Ten years ago, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) ushered in the Open Education Resource (O.E.R.) movement by offering to provide access to its courses for free to anyone. The M.I.T. OpenCourseWare Initiative included videos and podcasts of lectures, syllabuses and even downloadable textbooks.

“I learned a LOT from these lectures and the other course material,” read one comment from M.I.T.’s ‘Introduction to Solid State Chemistry’ course. “Thank you for having it online.” It was from Bill Gates. (that Bill Gates)

For more info on what’s transpired since M.I.T. opened this Pandora’s box, see The New York Times article ‘An Open Mind’ (http://nyti.ms/crm8OK).

Today, it’s hard to find an academic institution that’s not participating in O.E.R. to some degree. Over $150 million has been spent on open education in the past decade. And why not? It makes perfect sense.

The mission of academic institutions is to create knowledge (via research) and spread knowledge (via teaching and publishing). Giving content away for free seems like a no brainer (pun intended). The branding benefits are obvious.

As an example, The Open University (http://www.open.ac.uk), which has greatly expanded it’s visibility through open courses, often accounts for most of the Top 5 downloads on Apple’s iTunes U, a portal for institutions’ free courseware. Downloads on iTunes U passed the 100 million mark this past December. The Open University’s free offerings have been downloaded more than 16 million times, 89% of which come from outside the U.K. Some 6,000 students took a free online course before paying for an online one.

Back at M.I.T., 42% of their open course students are enrolled at other institutions. Forty-three percent are independent learners, like Mr. Gates.

Which got me thinking…are meetings and events not unlike academic institutions? Are they not in the business of creating and disseminating knowledge to their attendees? Are they not responsible for educating large numbers of working professionals, at all stages of their careers? Are they not actively recording and archiving the learning that already takes place? Why not take the next logical step and provide it for free to anyone?

I know what you’re thinking and it’s exactly what academic institutions heard before freeing their content…and they did it anyways.

So, what happened to academic enrollment? It didn’t decreased with the rise of the O.E.R. movement. If anything, institutions that embraced O.E.R. have seen just the opposite. Their reputations have grown exponentially, insuring a steady stream of new, more diverse applicants.

For meetings and events, the objection to free content is primarily based on the premise that the formal learning programs at live events is a key driver for attendance.

No argument there.

But it pales in comparison with the informal learning opportunities (networking), which live events provide. If you’re not actively trying to figure out how to maximize that, then you have a legitimate reason to fear for the future of your live event.

To better understand the potential value of formal learning content, look at the TED Conference (www.ted.com). Open access to their content is consistent with their mission – ‘Ideas worth spreading.’ There’s a year’s-long waiting list to attend TED, which costs several thousands of dollars. More importantly, open access has actually created more demand for TED-sponsored live events. They’ve created new revenue streams by leveraging the power of their formal content.

Frankly, I see no reason why other meetings and events can’t replicate this success.

If more meetings and events jumped on the O.E.R. bandwagon, this is what I believe is possible:

•Increased attendance among existing audiences

•Increased attendance from prospective audiences

•Increased sponsorship opportunities

•Increased brand recognition

•Increased awareness of meeting profession and movement towards professionalism

•Increased standards for content design, development, and delivery targeting onsite/ online audiences

•Increased emphasis on strategic over logistical topics as the conversation among individuals will certainly evolve

•Increased focus on peer-to-peer learning, less reliance on ‘experts’ who don’t customize content

•Increased, and more innovative, problem-solving among professionals/non-professionals as more voices join the conversation

•New product/services offerings based on this expanded dialog

Clearly, there are a lot of compelling reasons to take the leap. It’s additive. It’ll create a better product. It’ll benefit everyone – present and future audiences alike.

One last point for your consideration…it’s obvious by now that with each new technological innovation (and applications like open access content), there follows increased efficiencies and opportunities for growth. History has repeatedly shown us that stakeholders who fail to embrace these innovations or try to control them suffer in the long run.

Open educational resources are not a panacea for all that ails the meetings and events   industry, but there’s no doubt in my mind it represent the future. What are you waiting for?