Why do some people go to conferences? My next invention...

Count how many people are paying attention at this conference

I feel bad for speakers at conferences these days.  Because Wi-Fi is standard, and every cell-phone is a computer, it's really hard to get peoples attention.  At the conference I went to last week, I saw some who didn't look up from their computers the entire time!  It was like the speakers were just background noise.

There were a few people taking notes and sharing quotes from the speaker, but most people were working their email, and I even saw one guy checking his fantasy football!  There were some sessions where I counted 50 people in the room and not one of them was looking at the speaker.  And this is an expensive conference I might add!

I have to confess, I was not completely attentive the entire time either.  If the speaker was boring or the subject was not interesting, I cracked open my laptop and got some work done.  The speaker had about 2 minutes to engage me, but at least I gave them a shot, unlike others who didn't even look up between speakers.

So here is my next invention:  It's a special Wifi Network for conferences.  It has a built in activity meter that can be used to measure the speakers performance.  If the Wi-fi activity is high, the speaker must be boring because everyone is going to the internet.  If the Wi-fi activity is low, the speaker is engaging enough to keep people from their email and fantasy football.

          my next invention - a wireless router with a built-in activity monitor for conferences

A bad speaker could easily be recognized by high Wifi-activity as all the attendees work on their laptops.  Good speakers would have low Wi-fi activity.

So what's the underlying root of the problem:

• Is the quality of speakers going down?
• Is it because we're so work obsessed that we can't step away for 1 day?  
• Or is the internet just too tempting and if we have it in front of us we can't look away?

The bar has certainly been raised for conference speakers.  Previously they just had to compete with your wandering thoughts.  Now they have to compete with the entire internet.  At my next speaking gig, I'm going to be monitoring the Wi-fi.