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The Regulatory Events Blog

Save the Date

Getting to the right room is a skill. Essays on choosing, justifying, and working the events on the regulatory calendar — from the team that verifies every date at source.

Latest On the Ground The ribbon clipped under your badge gets read before your name does. What Speaker, First-Time, and Press are actually signaling — and the one that's a commitment, not a souvenir. Connor Griggs · 6 min read

The Blog

Fewer events.
Better reasons.

Short, practical essays on the conference year — how to choose, how to get it approved, and how to come home with more than a lanyard.

98 essays

  1. Oct 52026
    On the Ground

    What your badge ribbon is doing

    A ribbon gets read before your name does. What Speaker, First-Time, and Press actually signal — and why one of them is a commitment, not a souvenir.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Three colleagues in business attire lean in mid-conversation at a table scattered with papers and folders
  2. Oct 52026
    On the Ground

    The group chat nobody organized

    A few hundred strangers, one shared link, no organizer in sight. What the unofficial group chat is actually good for, and what it should never be your source for.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Three colleagues stand talking with coffee cups in hand beside a bright window
  3. Oct 52026
    Planning

    The waitlist isn’t a no

    A capped room fills, and a list starts. What’s worth doing while your name sits on it, and the honest signal that it’s time to book the alternate instead.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A man and a woman in business attire sit at an outdoor table, each writing in an open notebook or folder
  4. Oct 42026
    On the Ground

    The recordings you told yourself you’d watch

    On-demand access feels like it solves the problem of missing a session. Mostly it just defers it — and “later” rarely gets its own slot on the calendar.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A badged conference delegate laughs mid-session, seated in a packed, brightly lit audience
  5. Oct 42026
    On the Ground

    The business card nobody carries anymore

    The card is gone from most jacket pockets. The three jobs it used to do — prove, carry, and signal — didn’t go with it, and now you have to do each one on purpose.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Three people in business attire lean in around a small table in a bright hotel lounge, mid-conversation with notebooks and coffee cups between them
  6. Oct 42026
    Planning

    The season that stopped paying for itself

    Five reasonable yeses can still add up to a quarter with no slack left in it. The symptom isn’t one bad trip — it’s sameness, showing up across several good ones.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A woman in a navy blazer holds a sheaf of papers mid-gesture in a bright office lined with shelves
  7. Oct 22026
    On the Ground

    The question left unanswered

    “We’ll take that back to the team” isn’t a dead end. It’s a sign the real answer lives somewhere other than the microphone you were just standing at.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A woman in a cream scarf speaks animatedly while someone holds a handheld microphone toward her, against a bright white gallery wall
  8. Oct 22026
    Planning

    Next year’s call for papers, handed to you at this year’s

    The organizer’s timing is deliberate: open next year’s call while this year’s audience is still in the building. Yours can be just as deliberate back.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Two women in pale blazers laugh mid-conversation beside a bright window and potted plants
  9. Oct 22026
    Planning

    The desk you leave behind

    The business case gets the trip approved. What happens at the desk you’re not sitting at for four days usually gets no plan at all.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A man in a navy suit gestures while talking across a white desk to a colleague, in a bright glazed office
  10. Oct 12026
    Planning

    Not the one who got the seat

    The feeling is real when the one seat goes to someone else. The useful response to it is a different question than the one the feeling suggests.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A man in a blue suit works on a laptop in the foreground of a bright boardroom while two colleagues confer at a whiteboard behind him
  11. Oct 12026
    Planning

    The poster offer, not the talk

    The acceptance email is good news for one sentence. The second sentence — poster, not talk — changes the shape of the trip.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A man in a grey shirt gestures while talking with a woman in a tan blazer across a desk with open notebooks and coffee mugs, in a bright office with large windows
  12. Oct 12026
    On the Ground

