What makes a conference successful? For a start, the speakers should know their topic and be able to present it in an entertaining way while at the same time ensuring that they convey key messages. In addition, I also believe that the participation of the audience is crucial. Nothing is as frustrating as a passive audience or an audience demonstrating their ignorance by the questions they ask. Of course, conferences are a networking opportunity and meeting the right people and quality interaction with them also contribute to making a conference successful. Lastly, the logistics of the conference - arrangements, the venue, food etc. are also important.I recently attended one of the best mobile banking conferences ever. This was hosted by Celpay in Lusaka (Zambia) and scored high on all of the criteria of making a conference successful. The biggest reason, however, was that each of the speakers at the conference was experienced in the topic that they presented on. They were not trying to make a quick commercial point or using the platform as a badly disguised marketing exercise. The contributions was well-thought out and I personally learned lessons from each presentation. In addition, the contribution from the audience was of an extremely high calibre.
This made me think why it was that a conference with predominantly local speakers in a country like Zambia can be so stimulating. I believe that the reason for this is that mobile banking is not theoretical any more - it is an integral part of the economic situation in the country. Mobile banking has grown to be a vibrant, growing eco-system that contribute to improving many aspects of the economy (from small businesses anfd agriculture to the under-banked). The Zambia mobile banking market is one of the oldest (first commercial deployments were in production during 2002). Maybe we should make a point of listening to the practitioners more.