Meeting fatigue

The well known phenomenon of tiredness and exhaustion at conferences, participants sleeping or absent during presentations, the post conference "low". The issue is sometimes underestimated and sometimes overestimated during planning conference. It is important to guard against people going beyond the limit to which they are productive and useful, and important to remember that people become more prone to manipulation when fatigued. The causes of fatigue are varied and complex. Some obvious causes include: the strain of working in a foreign language, or in a "foreign" jargon or conceptual system; the stress of frustration caused by discomfort with the procedures (or lack of them); the strain of maintaining communication in a new group of social relationships; overwork and lack of sleep (possibly due to jet lag).[Proposals]

Built-in flexibility, time for rest and relaxation, a varied rhythm of activities, varied style of presentations, a focused environment with variation of the meeting spaces, appropriate celebrations, are all obvious and yet valuable ways to maintain the stamina of conference participants. The most important factor appears to be the level of comment, questions and contributions which increases participants' involvement, alertness and feeling of fulfilment. It appears that more energy is dissipated in the inhibition of comments and contributions than in the expression of them.

[Counter-proposals]

Where the fatigue factor is over emphasized there can be too much time set aside for rest and relaxation which results in some of the participants who may have invested heavily in the conference, feeling frustrated at the wastage of time. Some attempts to "enliven" a conference are gimmicky and distracting, or may appear manipulative. Super-effective communication techniques may simply produce "message saturation" more quickly. Although simple "involvement" does seem to be the key to alert participation there are some participants who do not wish to be involved and can obstruct processes that do not allow them to opt out.