Is This Meeting Right for Me?

As our staff team was working with a speaker for an upcoming NIAA-hosted Roundtable, the speaker shared, “I may leave the audience with more questions than answers.”

I said, “Perfect! That is what NIAA convenings are all about – discussing, exploring, learning, and fostering shared knowledge.”

But, why could I say this so confidently?

As we dive into 2025, there will be a host of convenings – meetings, conferences, roundtables, summits, symposia, etc., that we can attend. Yet, all convenings are not created equally. In my December 2024 Thoughts, I shared a checklist for selecting meetings and events. It included evaluating objectives, relevance, quality, development opportunities, ROI, reputation, professional fit, and post-event action. Now, let’s explore why a convening may or may not be right for us.

As we all know, all convenings are not created equally. I believe gatherings fall into four categories:

·?????? Educational: Designed to primarily facilitate one-way communication of knowledge and insights to an interdisciplinary audience. Modeled after an educational lecture with structured time for breaks and networking. Many may offer continuing education credits. Most often hosted by universities, colleges, or certifying bodies with registration fees and sponsorships supporting the continuing education of participants.

·?????? Developmental: Created to facilitate two-way interactions that lead to action beyond expansion of individual knowledge. Participants are encouraged to engage more fully and apply key learnings collaboratively within their organizations and/or in interdisciplinary settings “in” and “outside” of the convening. Ongoing collaboration is highly encouraged. Most often hosted by trade associations or non-profits with registration fees and sponsorships supporting the mission of the hosting organization.?

·?????? Promotional: Hosted to showcase products and/or services. While the overall look and feel may mimic an educational or developmental convening, the purpose of promotional convenings is to promote the products and/or services of the hosting organization. Most often hosted by for-profit organizations with fees and sponsorships supporting the balance sheet of the organization and attendees filling a “pipeline” for future sales and marketing.

·?????? Celebratory: Utilized to celebrate specific achievements of individuals or organizations within a specific industry or sector. Often, celebratory convenings also include a fundraising component either directly or indirectly. Most often hosted by public institutions, associations, and non-profit organizations with ticket sales and sponsorships supporting the mission of the hosting organization(s) and, at times, awardees.

While a convening may be a hybrid of the above, in most cases each convening finds its “roots” in one of the above. And there is no right or wrong type of convening. All types of convenings have value and serve a specific purpose, constituency, and function.

Understanding the role of NIAA convenings – developmental, is what allowed me to quickly share with our speaker that it was okay to leave the audience with more question than answers. In fact, this trait in their remarks is ideal for NIAA.

To meet the definition of a developmental convening, if a speaker comes to a NIAA event with all the “answers,” there was no need for a convening; NIAA cannot meet our mission - convening animal agriculture experts and allies in collaborative settings to explore, discuss, learn, and develop knowledge that fosters interdisciplinary cooperation for the improvement and continuous progress of animal agriculture, if speakers have all the “answers.”

As you review your capacity for convenings in 2025, I invite you to explore how NIAA’s developmental convenings fit into your overall mix of educational, developmental, promotional, and celebratory events.

Be sure to regularly check the NIAA events page here and/or sign up for NIAA’s weekly e-blast here to stay up to date on our developmental convenings.

Which convenings will I see you at in 2025?