Conference Dynamics

Heather, I was giving the keynote at a tech conference in Austin a year ago, and I noticed that loads of the people there were fiddling with their treos or blackberrys. Demoralizing. I don't necessarily think that they weren't paying at least some attention. But all the machines we carry around encourage us to multitask.

When we speak at these conferences, we're like the TV in a room of college students. They're looking at their laptops, chatting, downloading, gaming, and if and when we say something interesting, they look up.

The true time to be alarmed: When you see them with the white ear-buds in place.

A business writer I invited to speak to a group I coordinated had to ask an attendee to get his nose out of his book (the writer's book) and instead participate in the discussion.
Some of us cannot keep our attention focused on anything for long.

Serge
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My old boss had a strict "no laptop" policy for all group meetings for a good reason.

That said, there is one valid reason why some people have their laptops open. I type all my meeting notes, so a laptop becomes essential. (a) that saves me the pain of typing everything up later (b) I can't read my own handwriting anyway. I suspect that only a small percentage of those you mention were actually typing out notes though.

maybe they were so enthralled with what you were saying that they were scribbling furiously trying to capture all your pearls of wisdom.

perhaps you should offer notes at your next speaking engagement, and let the attendees know that they can pick up a sheet with all the good stuff at the end of the presentation. that way, they can sit back, relax, and soak up your knowledge.

from bruce mau's incomplete manifesto for growth:

"39. Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms. Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces -- what Dr. Seuss calls "the waiting place." Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference -- the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals — but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.

and related, check out the conference dynamics going on in this photograph http://www.stoneyamashita.com/mainSite/fortunePodcasts.html i'm sure it was brilliant but you can't tell by looking at the people.

i think a lot of pepole are over worked
and stressed and so any opportunity to get away from the office will mean a break and so its not that they didnt want to listen my guess would be that they were being reminded of the same atmosphere they experience at work and so the stress levels were back up.i personally think that it is time for new strategies.