    Being a good presence on someone else’s screen

    A conference room polices its own etiquette without anyone saying a word. A video call polices none of it — which is exactly why the habits are worth naming.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A woman in a white blazer and glasses laughs during a video call on a laptop at a glass desk in a bright, window-lined room
  13. Sep 302026
    On the Ground

    The evaluation form worth five minutes

    It looks like a formality that changes nothing. For the committee building next year’s agenda, it’s often the only direct signal they get — comment by comment.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A woman in a black blazer smiles while holding up a printed line chart labeled Product Trends by Month, pointing to it with a pen for a seated colleague in a bright meeting room
  14. Sep 302026
    On the Ground

    The session running through your headset

    Simultaneous interpretation is very good and unavoidably a few seconds behind the podium. Following a session well through it means adjusting to the lag, not fighting it.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A man in glasses and a black blazer sits at a conference table, attentively watching an off-frame hand point to a hand-drawn line chart on a flipchart in a bright white room
  15. Sep 302026
    Planning

    The access request most people skip

    Most registration forms carry a small field for dietary and accessibility needs, easy to click past. The organizer’s real constraint is lead time, not willingness.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Four colleagues in business attire sit and stand around a white conference table covered in printed charts, in a bright meeting room with a wall screen showing a faint data display behind them
  16. Sep 292026
    On the Ground

    Arriving as the speaker, not the attendee

    The badge line gets a whole essay of its own. A speaker’s own check-in — the room, the slides, the clicker, the moderator — is quieter and entirely your job.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A man in a navy suit stands at a whiteboard sketching a diagram for three colleagues watching from a bright meeting room, laptops open on the table in front of them
  17. Sep 292026
    Planning

    The speaking slot with no travel budget

    Most invitations to speak arrive with nothing attached beyond the slot itself. What actually justifies paying your own way to fill it — and what to ask before you say yes.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Two women sit across a table near a bright office window, one showing the other a printed colour infographic while open laptops sit on the table between them
  18. Sep 292026
    On the Ground

    What a badge scan actually shares

    Every scan at a booth hands over exactly what you typed at registration — no more, no less. Knowing which fields those are changes how freely you hand out your lanyard.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Six colleagues in business attire sit around a bright boardroom table as one holds up a printed dashboard of charts and data for the group to review, coffee mugs and papers spread across the table
  19. Sep 282026
    On the Ground

    The printed agenda is a draft

    A printed program is a snapshot from whenever it was generated. The live schedule is the actual source of truth once a delay starts cascading.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Two colleagues in suits and turbans walk together in conversation down an office corridor, each holding a folder
  20. Sep 282026
    On the Ground

    The meeting you book before you land

    Some of what a conference offers still runs on luck. A growing share runs on a scheduling system built into the agenda — and it rewards asking for something specific.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A man in a pinstripe suit smiles and shakes hands with an older woman across a table, in a bright room with tall windows
  21. Sep 282026
    Planning

    The dress code nobody sends you

    The same two words on a registration page cover a federal advisory committee and a trade-show floor without distinguishing between them. Reading the room, not the phrase.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A man in a grey suit with his jacket slung over one shoulder and a lanyard badge around his neck looks upward in a bright, glass-walled atrium
  22. Sep 272026
    Planning

    The speaking honorarium question

    A waived fee is a courtesy. An honorarium is compensation for your professional standing — and it deserves its own answer.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A man in a navy suit and a woman in a coral blazer shake hands and smile, in front of a green plant wall
  23. Sep 272026
    Planning

    Vetting a conference you don’t recognize

    An unfamiliar organizer’s glossy program lands in your inbox. What to actually check before it becomes a registration.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A man in a dark suit and glasses reads from a blue folder by a bright window, with city buildings visible outside
  24. Sep 272026
    On the Ground

    The remote seat in a hybrid session

    A hybrid session runs on two different physics — one for the room, one for the feed. What closes the gap when you’re the one joining by screen.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A man in a grey suit sketches a chart on a flipchart while a seated colleague in a blazer looks on, in a bright, plant-filled office
  25. Sep 262026
    Planning

