I attended two different conferences in the past two weeks: BlogWorld2011 Social Health Track and TEDxPhilly. 有时我在大型会议中心闲逛，想知道这一切是否值得……
几年前，我在一家管理咨询公司博彩网站评级，负责制作和管理他们的多媒体产品线. Our Marketing department travelled to almost every industry conference; setting up booths, talking to clients, getting leads, and delivering sessions.
我曾经问过我们的市场总监，我们在会议上的努力产生了多少真正的销售额.
His answer sounded something like, “Almost none. 我们这样做的主要原因是与我们的现有客户交流，并确保我们的竞争对手知道我们做得很好，足以花钱参加会议.”
Did you catch that? 我们参加会议，以确保我们的客户和竞争对手知道我们还活着. It was all about showing up.
When I started presenting at conferences, I quickly learned that no matter how valuable your sessions are, very few qualified leads come of them. Sure, cards are exchanged and relationships begin, 但会议通常是了解现有情况并考虑在何处扩展业务的场所.
在大多数会议上，会议发言人的门槛都很低. 通常，它是基于你写一个时髦的标题和250字的描述的能力. 如果你想知道，这两项都不是成为一名有吸引力的公众演讲者的必要条件.
Then TED happened.
虽然我从未参加过TED，但我参加TED费城已经两年了. TED is what many trade conferences often want to be, but can’t figure out how to be. For me, above everything else, TED是关于通过引人入胜的故事讲述者促进思想的自由交流. 它让每个人都能消化自己的想法，并看看他们如何能够将这些想法应用到其他地方. 除非讲话者有什么值得说的，并且能以一种令人信服的方式说出来，否则这是行不通的. 你不需要激光表演，也不需要摇滚音乐，甚至不需要ppt.
Before TED，我去参加会议，寻找我认识的演讲者或我练习过的话题.
After TED，我经常找一些我不认识的演讲者和和我日常博彩网站评级完全无关的话题.
如果我想在我已经知道的事情上学习更多的东西，我会向老师寻求帮助 industry leader, search Google, or read a book. 找到我不熟悉的事物之间的十大正规博彩网站排名会让事情变得更加困难.
Blogworld社会健康跟踪和TEDxPhilly都提供了更多的东西，而不仅仅是露面. So, 而不是对这两个截然不同的会议做一个完整的总结, 我想我应该把重点放在每次会议的一个十大正规博彩网站排名上，它稍微改变了我的观点:
BlogWorld 2011 Social Health Track
First off, big thanks go out again to Rob Halper from Johnson & Johnson and Marc Monseau of MDM Consulting 感谢他们孜孜不倦的努力，将这条赛道整合在一起，并使一切顺利进行. 我在笔记本上一遍又一遍地写下了这三天的精彩课程 Curation. Digitally engaged healthcare professionals like Dr. Val Jones, Dr. Nick Genes, or The Nerdy Nurse are involved in many different projects, 但所有人都专注于为他们的同行和病人策划内容的中心主题.
Meanwhile, on the patient side, friends like Kerri (sixuntilme.com), Jenni (chronicbabe.com), and Katie (overflowingbrain.com)为他们的追随者策划内容，帮助引导他们完成他们的条件为他们提供的旅程. There is SO much information on the internet, much of it false or misleading, that everyone needs help navigating through it. 这些人的博彩网站评级做得越好，好的信息就会越多地流向高层. 这改善了治疗、改善了人们的生活，甚至降低了医疗成本.
So my perspective has now changed. 如果你管理内容，你要么是创造者，要么是管理者，或者两者兼而有之. I plan to study more about curation. I’ve talked about it for decades, but what does it truly entail these days? I’m excited to continue exploring that.
(顺便说一句，参加这个项目不仅仅是为了获得职业上的回报 Social Health movement. Sure, Russ在会议开始时对“患者倡导者”小组的巧妙主持是他多年在我们行业博彩网站评级和教学经验的一个很好的例子. 这是我们多年来与敬业的患者建立的持久友谊, 医生和行业领袖的合作将远远超过任何会议.]
TEDxPhilly
The official theme for TEDxPhilly was “The City.” Throughout the day, 我一直在思考每个演讲者是如何在保持城市身份的同时找到改变城市的方法的. That’s not so easy if you think about it. Youngjin Yoo from Temple University’s Center for Design+Innovation observed, “Cities are the most complex man-made artifacts.“他们是不断变化的，有自知之明的，并且永远在努力改进. We often hear about the singularity 人类将创造一个具有自我意识的系统, but haven’t we done that already? 这不是早在技术如此先进，我们甚至可以想到奇点之前就完成了吗? 城市既是一个有自我意识的有机体，又是一台收集和处理数据的计算机. TEDxPhilly提供了一个机会，让我们看到有机体内部不同的系统融合在一起.
We often talk about ecosystems on the projects we take on, but we don’t think about the entire ecosystem as an organism. That may sound like semantic mumbo-jumbo to you, 但对我来说，它巩固了困扰我一段时间的东西. While you’re building or re-building your corner of a system, all the elements connected to yours are evolving as well. You should always expect that. 你通常无法为这种情况造成的破坏做计划，但当它发生时，你肯定可以减少恐慌.
So, conferences aren’t dead, they’ve just evolved. The massive, multi-track conferences have their place, 但贸易展销会的大厅里往往充斥着令人沮丧的俗气小玩意, lots of whizz-bang, and little substance. 主题演讲是偶然的，但当它们成功时，你会很高兴你来了. 很难做到的是根除一个改变你观点的疗程，哪怕只是一点点.