The tendency for concepts to be buried in a mass of text, whether explanatory, anecdotal or otherwise. Little effort is made to distinguish concepts from contextual material which may not be essential to their subsequent use in articulating a complex conceptual network. Many environments are designed to bury concepts almost as quickly as they are generated. The conditions ensure a high concept mortality rate. Everything is relevant to everything, but little can be effectively distinguished.
People enter and leave the conference environment confused.
Conceptual swamping The well-documented phenomenon of information overload. The amount of information inhibits creativity. The tendency of a conference to premature conceptual closure. Given the conceptual confusion which tends to prevail, any ordering which emerges tends to be seized upon and used to impose order before alternative perspectives acquire sufficient weight to call for their integration in a more complex conceptual structure. The reductionist tendency to blur subtle distinctions, collapsing them into a simpler concept.