The American Robert Cialdini is professor in psychology and marketing at the Arizona State University. He is seen as the global authority in influencing.At conferences, that is what we try to accomplish: influence participants so they change behaviour and have an impact. Cialdini has defined six principles of influencing others, of which a few can be applied as techniques during meetings and conferences. The most interesting one is the commitment and consistency principle. You can read more about this and the other 5 principles in the book “Influence, the psychology of persuasion” (see books in the MSI KNOWLEDGE BASE).  The commitment principle is easy to apply at meetings. It is based on the natural tendency of humans to do what they promise. Especially if that happens publically and even better, in writing. What is easier that doing just that at conferences? At round tables, teams of people can commit verbally to each other, individuals can commit one by one plenary. And for the writing part, Meeting organisers can create commitment cards, a large commitment panel or record commitments on video. 

www.influenceatwork.com is Robert Cialdini’s organisation that organises training in the science of influencing.