    Stacking a client visit onto the trip

    The travel is already paid for, so a second meeting nearby feels free. A test for when combining the two actually works.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A man in a dark suit smiles while shaking hands with someone off-frame, a blurred city building facade behind him
  26. Sep 262026
    On the Ground

    The session outside your lane

    A session outside your specialty won’t make you fluent in someone else’s discipline. It can still teach you enough to recognize the shape of a problem later.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Three men in business attire sit at a table with laptops open and small ribbon-tied gift boxes, smiling as they listen to an unseen speaker in a bright, window-lit room
  27. Sep 262026
    Planning

    Why the host hotel costs more

    A cheaper room a short walk away saves money and opts you out of the lobby and bar hours where a lot of a flagship conference actually happens.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Three people in smart evening attire stand in an elegant, chandeliered hotel lobby, laughing together as one looks at a phone
  28. Sep 252026
    On the Ground

    The notes worth taking

    A slide survives the session on its own. What’s worth writing down is everything the deck won’t save for you.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A man listens with his hand at his chin, thinking, while a woman beside him holds an open notebook, seated in a row of attentive colleagues at a bright outdoor courtyard session
  29. Sep 252026
    On the Ground

    What to tell a speaker afterward

    Applause is a courtesy every speaker gets. One specific sentence afterward is the feedback that actually reaches them.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Two women applaud from their seats at a conference table lined with water bottles and folders, bright windows behind them
  30. Sep 252026
    Planning

    Landing the day before

    A same-day arrival leaves no room for a delayed flight or a slow taxi line. One extra hotel night turns the trip from a bet into a formality.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Two colleagues in business attire pause in a bright transit concourse, coffee cups and lanyards in hand, mid-conversation beneath a directional sign
  31. Sep 242026
    Planning

    Two flagships, same week

    Every year, a handful of good events land on the same week by accident of independent scheduling. A method for choosing between them that isn’t just picking the bigger name.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Two senior colleagues in business attire compare open folders of documents in a window-lit corridor
  32. Sep 242026
    Planning

    The reading before you land

    Packing lists and reimbursement forms get all the attention before a trip. The fifteen minutes that actually changes what you can ask in the room usually gets none.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A conference delegate wearing a lanyard reads a folded newspaper outside a venue
  33. Sep 242026
    Planning

    Membership, or just the rate?

    The member-versus-non-member price gap is easy arithmetic. Whether the membership itself earns its keep year-round is the question that usually never gets revisited.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Name badges and lanyards laid out on a registration table beside stacks of folders
  34. Sep 232026
    Planning

    The floor plan is homework

    The agenda budgets fifteen minutes between sessions. The building doesn’t know that — and at a sprawling venue, walking the distance is the whole fifteen minutes.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A printed CONFERENCE wayfinding sign with a directional arrow, clean lettering, no people in frame
  35. Sep 232026
    On the Ground

    The coffee break is not a break

    Every other block on the agenda has an owner and a topic. The break has neither — which is exactly why it’s worth a decision instead of a default.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Colleagues in blazers at a window-lit coffee break, cups in hand, mid-conversation
  36. Sep 232026
    On the Ground

    What the registration desk tells you

    The check-in line reads as friction before the conference actually starts. It is closer to the opposite — the one moment someone with current information is standing right in front of you.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A handshake between two colleagues in business attire, a yellow folder held between them, bright indoor light
  37. Sep 222026
    Planning

    Sponsoring a session, or just showing up

    A sponsorship invoice wears the same paperwork as a registration fee, but it’s answering a different question — and judging it by the wrong one always makes it look like overpaying.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Five colleagues in business attire around a boardroom table with laptops and printed charts, city skyline visible through floor-to-ceiling windows
  38. Sep 222026
    On the Ground

