Many organizations spend thousands of dollars sending their staff to conferences and then wondering why nothing changes when they return to the office. The presentations were stellar, the morale was high, people took notes and two weeks later it’s back to business as usual.

And this gap between conference inspiration and workplace implementation only costs companies additional funds beyond the event itself. It costs opportunity for advancement, it costs innovation and the workplace gets deprived of otherwise meaningful change that can easily come from conferences in the first place.

What Really Happens After Most Conferences

So, what’s the reality? Employees return enthusiastic with fresh ideas, maybe run down a few highlights in the next team meeting and within 24 hours they’re completely bombarded by their normal day-to-day. Those notes end up in the bottom of a drawer or lost in cyberspace. It’s not that the information is mediocre or that the employees weren’t listening intently. Instead, success relies on a systematic approach to transfer of information.

Studies show that within six days, people forget about 75% of what they learn. That grand keynote presentation? The breakout sessions which everyone was raving about? It’s all gone unless there’s a structure facilitating a consistent approach to professionalism. Companies that implement change after conferences understand this and develop scaffolding around such findings.

When The Message Really Resonates

Particularly the type of messaging. When companies use professional speakers for events, the most successful ones don’t simply provide information, but avenues for employees to access and use upon their return. There’s a big difference between what someone has to say about an interesting theory and what someone gives as tools for people to try on Monday morning. The most successfully implemented changes focus on specific channels instead of general inspirational options.

Employees implement ideas when they see how it works within their own reality. The marketing employee who learns a new approach needs to adapt it to what he’s currently doing, not just understand it in theory. This distinction is all the difference between, “that was interesting” and, “I’m going to give this a try next week.”

The 24 Hour Rule

The 24 hours immediately following a conference will dictate whether anything gets implemented. Companies that implement realize the unfortunate reality that no conference debrief group meeting is going to help one person sift through their thoughts two weeks later. They need immediate opportunities for implementation. Some companies even ask their employees to identify three takeaways before they leave the conference and relay them to their supervisor that night.

It’s not about extra work but securing momentum while it’s there. Those who most successfully implement conference information learned how to do this while still at the event itself. They pinpointed team members who could contribute, potential projects that would benefit from the new outlook, and obstacles they may face.

Creating The Bridge

The most successfully benefited companies make what essentially amounts to a translation layer between conference material and practical work realities. Otherwise, theoretical conferences, no matter how great, go in one ear and out the other.

For example, within 48 hours of getting back from a conference, a team should meet and discuss how they can specifically use this information. Not how it applies generally to what’s going on in the company, this approach will never work, but instead how one project can drastically improve by trying this new method, or this internal process can be redesigned using these principles, or this is when we can test it moving forward.

When Leadership Actually Cares

Employees care about implementing new ideas when their leadership cares about such concepts. If a supervisor asks about what someone learned at a conference within one meeting and never brings it up again, it’s abundantly clear how valuable this implementation is going to be for the betterment of the company as a whole.

However, when upper management interjects statements about implementing ideas discussed at a conference during regular meetings, asks about the progress of attempting new ideas and diverts obstacles from getting in the way of change, then employees recognize that how they spend their time at conferences actually matters.

This doesn’t require elaborate programming, either. Sometimes it only necessitates someone, namely an upper-level employee, saying something along the lines of, “I remember at the conference you learned about that approach, do you think that could benefit this situation?” That distinction makes employees feel like their time was worth it, and not just a perk.

Making Time for Change

The biggest obstacle to implementing significant change based on information learned at a conference is not a lack of desire but lacking time and autonomy to do it differently. Employees return from these extraordinary experiences only to be inundated with full inboxes and pressing deadlines when it’s more comfortable (and professional) to stick to the status quo.

Companies who realize implementation success make space for these environments. They find certain projects that can be guinea pigs for trying out new ideas, or work with employees on a reduced workload until they feel comfortable enough to fit in their new approach.

It’s not the conferences with A-list speakers or sprawling locations that breed success post-conference. It’s the information with practical application learned along the way and it’s the company who fosters positive efforts toward change afterwards that makes all the difference.