I know it take a lot to organize one conference let alone several regional ones. I was wondering if the conference had reached a value/cost breaking point. With a reduction in days/sessions and credits, I know a lot of people are rethinking attendance even if they aren't vocalizing it now. I know because I talked to a lot of people during the never ending waits for the shuttle buses. Given this topic, I thought I should speak my peace publicly instead of grumbling quietly to myself and a few others.

I am glad to hear ARMA and the BOD are assessing options. I think the issues for me are cost, location, structure, and time management. If the cost has to go up, maybe less should be spent on items like the tech spotlight and the general session. I don't know how much that skit/sketch production cost at the conference general session but I don't think it added anything to the event. I was late for it, thanks to the shuttle bus, and I kept thinking of the "Bad Playhouse" skit in the old SNL episodes while that was going on.

I think the keynote hit the wrong note as well. I think the presentation structure was inappropriate to the audience and venue. I did walk out of the keynote at 1015am which was over the time allotted. I thought the speaker was knowledgeable about the subject and probably a great guy. I certainly wouldn't attack him personally but I kept wondering if he had anyone else reviewed the presentation beforehand as a gut check. I think if there is a keynote session it should be short and focused on the ultimate objective: setting the tone of the conference and nothing more. For a keynote, 20-30 minutes may be the maximum.

Instead the focus of the conference could be on education sessions and see if steps can be taken to make it more cost effective for the vendors on the Expo floor. I had a great time on Expo floor this year and spoke with a lot of vendors and learning quite a bit.

I think some of the education sessions were far too long for adult learners. The 12 minute sessions seem like an intriguing idea to explore further. I attended two, 2 hour sessions and tried to tough it out but I had an out of body experience about an hour and fifteen minutes into each session. I think that's about the maximum time period when it comes to information retention for adult learners from what I have read.

I also cringe a little at the venue locations. I know the planners only go to class "A" cities but the ARMA conference isn't that big anymore. To a city like Chicago, a conference the size of ARMA is a fly on the wall and someone from the hospitality industry in Chicago told me as much. I am guessing the planners try to pick cities with a lot of tourist attractions to encourage attendance. With the size of the attendance now, I think there are a lot of smaller and less expensive cities that would love to have the ARMA conference. It would be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. I know the first thing my employer looks at is cost related to location. Big, heavily populated cities are expensive. You only have to look at the government per diem rates to understand the difference.

Rob Seibolt, CRM
Supervisor-Records Management
816-360-5480

http://www.mriglobal.org


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