    So you’re the one being interviewed

    No slides, no fixed order, and a host who decides which thread to pull on next — the on-stage interview runs on its own etiquette, closer to a hallway conversation than a platform talk.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A woman in a lilac suit sits in an armchair against a plain light backdrop, speaking into a handheld microphone mid-answer
  39. Sep 222026
    On the Ground

    Presenting a poster, not a podium

    A platform talk holds one room for forty-five minutes. A poster holds one stranger for ninety seconds, then starts over — a genuinely different job, with its own tradecraft.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Two colleagues in close conversation in a bright atrium, one mid-sentence explaining something to the other
  40. Sep 212026
    On the Ground

    The hallway track

    The printed agenda is the planned part of a conference. A real share of its value happens in the corridor right after a session lets out — and almost nobody schedules for it.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Three colleagues in business attire talk in a bright office corridor, a woman gesturing mid-explanation between two men, with two more colleagues in conversation in the background
  41. Sep 212026
    On the Ground

    Bringing someone to their first flagship

    A first flagship conference runs partly on standing, and a newcomer has none of it yet. Transferring some of that standing is the senior colleague’s job, not the newcomer’s.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A senior woman in a beige blazer holds papers while talking with a colleague in a boardroom, more attendees seated around a wooden conference table in the background
  42. Sep 212026
    Planning

    The venue with a metal detector

    A hotel ballroom wants people inside. A regulator’s own campus is built to control who gets in at all — and the public meeting happening there is a guest on its premises.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A bearded man in a navy three-piece suit and glasses walks through a bright lobby past a walk-through security scanner, with uniformed personnel and other visitors visible in the background
  43. Sep 202026
    On the Ground

    Reading a regulator’s hedge words

    “We’re exploring” and “we plan to” are not the same sentence. The careful qualifiers in a regulator’s remarks are usually the most deliberately chosen part of it.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A woman and a man listen attentively at a conference table lined with water bottles, a colleague blurred in the foreground and trees visible through the windows behind them
  44. Sep 202026
    On the Ground

    When the room agrees not to quote you

    A workshop that runs under the Chatham House Rule changes what you can write down afterward — and the trip report is where that agreement actually gets tested.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Two colleagues in suits sit at a wooden table lined with water bottles and papers, one gesturing mid-conversation beside a book titled The Law, a heavy wooden door behind them
  45. Sep 202026
    On the Ground

    Job hunting, quietly, at a conference

    A flagship week puts an unusual amount of your professional world in one building. Being deliberate about that, without turning your employer’s travel budget into cover for something else.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Two colleagues in blazers stand talking over cups of coffee near a large window in a blue-walled meeting room, one wearing a lanyard badge
  46. Sep 192026
    On the Ground

    The room before it fills up

    A conference room right after a session is a crowded scrum. The same room fifteen minutes before it opens is something else entirely — and almost nobody plans around it.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Two senior delegates chat and smile in profile beside an empty U-shaped hearing-room table before the room fills, floor-to-ceiling windows and two colleagues in soft focus behind them
  47. Sep 192026
    On the Ground

    Where you sit in a hearing room

    The dais, the mic queue, the aisle seats near the door — a hearing room’s furniture decides what you can do in it. Choosing where you sit is one of the few free decisions left.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A wide, largely empty U-shaped hearing room with a chair presiding at the head of the table, a handful of delegates seated along both sides, and an unused lectern and projector in view
  48. Sep 192026
    On the Ground

    Leaving a workshop with a next step, not just goodwill

    Shared agreement in a working session feels like a decision while everyone’s still in the room. A week later, only the part that got assigned a name and a date is still real.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Three colleagues in business attire shake hands and smile around a table of papers and water bottles in a vaulted meeting room, a blank projector screen in the background
  49. Sep 182026
    On the Ground

