Lessons from the CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition 2022 (UK)

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) Annual Conference and Exhibition (ACE) in Manchester Central (UK) is a must-attend event for me. One of the reasons I particularly love it is because the exhibition and conference are on the same floor in the very large hall of Manchester Central. This adds a fluidity to the event because exhibitors, visitors, conference delegates and speakers all mingle together.

Everyone passes through the same space, and it provides such a rich opportunity for serendipitous conversations, bumping into people you both know and don’t. The event is always bustling, noisy, busy, colourful and vibrant. This year was no exception.

I love the Manchester Central building. Originally a railway station, it has a large arched expanse of glass and lots of high-level windows. The sun streaks through the glass and the natural light gives the event such a different quality and energy to those which are held in London where natural light is not usually an option. ACE feels bright and is full of bright minds.

The conference attracts impressive keynote speakers. Day one’s keynote was by Robert Peston and day two’s keynote was by Mohsin Zaidi, author of A Dutiful Boy.

Peston opened the conference with a hard-hitting message on the state of the UK and world’s economy right now.

Zaidi’s story of hope in equality, diversity and inclusion as an openly gay, Muslim lawyer had a great energy and a lively panel debate followed, too. I particularly loved hearing Zaidi’s story of his mum’s support. Crossing over between personal and professional was a tone which ran through the conference – after all, it was the UK’s premier people profession conference, and we are all people first and workers second.

One element which rang out loudly and positively was that the event was truly a hybrid event.

Robert Peston was live “in person” and broadcast to beyond the room. Mohsin Zaidi was beaming in from New York, at some unreasonable hour for him, to a live “in the room” and a live online audience watching the broadcast.

In every conference session, the audience had the opportunity to submit questions via an online app, which gave voice to in person and online delegates equally.

Across the conference, the in person/online experience was experimented with in various ways. The majority of speakers and content was accessed as a video stream with the questions via the app. In addition, there were four sessions which were accessible with a facilitator to bring the live-in-the-room experience to those joining live online. I was the facilitator!

It was a real privilege to host the Zoom room of people joining from as far afield as South Africa. Interactive sessions such as “fishbowl” and “roundtable” discussions were brought to life for the online participants with me acting as their voice in the live room and describing the vibe and energy of the room so they could really feel part of being there.

We had discussions on camera and mic, and also in the chat in Zoom. I then fed back to the live audience. It added a new dimension and depth of thinking to the overall conversations taking place. In some regards, the online audience had a better experience than those live in the room because they could chat to each other during the presentations, sharing thoughts, responses and ideas, in a way that the live participants could not, having to stay silent and listen. I love “live online”, and I loved it even more in this hybrid setting. Well done CIPD!

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Tweet thread live tweeted from the event for keynote two and following panel discussion.

Michelle Parry-Slater is the founder of Kairos Modern Learning and author of The Learning and Development Handbook.