Learning Experiences - Not Just Conferences
In my frank opinion, the sooner associations move away from traditional conferences, the better. A highly controversial statement, I know. Merriam-Webster defines “conference” as (1) a meeting of two or more persons for discussing matters of common concern, or (2) a usually formal interchange of views.
I would argue that many conferences do a terrible job of those two things. The key words being “discussing” and “interchange”. For the first definition, we tend to subject our members to old-school, classroom-style learning experiences (sometimes with dimmed lights) and dreaded PowerPoint presentations. Little “discussion” occurs in most of these sessions. In looking at the second definition, conference sessions rarely allow for a ‘formal interchange of views’. They are simply one-way lectures with a few minutes of Q&A.
Ask any conference attendee where the value is and you will most likely here, “in the hallways” or “at the social functions”. Why? Becuase this is the place where real-time business issues can be addressed. But why don’t we foster this more across our association industry?
What would happen if you asked a typical conference attendee the following questions:
1. What is your #1 most pressing business issue you need to address in the next six months?
2. What is that business issue costing your company/organization?
3. What kind of information or interactions do you need in order to address this issue?
4. What would you pay if you knew that you could get assistance in adressing that issue by participanting in a learning experience? (notice I didn’t say conference)
These four questions alone can generate some very interesting results. By simply asking these questions (instead of filling out worthless smile sheet evaluations) associations can begin to position themselves as the knowledge center of their industry or profession. This also fundamentally changes the role of association educators to become learning facilitators, not just speaker inviters.
These four questions also allow educators to begin to reshape conference formats, features, and functions. Instead of inviting speakers to be the ’sage on the stage’ you are invited them to become the ‘guide on the side’ - a learning facilitator. It also confirms the need to create knowledge resources before, during, and after face-to-face meetings.
Social networking tools (blogs, wikis, podcasts, etc.) help individuals connect in a way that was never possible before. Using these tools as a way to generate grass-roots knowledge adds significant value to the learning experience. In addition, it can make face-to-face experiences more valuble because members can network with peers electronically beforehand, get useful information just-in-time, and can interact with individuals and information in a way that is not currently wide-spread.
As you begin a new planning cycle for conferences, why not completely rethink the way you “host” learning experiences?
[…] Fellow author Mickie started an interesting conversation on her own blog about the need to change the way we’ve always done PowerPoint. As I think about it, I can’t BELIEVE we didn’t write a post about that in our book?! Amy mentioned powerpoint in her post on Learning experiences not Conferences, but only briefly. I can’t think of a more worthy WHADITW topic than the way we use powerpoint in presentations in the association community (I remember sitting through a presentation where the presenter actually numbered the slides. It was even MORE painful knowing that that list of bullets was the 63rd I had seen that session!) […]
[…] sheets don’t tell you much about the participants’ real experience either. As Amy Smith wrote in the first edition of the book, there are critical questions you need to ask when designing your […]