Adrian Segar

Adrian Segar has designed, convened, and facilitated hundreds of conferences in North America and abroad. He has been designing and facilitating participant-driven, participation-rich events, commonly known as unconferences, since 1992.

Adrian has presented at most major meeting professional conferences. He’s the founder of Conferences That Work, the world’s most visited website on meeting design.

Adrian has written three books on meeting design and facilitation:

 

—His ground-breaking book, Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love (2009) has been described as “THE how-to manual” on creating events that truly engage and capitalize on attendees’ collective wisdom and experience.

 

—Paul Salinger, former VP of Marketing, Oracle called The Power of Participation: Creating Conferences That Deliver Learning, Connection, Engagement, and Action (2015) “a book that should be OPEN on every meeting planner’s and event marketer’s desk, and used every day”. It is a compendium of participation techniques and tools that meeting planners and presenters can use to significantly improve any meeting session.

 

—Event Crowdsourcing: Creating Meetings People Actually Want and Need (2019) is a comprehensive guide to creating conference programs that reliably include the sessions and session content attendees actually want and need. Will Curran says “Event Crowdsourcing is the go-to tactical guide for planners to allow attendees to create their own meaningful experiences.”

 

Adrian is an acknowledged innovator and presenter on participant-led event design and facilitates four popular opening and closing plenaries: The Solution Room, The Personal Introspective, The Group Spective, and the unique group problem-solving Fishbowl Sandwich.

He has been named as one of:

—the 100 most influential people in the event industry, four years in a row, in global polls of over 40,000 event professionals

—The most innovative event professionals by BizBash Magazine

—MeetingsNet’s Eleven Most Influential Online Personalities in Meetings and Travel

—The 58 Most Influential People in Virtual Events

 

and has been quoted on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

 

Adrian has a Ph.D. in experimental elementary particle physics, was an independent information technology consultant for 23 years, taught college computer science for 10 years, and co-owned and managed a solar manufacturing company before that. He lives in Marlboro, Vermont, is a recovering academic, a non-profit board member addict, and loves to meditate, sing, and dance.