This just in! Thought leaders present future-forward ideas!

A communication association that will go unnamed because I don't feel like fighting on a Monday, promises a big event:

More than 70 sessions with thought leaders presenting future-forward ideas, case studies and best practices from around the world.  

More than 1,400 communication professionals from more than 40 countries engaged in high impact discussions with high impact results.   

Reinventing, rebuilding and creating new opportunities for a healthy future.

How does the old expression go?

"Heaven for impactful, healthy, future-forward, results-driven thought leaders ... Hell for company."

Comments

[Kristen]

So, then, we shouldn't expect to see you at said unnamed association event?

[David Murray]

I didn't say that. I'd like to (because despite what the marketing copy would have us believe, there actually will be some real people at this show). But I'm attending and appearing at a number of other events between now and then (though none as impactful or future-forward as the show referred to above) and so I'm not sure I'll make this one ....

[Robert J Holland, ABC]

Two guesses at the guilty party. And the first one doesn't count.

[David Murray]

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a communication association that talked straight?

This letter would read:

"The smartest, most driven people in communications flock to ______ from around the world, bringing their best ideas, their most amazing success stories and their fresh points of view.

"More than 1,400 communication professionals from more than 40 countries gather for serious conversation about how be more inventive and effective in their work."

Now THAT sounds like fun.

[Kristen]

You know what, honestly, I don't care WHAT the "marketing materials" say about events like this. It's completely irrelevant to me.

Truthfully, while your offering is, granted, more straight-forward than "unnamed association's," when I am deciding whether to attend something, I look at who is presenting and what topic they're presenting about. That's all I care about, and no matter how pretentious the "front page" of the brochure is, if there are going to be people there I know have something useful to say, I'll be there.

I dunno, am I the only one? Are there communicators who really hang on how the organizers bill their overall event? That seems implausible to me, but anything's possible.

[Robert J Holland, ABC]

I don't think any of us except the most naive would hang our hat on marketing copy -- but to David's point, an association for communicators should practice what it preaches and cut out the crap. Yet another example of how this association (and others for our profession) fail to set the standard for how our work should be done.

Physicians, heal thyselves!!

[David Murray]

Kristen, I probably wouldn't throw a brochure away just because the prose on the cover is too windy for my liking.

I'd at least look inside to see who the speakers actually are. But this sort of language usually permeates the session descriptions too, and makes it harder to determine what the speakers are going to be talking about.

Also: This high-flown prose and the self-important culture from which it emerges intimidates people from asking questions at the event rather than inviting them to participate.

In your comment, you're coming dangerously close to saying, "The words don't matter; it's all about the content."

We've heard that before, but not from communicators.

[Robert J Holland, ABC]

I agree with you, David, on your point about session descriptions. Back when I was a fairly regular speaker at a particular conference, the marketing person always wrote "high flown prose" to describe my sessions. It always made me nervous because you'd think from reading the description that I was going to deliver ground-breaking, never-before-seen material (plus solve world hunger) when frankly what I had to offer was back-to-basics sound fundamentals. And then I'd get dinged in the feedback for not solving world hunger.