    Getting fifteen minutes with someone senior

    The nerve to walk over gets most of the attention. What actually sinks the request is asking for something too vague for a busy person to say yes to on the spot.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    An older man and a woman in business attire shake hands across a table covered in printed charts, in a bright high-rise meeting room with colleagues visible nearby
  50. Sep 182026
    Planning

    When your organization sends a delegation, not just you

    Splitting a conference with colleagues is an internal efficiency problem. Representing your organization as one coordinated voice in front of counterparts is a different job.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Four colleagues in business attire shake hands across a table bearing EU and US flags, in a bright formal room
  51. Sep 182026
    On the Ground

    Speaking for your organization, not for yourself

    A conference panel expects your own opinion. A seat with your organization’s name on the placard expects something else entirely — and the room can’t hear the difference from tone alone.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A delegate speaks into a desk microphone at a formal committee-style table, two colleagues visible at their own desks in soft focus with bright windows behind
  52. Sep 172026
    On the Ground

    The colleague you only see once a year

    Some professional relationships run entirely on a conference’s annual cadence. What makes that sustainable, and what happens if either of you stops attending.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Two men embrace warmly in greeting amid a small group of colleagues, in a bright glass-walled reception space
  53. Sep 172026
    On the Ground

    Splitting one slot between two speakers

    A co-presented talk is two performances stitched together live — splitting the material, rehearsing the handoff, and agreeing who answers what questions.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Two colleagues in business attire stand together at a wooden lectern, reviewing notebooks side by side against a plain light backdrop
  54. Sep 172026
    On the Ground

    Choosing among five sessions in the same hour

    Five concurrent sessions, one hour, almost no information to choose with. Reading the abstract, weighting scarcity, and picking a fallback in advance.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    An attendee holds an open "Conference Program" folder while another delegate reads a program in the background at a shared table
  55. Sep 162026
    On the Ground

    The volunteer job inside the conference

    A board seat, chapter office, or committee role can turn the flagship week into two jobs at once. What the second one requires, and how not to lose the first.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Four colleagues in business attire applaud around a conference table, sunlight and greenery visible through the window behind them
  56. Sep 162026
    Planning

    Splitting a conference with your team

    Two or three colleagues at one event need a plan, not just extra badges — splitting tracks, syncing each evening, and naming one owner for the report.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Two people’s hands arranging name badges and lanyards side by side on a dark conference registration table
  57. Sep 152026
    On the Ground

    Your slides, after the talk

    Someone emails for the deck twenty minutes after you sit down. Why a slide built to be narrated reads differently alone, and what to send instead.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A close-up of a woman clapping, pen in hand and smiling, a blurred colleague behind her in bright window light
  58. Sep 152026
    On the Ground

    Talking to a competitor at a conference

    Regulatory conferences put you next to direct competitors constantly, and almost all of it is fine. The short, specific list of topics that genuinely isn’t.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Four business-attired attendees stand in animated conversation near a window in a bright, modern venue
  59. Sep 152026
    On the Ground

    So you’re the one responding

    You have eight minutes to say something useful about a talk you may be hearing for the first time. Not a rebuttal, not a second talk — a specific, well-earned reaction.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    An older speaker in glasses gestures with a pen while speaking at a conference table, a monitor and spiral notebook in front of him, a colleague listening across the table
  60. Sep 142026
    On the Ground

    Evaluating the vendor demo, not just the badge scan

    A good demo is a rehearsed performance on someone else’s best data. What actually tells you whether the product solves your problem, not theirs.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A presenter gestures with a pointer stick at a projected slide while a small seated group takes notes on clipboards, a whiteboard visible behind them
  61. Sep 142026
    On the Ground

    The introduction is not the deal

    The enthusiasm built in fifteen minutes at a booth is real. It is not yet a commitment — only your own organization’s process can make one of those.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Two colleagues shake hands across an office table as several others applaud, an open laptop and papers on the table nearby
  62. Sep 142026
    On the Ground

