Look at almost any conference agenda, and you’ll see the same instinct at work: to fill every slot. Nine sessions, three keynotes, two panels, a networking lunch that’s been squeezed into forty-five minutes – all of it as if unfilled time were wasted time.
The opposite is usually true of back-to-back programming sessions. At first glance, they seem to be an efficient way to deliver content to attendees. However, by the third session in a row, people aren’t absorbing content so much as enduring it. People need time to absorb new information, but there is no break in these programming sessions for people to do so.
There are some benefits to having unstructured time. The best conversations typically happen after the panels have finished, when people are able to discuss the ideas that were presented with others who also attended the panels and heard the same talk. Cutting out this type of time would eliminate a needed component of the day. For Conference Venues Chester, contact https://rowtonhallhotel.co.uk/conference-venues-chester/
There’s also a simpler cost: exhaustion. A day with no breathing room produces attendees who leave feeling exhausted instead of energized and remember the day for how tired they were, not how inspired they felt.
While conferences can be packed with content, there is no guarantee that a conference delivers more when there is little to no unstructured time available.