The downfalls of professional conferences....

After years of conferences - attending, helping put them on, and presenting at.... I have yet to be impressed!
Four key downfalls (of env conferences):
1. good information, bad presenting
2. one-way info flow in conference structure
3. professionals representing the stakeholders
4.Conference doesn't walk it's own talk

There is often a myriad of good information, though scattered in focus, but the structure of the conference along with a huge discrepancy in presenting skills enfolds mixed results, often less desirable and quite unfortunate in terms of the amount of energy everyone has put in. Hours and days of planning, researching, honing down on the right slides, and most of it slips away through bad organization and skills.
There should be, as with most things, a certificate for presenting - which you can try out for - in such a way that all presenting skills are honored despite comedic or other styles as long as the information is presented clearly - and if you don't get the certification, classes or workshops are available.
Secondly - the organization of the conference. It baffles me how, with the extent of knowledge in existence, conferences are organized with one-way information flows, which assume there is one positions possible for each person - that of the learner and that of the teacher. This disregards the fact that we can all learn from each other - and that more brains together have more productive results. The structure of the conference does not enable growth, further learning which is fostered by engagement and interaction.
How many people in this world truly learn by being "talked at" ? And how many learn better when there is discussion,..... when there is real-life examples.....
Thirdly - Why do conference have "professionals" who are out of touch with the people they are speaking on behalf of? For example, at the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development.... we have NGOs representing farmers...... I don't remember there being any farmers..... any workers.... any peasants... any teachers.... - the people we are talking about in the abstract - we don't give them a voice themselves - but we use theories and sometimes real life examples, - the professionals speak for them without EXPERIENCE being them.
Fourthly, at all the environmental conferences, with the small exception of some run by students who are truly trying to be aware, the conference within itself is unsustainable!. At the conference on Sustainable production and consumption for example, in Vietnam, it took place at an expensive 5 star hotel.... with meat, dairy, bottled water, excessive use of paper, lack of recycling facilities, constant lighting, and more! It didn't even take into consideration finding a hotel that was interested in sustainable development, and having the conference there - most liekly for free - in exchange for the knoweldge from all of the professionals - a WORKSHOP by all the conference participants creating a SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION PLAN OF ACTION!



why not have a conference of people in countries that are living sustainably? a regional conference... free conference.. They can talk about what they are doing - a community of real representatives not professionals... (We only have cross-shared learning between the rich people).... BOTTOM UP. Do they need us to facilitate ?Should we provide the cost?