    So you’re the one giving the toast

    A conference talk gives you weeks of notice. Getting handed the mic at a dinner or a send-off gives you none — a different genre, with its own short rules.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A speaker in a waistcoat and tie gestures with one arm outstretched while holding a microphone, on a dim stage
  63. Sep 132026
    On the Ground

    Spotting the sponsored session

    The label in the agenda tells you who paid for the slot, not whether it belongs on your calendar. The reliable tell is the byline, not the badge.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A seated panelist in a suit gestures while speaking at a conference table beside a colleague in a tweed blazer, with another presenter at a podium in the background
  64. Sep 132026
    On the Ground

    The vendor hospitality question

    A badge scan can turn into a meal, a gift, or a travel offer. Whether you can accept it is your own employer’s policy to answer — not the vendor’s.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Two colleagues in suits shake hands across a conference table holding a small Lady Justice statue and an open book, in a bright, formal room
  65. Sep 132026
    Planning

    Crossing a border for a conference

    A flight and a hotel room can be booked in an afternoon. Confirming you can actually enter the country runs on a much longer, much less forgiving clock.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    An EU flag stands behind a panel of three speakers at microphones in a bright, formal conference room
  66. Sep 122026
    On the Ground

    The readout meeting after the trip

    A report is read alone, later, at someone else’s pace. A readout has to work live, in the room, or it doesn’t work at all — who to invite, and why the live Q&A is the whole point.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A presenter in a dress shirt and tie points to a printed chart pinned to a whiteboard covered in data printouts and sticky notes
  67. Sep 122026
    Planning

    When the abstract doesn’t get accepted

    A form rejection reads like a verdict on the work. It usually isn’t. What a program committee’s decision actually means, and what’s left to do next.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Rows of business-attired attendees seated at a linen-draped table, coffee cups and notebooks in front of them, listening to an unseen speaker in a ballroom
  68. Sep 122026
    On the Ground

    Attending a public meeting you won’t speak at

    Not every advisory committee meeting or town hall needs a question from you. What changes when you’re there only to listen, and why the room still beats the transcript.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Three officials in dark suits stand before a lectern bearing a U.S. flag as a colleague speaks into a microphone, seated attendees in the foreground
  69. Sep 112026
    Planning

    When you can’t go after all

    Nothing about the event changed. You’re the one who can no longer be in the room — what transfer and refund policies usually allow, and how to keep the seat from going to waste.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Hands lay out conference programs, lanyards and a handwritten name badge at a registration table
  70. Sep 112026
    On the Ground

    So you’re the one reviewing

    Someone reads every abstract before the agenda is real. What a program-committee invitation actually commits you to, and the blind spots worth watching in yourself.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A committee chair addresses four seated colleagues at a formal meeting table, each with an individual monitor, in a wide conference room
  71. Sep 112026
    On the Ground

    Pacing yourself across a multi-day conference

    The day-two fade is structural, not a personal failing. A method for pacing attention across a multi-day conference so day three gets your best thinking.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A smiling attendee holding a conference program in a bright lounge area between sessions
  72. Sep 102026
    On the Ground

    Talking to the regulator standing next to you

    An informal setting doesn’t make a conversation off the record. What’s actually worth asking a regulator in the hallway, and what belongs in the formal process instead.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Two attendees shake hands in a bright, modern venue, colleagues looking on nearby
  73. Sep 102026
    On the Ground

    So you’re the one on the panel

    You have a real position to put on the record, and almost none of the control a solo speaker or a moderator has over how the hour actually unfolds.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A panelist mid-answer at a desk microphone, addressing someone across the table in a formal meeting room
  74. Sep 102026
    Planning

    Claiming the CE credit you already earned

    The credit doesn’t fail to exist because the session wasn’t accredited — it fails to get claimed because the moment passes. A same-day procedure that fixes it.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    Close-up of a badge and lanyard against a blazer, a hand resting on a laptop at a wooden table
  75. Aug 52026
    On the Ground

