In our modern lives where we “feel” digitally connected all the time, what would compel us to get on a plane, book hotel rooms, to come together with peers and potential competitors from our industry? I am going to describe the event the print industry needs by starting with the top five characteristics that ruin most industry events. 

The print industry event I want to attend would be a No Sales Zone. There is absolutely nobody selling anything because the event price includes food, coffee, drinks, and access to the bathrooms. A no sales zone would let everyone attending to temporarily disable their no-bull filters. We all have the no-bull filter; just answer a call from someone you don’t know and they ask “is this the head of the household?” Your no-bull filter is automatically enabled in a millisecond. Sales puts us on guard and in my opinion keeps us from learning.

Why do we always have sales at every industry event? Easy answer: that’s what pays for every industry event. What if an event wasn’t funded by the “permission to sell to you” but was paid by your desire to learn? I don’t think we’ve ever tested what people would be willing to pay to learn without being sold to.