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 A written trip report and a live readout meeting are not the same obligation discharged twice. Who to invite, and why the live Q&A is the entire point. 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.

33 essays

  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. 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
  18. 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
  19. 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
  20. 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
  21. 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
  22. 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
  23. 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
  24. 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
  25. 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
  26. 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
  27. 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
  28. 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
  29. 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
  30. 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
  31. 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
  32. 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
  33. 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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