    Staying for the last session

    The closing block always thins out — that’s flight schedules, not content. What a smaller room is actually good for, and booking the later flight on purpose.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    An empty auditorium with rows of blue upholstered seats, no people, facing a stage
  76. Aug 52026
    On the Ground

    The workshop is not a lecture

    A capped headcount is not a marketing detail — it means the room is small enough that silence gets noticed. What to bring, and how to contribute as the newest person in it.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A presenter gestures while addressing a small seated group in a meeting room, a projection screen behind them
  77. Aug 52026
    Planning

    Writing the abstract that gets accepted

    Presenting starts once the abstract is already accepted. What happens before that — the three hundred words a program committee can actually say yes to.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A conference attendee writes by hand in a spiral notebook, ID badge visible, seated among other attendees
  78. Aug 22026
    On the Ground

    When you think the podium got it wrong

    Being right doesn’t make the floor mic the right tool. Where a genuine disagreement with a speaker actually belongs — in conversation, or on the record.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    One person stands holding a microphone and gesturing mid-answer during a small panel discussion, seated colleagues and other attendees around them
  79. Aug 22026
    On the Ground

    When to walk out of a session

    A session is a bet made on an abstract, and some bets don’t pay off. A deadline for deciding, and how to leave without it reading as a verdict on the talk.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    An attendee, seen from behind, takes handwritten notes in a dim, packed lecture hall as a session runs
  80. Aug 22026
    On the Ground

    You can’t make all three dinners

    A sponsor dinner, a reception, and a meetup all land for the same two hours. Choosing one on purpose beats sampling all three badly.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Rows of attendees at an outdoor evening reception seated facing a small lit stage, string lights strung overhead between two hotel-style buildings at dusk
  81. Aug 12026
    Planning

    When to let a conference go

    Attending a conference every year turns a decision into a habit nobody re-checks. What your last few trip reports actually say, and what to do instead of renewing on autopilot.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    A speaker addresses a large seated audience with a handheld microphone during a general session
  82. Jul 312026
    On the Ground

    The slide photo nobody looks at again

    Photographing a slide feels like retaining it. Mostly it just defers the information, permanently. The one-line habit that makes the photo worth taking, and when to put the phone down instead.

    Connor Griggs · 6 min read
    An attendee, seen from behind, photographing a speaker on stage with a phone in a packed auditorium
  83. Jul 312026
    On the Ground

    So you’re the one moderating

    Moderating is not a smaller version of presenting. Running someone else’s panel well — the clock, the balance, and the pre-brief that prevents most of what goes wrong live.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Close-up of a speaker’s hands holding a microphone and gesturing mid-answer
  84. Jul 312026
    Planning

    The colleague you send

    Sending someone to their first regulatory conference well is a different skill than attending one. Choosing their event, giving them one goal, and the debrief that makes the next trip easier to approve.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Four conference attendees standing around a break-table with coffee and pastries, one showing something on a phone to another
  85. Jul 272026
    On the Ground

    Networking for people who hate networking

    The reception is the hardest room in the building, and you don’t actually have to work it. A smaller, structured version of networking for people who would rather be in the session.

    Connor Griggs · 8 min read
    Attendees seated in a packed conference auditorium, seen from behind as a session begins
  86. Jul 272026
    Planning

    Conference, workshop, webinar, town hall — what each format is actually built to do

    A workshop is not a small conference. A town hall is not a webinar with a government logo. Six shapes the regulatory calendar comes in, and how to spot each one before you register.

