You need innovation as an engine for you conference participants' success!

This requires that you must break free of Infectious conference learning myths.

Despite our intentions to ensure that all our conference participants learn and network successfully, we seem to be working harder than ever at accomplishing less. And our attendees seem to be more disengaged than ever and longing for more. At any given time 50% or more of our conference attendees are not attending our programming.

In an effort to improve our conferences and help our attendees, we have pushed the existing conference model into hyperdrive, offering more and asking attendees to work at super speeds to consume as much as possible. Our richly-scheduled events—code for overly-scheduled—negatively affect attendees' learning and quality networking in the long run.

We need to break free of infections myths about conference experiences, learning and networking to find ways to hardwire conferences to organically develop the natural intelligence of our attendees. It requires courage, tenacity and certitude that our conferences can become true learning events that redefine our participants' 21^st century success.

After attending this session, participants will be able to:

• Connect how the demands on 21^st Century professionals require a shift in the way conference attendees are expected to participate, think and interact with others in the real world and thus how we plan and organize our events
• Discuss how the impact of our current conference models practices, policies and structures impact our attendees and why we need to establish and adopt some basic conference learning principles.
• Communicate new conference realities that break free from traditional learning and networking myths.