Tomorrow marks the start of the Kelsey ILM show, which is also doubling as SES-Local, I’ll be there on Thursday morning, and will be speaking in the afternoon. Next Monday marks the start of SES-Chicago, I’ll be there on Wednesday, speaking on Thursday morning.

So what about the changes in the title? Well, it seems as though the structure of the presentations at these 2 conferences is going to be different to the structure in the past. At previous SES conferences, the presenters would each get 10-15 minutes, with the last 10-15 minutes being Q&A. Starting with SES-Local, each presenter is going to only get 5 minutes, what then follows will be a 20 minute or so panel discussion led by the moderator, which will then dovetail into the Q&A portion of the session.

What does this mean to the audience? Well, firstly it means that they’re assured of getting new presentations, as presenters will have to rework any previously given presentations to fit into the new format. It also means that they’re going to get less structured content up front. However, this also means that the job of the moderator is now much more important as they’re going to be more responsible for shaping the flow and direction of the conversation. It has the potential to make each session ‘fresher’ and unique, but it’s going to play havoc with those of us who can’t quite type so fast when we try liveblogging (we’ll just have to sit back and watch Tamar & The Lisa’s fingers travel at lightspeed across their keyboards).

If you’re going to be at either of these conferences, make sure to say hello, and if you want to go to Chicago, but haven’t booked it yet (that’s a true procrastinator), you can use code: 20SPK to get a 20% discount, and you can then spend some of your savings on a cider for me at Kitty O’Shea’s.