This year’s Management of Change conference featured some things you would expect from a high-level government conference: lots of top-tier government speakers (although cabinet-level chief information officers were noticeably absent thanks to federal CIO Tony Scott’s last-minute field trip to Silicon Valley), hardcore networking, and the kind of industry-government dialogue that vendors and, I think, government people alike crave. But a few things you might have expected to see at the Management of Change conference hosted by ACT-IAC in Cambridge, Maryland, Sunday through Tuesday were missing; and those elements may portend the future of government events.

1. The traditional talking-head panel is dead, or dying. I tried to find a traditional, 20th-century government-speaker panel. I failed. You know the kind: three or four (or more) government talking heads, a moderator like yours truly, a preordained set of questions that everyone has conference-culled to death, and a room full of mostly industry people checking emails, or checking eyelids for cracks. In a quest for interactivity, MOC’s organizers built an agenda that consisted almost exclusively of “challenge zones,” areas of interest that required participants to either get engaged in solving a problem, or purposefully withdraw and refuse to participate. There was no middle ground. And in the rooms I looked in, I saw very few non-participants.
2. Government IT conferences are finally breaking down the last diversity silos. Not color, gender, or anything like that. Government conferences have been good at those for a long time. What they haven’t been good at — especially at IT conferences — is giving platform space to non-IT stakeholders. This year’s MOC featured a few procurement professionals, human resources officials, and experts from other specialties, sharing their expertise with not only the IT leaders in attendance, but with the industry people who service the IT market. I saw many light bulbs go on above the heads of industry people who started to comprehend why some things work the way they work.
3. The value of face-to-face interaction has never been greater. Sure, some industry folks show up at these events for the cattle-call aspect. But the cross-agency collaboration — something this administration rightfully emphasizes — happens more easily and naturally at an event like this than at any “council” meeting. Relaxed, informal, slower-paced conversations rarely happen in Washington; at events like this, they are standard operating procedure. That interaction is the best kind, too. At least three agency leaders told me Tuesday their most valuable takeaways from the conference were the information exchanges with peers at other agencies. And all of them agreed that such exchanges were unlikely, if not impossible, in a standard DC setting.

Those three takeaways prompted three hopes for future conferences, no matter the size:

1. Explore new formats, without simply mimicking something that worked. There’s a difference between scaling something and copying. Simply adding more challenge zones because they worked last time isn’t a formula for success. Think creatively about how executive-level people like to consume information, and how they like to present it. How about FEDTalks? The TEDTalks home page features experts on an incredible range of topics, speaking individually for anywhere between four and 22 minutes. The federal community has an amazing array of incredible, inspirational thought leaders who could do entire tracks of such presentations. And the tighter time frames might appeal better to our shortening attention spans. (Attention my generation: it’s not just millennials, it’s us too). Also, don’t underestimate the power of repetition. I heard many people at MOC say, “I wanted to go to that one, but this other one was at the same time.” Radio stations and movie theaters play the hits often for a reason.
2. More expertise diversity is a must. Even at IT conferences — especially at IT conferences — chief financial officers, chief acquisition officers, chief human capital officers, and inspectors general should be on the speaker lists. The Government Accountability Office and congressional staffs should be included too. In the federal IT world in 2015, they’re all stakeholders in the success of programs and projects, specifically, and federal performance more broadly. And they want to participate. Four agency inspectors general I spoke to at May 15 annual Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency annual conference said they would all either attend or send representatives to such an event if invited. But they’ve never been invited.More time for personal connecting is a win for everyone. I’m not sure how you organize or label such time; and with 535 overseers looking over the shoulders of the agency people, I understand the sensitivity of blocking out large pieces of time for what appears to be simply schmoozing. But the personal interactions and relationships government leaders build at these events, with each other and with industry, ultimately help federal leaders serve the agency customers and taxpayers better, and that’s a highly desirable outcome.

The government community spends a fair amount of time telling itself it’s innovative, creative, and forward-thinking. And it’s correct in telling itself those things. So it struck me as particularly ironic, as I considered this year’s Management of Change, that for a long time we’ve been telling each other those things in a 20th-century format that isn’t any of those things. There are so many different directions to go, and so many clever, creative people involved. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple years from now that the “conference of the future” really looks like the future.

Francis Rose is host of Federal News Radio’s In Depth radio show, which airs weekdays from 4-7 p.m. MORE COMMENTARY FROM FRANCIS ROSE: Postal Service needs some transformation pain now to avoid desperation later Time is right for a civilian employee compensation commission New Congress ‘worst places to work’ hotline: right idea, wrong question FY2016 budget: put up or shut up time for Congress After Denver hospital debacle, VA should leave building to the pros

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