When is the last time you felt truly impressed/inspired by the level of respect for a conference audience, as reflected in the (intellectual/structural) quality of (the majority of!) its keynotes, panels and presentations?
2. What's the percentage of serious, international, annual conferences you've attended that commission (or have ever commissioned) an external, strategic event audit, with a special focus on opportunities missed or organizational/creative gaps, at least once every few years?
3. How many conference organizers you know actually spend money and/or make a serious effort to really understand their events' weak spots, or coach its speakers, especially the less experienced ones (but also the most seasoned ones). This will help you avoid repetition (incl. against what's available online), support conference format consistency, and/or make sure the conference itself becomes a perfect ecosystem for the untapped potential in speakers themselves, through smart interactions, creative challenges and direct exchange of views in multiple configurations. In other words, making the most of what your speakers can offer (sometimes not even being aware of it), in the best sense of the words. Remember, a great discussion moderator will make even uninspiring speakers shine and poor facilitator will likely annoy even the most outspoken and charismatic guests of yours underperform. The very same you had spent weeks attracting to your conference format, not to mention the speaker fee.

And sometimes, a great on-stage interview with a charismatic guest, combined with smart/creative audience interactions, will be a lot better (as in more informative/impactful) than a simple, predictable keynote with slides.

Conference Hosts & Masters of Ceremony: The specialization dilemma

To say that the event-host market has been rather moody over the past 3 years would probably be an understatement. Its peculiar interplay of long-term and last-minute assignment confirmations would be just one of many symptoms.

Today, there are big, international events out there that will risk booking an emcee last minute (weeks before an event) and there are those rare few that make sure they have the conference hosts they want 1 or 2 years in advance. Most often, however, these decisions are made only months in advance.

Event industry milestones: Accelerated extinction or disruptive innovation?

When it comes to industry shifts of the past two decades, nothing beats the first two quarters of 2020, I guess. A true black swan moment for the event industry, when the onslaught of the global pandemic made everyone's calendar evaporate overnight, eventually forcing most to try and survive by resorting to technological and organizational innovations. Definitely not something many were used to in their comfortable, old-habits-die-hard, local event worlds, to say the least.

Against those circumstances, I myself was on the lucky side, I guess. Years of streamlining the core activity areas, but also specializing in industry-specific, international conference formats, proved absolutely critical for survival at the time. Between April and December 2020, I hosted online conferences for audiences in literally every EU country, some across continents and time zones. More importantly, perhaps, the experience itself offered invaluable insights that would otherwise be out of reach...for many more years.

2024 and beyond: A message of hope!

After well over 400 conferences in the event host role, both in Poland and abroad, I could hardly be more optimistic when thinking about the future of Poland's event industry, assuming enough strategic thinking and some real thought leadership accompany the upcoming shifts, of course.

The past two decades of accelerated progress and lessons learned by the industry on the way make the Polish event industry mature and sophisticated enough to not only deliver the most demanding event formats out there but also take on a lot more work abroad, across the EU and beyond. This includes both narrow specialization areas (design, storytelling, social media, photo/video, event production, streaming/broadcasting, etc.) as well as complete ownership of all key processes on a turn-key basis.