It’s Monday morning, and your inbox is full. Somewhere between a funding announcement and an invitation to take a survey sits an email announcing registration for a conference you might attend this year. You pause. You’ve been to so many conferences—some inspiring, others forgettable. What will make this one worth your time?
That’s the question that drives Conferences That Make a Difference, the book Mark Nilles and I first released several years ago and have now updated for 2025. The new edition reflects what we’ve learned from designing and running conferences—large and small, in person and online—since that first publication. It brings together what works and what matters most if your goal is to help people learn and act.
What’s new in this edition
When we first wrote Conferences That Make a Difference, our goal was to help conference organizers move from planning events to designing learning experiences. This new edition builds on that foundation with fresh ideas, tools, and examples drawn from what we—and so many of you—have learned since then.
- Deeper focus on understanding your community. What do your community members really need from your conference? We share ways to use surveys, focus groups, and data from past events to design a program that helps your community make progress on their goals and challenges.
Actual survey feedback: “How did you know I needed that?”
Answer: Because you told us.
- More ways to get participants and presenters ready for learning. We’ve expanded the section on priming—the work you do before the first keynote ever begins. You’ll find practical examples of how to prepare participants to arrive curious and confident, and how to help presenters design sessions that invite reflection and action.
- New tools to guide your planning. This edition introduces several ready-to-use resources, including a tool to help you determine where you are in your conference development. Whether you’re starting fresh or refining an established event, these templates make it easier to assess what’s working and where to focus next.
- AI, of course. We’ve added a section on how artificial intelligence can support conference design and ease the workload of planning —from drafting session descriptions to summarizing evaluations—without losing the human judgment and creativity that make gatherings meaningful and ethical.
Why this matters
A conference is often the biggest learning investment an organization makes each year. If we want conferences to be worthy of the time and money we are investing in them, we have to think like learning designers, not event planners. That means asking:
- What should people be able to do because they came?
- How can we structure sessions so people don’t just listen, but reflect, connect, and commit to action?
- How do we extend learning long after the closing session ends?
Let’s make every conference count
Good conferences spark ideas. Great ones change how we do things. If you convene people to learn—whether in a conference center, on Zoom, or somewhere in between—this book is for you. Tell us what’s helpful and share your own ways of making conferences learningful.
Download the 2025 edition of Conferences That Make a Difference and watch the short companion videos today.