Written by Dick CarlsonI spent 14 hours on the road (well, in the air and in airports and waiting in shuttle buses) the other day to come to rainy Las Vegas for a show. It’s about Learning, that thing that I spend lots of time trying to help clients make happen.
“Putting on a big show” is a concept that has really run into some difficult times over the last few years. Airplane bombers, tanking economies, online learning and general “I don’t want to spend a week away from my desk” sorts of attitudes are making it pretty difficult.
As someone who used to build content for great big shows, it makes me sad. As someone who comes to speak at great big shows (to troll for unsuspecting clients) it makes me even sadder. It’s just not much fun anymore.
There used to be free food. At this show, I’m going to get a free ice-cream bar. There used to be free bands at cocktail parties. At this show, I’ll have to hum ABBA songs or listen to my i-Pod while I pay $20 for a beer. And there used to be lavish hotels and convention centers — and at this show, I’m a mile from the strip in a hotel that looks like Bugsy Siegal might come around the corner any minute.
But I had a pretty good group for my workshop yesterday — they struggled a bit (I’m not your typical PowerPoint lecture sort of guy) and there were a few evaluations that reflected that. And I’m enjoying my hallway conversations and the Twitter backchannel discussions during the presentations.
But it just doesn’t stand up to having Bono up on stage, with 7,000 people dancing the night away drinking from an open bar. Oh, well.
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