Around fifteen years ago, major technology conferences profoundly renewed B2B events. Keynotes that have become emblematic, like those of Steve Jobsin European formats carried by The Webcreated by Geraldine Le Meur And Loïc Le Meurthrough the global distribution of formats TEDxthe conference has established itself as a central moment in the life of technological and entrepreneurial ecosystems.
In their wake, conferences were lastingly thought of as closed moments : a succession of highlights, a place, a stage, an audience gathered to listen to expert words. This model has been established for years in the way of designing, producing and promoting B2B events.
Today he finds himself faced with new expectations. The development of digital media and social networks, the continuous circulation of content and the emergence of a new generation of creators have shifted the center of gravity of speaking out. If conferences do not disappear, they are now part of an environment where the impact is no longer played out only in the room, nor only during the time of the event.
The stage is no longer the horizon for speaking
In this new context, the stage retains its symbolic importance, but it is no longer the place where everything is played out. What matters more and more is what the intervention becomes once the microphone is cut. Gary Vaynerchuk illustrates this evolution in an almost caricatured manner. His conferences are rarely expected for the revelation of new ideas, but their value is measured by the energy released and, above all, by what they subsequently produce: short extracts, viral videos, derivative formats.
The event then acts as raw material, intended to be transformed and redistributed on the media and social networks.
This logic, long marginal, today tends to become normalized. It suggests that speaking is no longer measured solely by its immediate intensity, but by its capacity to be extended, transformed and reappropriated in other spaces. The impact is no longer played out only in the room, but in what the event produces as it unfolds.
It is precisely this approach that was tested around ten years ago with Microsoftthrough the creation of Microsoft TV. The system was not limited to the rebroadcast of the event. It was based on continuous editorial production, with invited personalities on stage throughout the conference, in order to create autonomous, contextualized and immediately usable content.
Unprecedented at the time, the concept was then deployed by Microsoft for other events. This approach already anticipated a development that had become central: considering the conference not as an end in itself, but as a content infrastructurecapable of generating several stories in parallel with the official program.
Expertise designed to circulate
This transformation does not only concern the most media profiles. Benedict Evans illustrates the subject in a more analytical form. Its conferences, widely followed in the European technological ecosystem, are part of an editorial continuum: newsletters, blog posts, graphics, widely shared presentations.
The conference intervention is then only one moment of a broader reasoning, called to unfold over time. The value of the stage lies less in the performance than in its capacity to sustainably fuel collective reflection. For the organizer, the event does not end with the last question from the room, but continues to live on in the discussions it sparks.
When the conference becomes a trigger for public debate
With Jean-Marc Jancovicispeaking acts as a entry point to an expanded public space. Committed and solidly documented, she stands out for her ability to question widely established discourses, without limiting herself to an educational or consensual register.
Each conference gives rise to multiple variations: video extracts reproduced online, quotes discussed on social networks, media extensions in the press or during subsequent debates. The scene thus becomes a trigger, not only for understanding, but for the circulation and confrontation of ideas, placing the event in a debate which goes far beyond its initial framework.
In this case, the scene is not only used to transmit knowledge, but to structure a debate. The conference acts as an accelerator of visibility and controversy.
Show and understand, beyond the conference
At the house of Gilles Babinetspeaking is rarely seen as an isolated exercise. When he speaks at conferences, particularly on the challenges of digital technology, innovation or the transformation of organizations, the stage above all plays a role of initial perspective. It allows us to establish a reading framework, to order complex issues and to make them intelligible for a given audience.
But this speaking out does not end during the event. Gilles Babinet multiplies forums, publications and media interventions which clarify, qualify or broaden the initial statement. The conference then acts as an anchor point from which the discourse unfolds in other spaces.
This way of inhabiting the stage reveals a structuring evolution of the role of the speaker. It is no longer just a matter of transmitting content, but of link reading levels : the event and the news, the short duration of the conference and the long duration of the transformations, the sectoral issues and the transversal debates.
Formats designed for distribution
Some organizers have integrated this logic for several years. Slush designs its conferences as stories: short formats, original scenography, attention paid to capture and understanding out of context. The speakers are chosen as much for the clarity of their remarks as for their ability to be broadcast.
This approach echoes the model of TEDwho very early on thought of speaking as an autonomous media object. The success of these formats is not due to the size of the rooms, but to their ability to circulate and be understood well beyond the event.
The conference at the time of content creators, between scene and communities
By bringing in content creators with their formats, their codes and their audiences, conferences will change their appearance in the years to come. The stage becomes a point of convergence between content, communities and stories.
For brands and organizers alike, this development opens up a field of opportunities, provided they agree to question established formats. It is no longer enough to invite creators on stage: we must also give them the latitude to design formats capable of renewing systems that are currently running out of steam.
It is in this perspective that MEDIA DECODE is developing new editorial and event formats, to be launched in the coming months, designed to meet uses and expectations that are no longer satisfied with traditional formats.
