Adrian Segar

Adrian has designed, convened, and facilitated conferences for over thirty years. He has been designing participant-led and participation-rich events, commonly known as unconferences, since 1992. His book Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love has been described as "THE how-to manual" on creating events that truly engage and capitalize on attendees' collective wisdom and experience, and he has written two other books on meeting design: The Power of Participation: Creating Conferences That Deliver Learning, Connection, Engagement, and Action and Event Crowdsourcing: Creating Meetings People Actually Want and Need.

Adrian is an acknowledged innovator and speaker on participant-led event design, and facilitates two popular opening and closing plenaries—The Solution Room and The Personal Introspective—at many different conferences. He has presented at Meeting Professionals International's World Education Congress, for 2IBTM, MPI Chapter meetings, the MPI Chapter Business Summit, HSMAI MEET, FRESH, and GMIC & NESAE annual conferences. Adrian convened and facilitated two EventCamps—innovative, experimental conferences for event professionals—in Philadelphia & Washington, DC. BizBash Magazine has named Adrian as one of "The 68 Most Innovative Event Professionals". He blogs regularly on event design, logistics, presentations, and many other related topics at www.conferencesthatwork.com.,

In 1973, Adrian earned a Physics B.A. at Merton College, Oxford. At the age of 25, Adrian was awarded a Ph.D. in elementary particle physics from University College, London. 37 years later, the experiment he worked on won the 2009 European Physics Prize. From 1978 to 1983, Adrian owned and managed Solar Alternative, a solar energy manufacturing company. He also taught computer science at Marlboro College for ten years, and was an independent information technology consultant between 1983 and 2007.

Adrian lives in Marlboro, VT & Boston, MA. He serves on the boards of three non-profits and loves to sing, dance, and meditate.