    Connor Griggs · 8 min read
    Rows of empty lecture-hall-style seating rising toward the back of a modern auditorium
  87. Jul 272026
    Planning

    When the conference changes on you — postponements, venue swaps, and the trip you already booked

    Not every organizer notice reopens an approved trip, but some do. A triage for telling the difference, what to do about money already spent, and how to tell your manager before they have to ask.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A split-flap airport departure board listing flights to Brussels, San Francisco, Paris and Stockholm
  88. Jul 272026
    On the Ground

    Exhibiting, not just attending — what changes when your company has the booth

    Staffing a booth is a different job than working the floor as an attendee — a different budget conversation, a different success metric, and a different set of sentences that are yours to say.

    Connor Griggs · 8 min read
    A delegate crosses the concourse of a convention centre beneath Hall 1-5 signage and summit banners
  89. Jul 272026
    On the Ground

    The trip report that actually gets read

    Most trip reports die in an inbox because they were written for no one in particular. Who to write for, the one-page shape that survives skimming, and why a year of them is worth more than any one of them.

    Connor Griggs · 8 min read
    A man in a tan blazer writes notes in a leather folio beside an open laptop
  90. Jul 242026
    Planning

    Flagship or regional — choosing between an event and its international counterpart

    RAPS Convergence and RAPS Euro Convergence. DIA Global and DIA Europe. What the shared branding actually promises, and a short test for telling which edition answers this year’s question.

    Connor Griggs · 8 min read
    A speaker addresses a small panel seated beside a European Union flag in a formal conference room
  91. Jul 242026
    Planning

    Planning the conference year — when the budget covers more than one

    One conference is a decision. A portfolio of them is a plan you have to sequence — against submission dates, not against a ranked list of the best events.

    Connor Griggs · 8 min read
    Rows of attendees fill a packed conference auditorium as a camera operator films from the aisle
  92. Jul 242026
    On the Ground

    So you’re the one presenting — preparing your first regulatory conference talk

    Asking a question from the floor takes thirty seconds of nerve. Standing at the podium is a different job — the part of it nobody warns you about.

    Connor Griggs · 9 min read
    A speaker in a suit addresses the room from a lectern, seen past blurred audience members in the foreground
  93. Jul 232026
    Planning

    Your first regulatory conference — the logistics nobody puts on the agenda

    Pass types, hotel blocks, expense rules, what to pack, and what the first-timer ribbon on your badge actually means — the mechanics that decide a first conference, not the sessions.

    Connor Griggs · 8 min read
    Attendees collect lanyards and badges at a conference registration table
  94. Jul 232026
    Planning

    Webinar or the flight — deciding when virtual is actually the better trip

    “Webinar” is not the cheap seat you fall back to. A method for deciding what a trip is actually buying — and how to get real value out of the sessions that never need a boarding pass.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    A headset microphone resting against the back of a laptop on a wooden desk
  95. Jul 232026
    On the Ground

    Asking a good question — at a conference mic, or in the public record

    The room can tell within a sentence whether your question was worth the line. What makes a floor question land, and what changes when the room is a formal public meeting entering the record.

    Connor Griggs · 8 min read
    A speaker addresses a seated panel from a podium microphone in a hearing room
  96. Jul 232026
    Planning

    How to choose a regulatory conference — when the budget covers one

    Registration, flights, hotel, and three days out of the building make a conference the most expensive training your team buys. A method for picking the one that earns it.

    Connor Griggs · 8 min read
    A hand marks dates on a large desk calendar with a blue pen
  97. Jul 232026
    Planning

    Getting the conference approved — a business case your manager can sign

    “I’d learn a lot” has never gotten a trip approved. What a signable case looks like, what a yes actually costs your manager, and why the early-bird deadline is your friend.

    Connor Griggs · 7 min read
    Two colleagues discuss a document across an office table
  98. Jul 232026
    On the Ground

    How to work a regulatory conference

    The agenda is public; the value is not. Planning the days like an editor, working the hallway track without being a card-spammer, and landing the follow-up inside 48 hours.

    Connor Griggs · 9 min read
    Delegates with lanyards talk over coffee during a conference break

The essays plan the trip. The directory holds the dates.

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