Content is no longer king
It’s uttered in association professional development circles all the time: content is king. But there’s a new queen in town and her name is CONTEXT.
While most associations still shout out that they are “the source” for information in the field, the reality often is that they are “a” source among many others, such as competing associations, .entrepreneurs – both member and non-member and maybe even past staff, and for-profits of all kinds. They are delivering content via journals, magazines, blogs, white papers, books, conferences, e-learning, among others. Take a few minutes to consider what other sources provide content related to your association’s field.
It is no longer enough to provide content. Associations need to provide context too.
Consider a typical association conference. Fifty to 100 sessions on different topics, targeted to different levels, with speakers rolling in and out for their sessions only. Some speakers are experts that can speak broadly and others are novices who speak only to their limited experiences. Attendees are on content overload — they are receiving isolated bits of information, but there is usually little to no context. And, context is critical for understanding and thus for learning because it is context that gives meaning to content.
So how can you provide context? Here are a few ideas for a context-rich conference:
- Change the way you organize conferences. Don’t just plan lots of individual sessions. Tracks are better, but not enough. Plan the track as a coordinated curriculum and have speakers work together to build upon each other’s sessions.
- Provide pre-conference recommended readings to attendees to set the stage for the material they are about to learn
- Encourage speakers to build meaningful case studies and problem-solving activities into their sessions.
- Build lots of peer-to-peer sharing into the event, both structured and unstructured.
- Continue the conversations post-conference with list-serve discussions or online communities.
Consider how you can provide context to the content on your Web site, in your journals or magazines, in books, in e-learning courses, or elsewhere.
How about a case study for number one on your list? That would help me understand the difference between a track and coordinated curriculum.
Here you go, Marshall. Consider a typical track at a conference – marketing, for example. Usually, a marketing track would contain a listing of all the sessions related to marketing. Tracks are used to help organize the conference for attendees. But the sessions within the track would typically have only the marketing theme in common. They may be targeted to different knowledge levels or specialties; they may be overlapping in content; and/or they may be extremely divergent in content (they could even be contradictory in opinion).
I wish I could give you an actual example of an association who has pushed tracks to the next level. Probably the closest I’ve seen is ASAE and Center for Association Leadership with its “conference within a conference” Meetings and Exhibition Days that it holds during the annual conference. But even so, I’m not sure that it’s much more than a highlighted grouping of M&E sessions…but it is a start.
What I’d like to see is an association take a typical track, like marketing, and identify a curriculum, if you will, rather than random independent sessions. That curriculum could be broad (marketing strategies) or more indepth on one strategy (buzz marketing). The key is that the whole track is thought out, the learning objectives of each are created to be complementary, not overlapping, and building upon each other. The speakers would be selected based on their ability to cover the specific learning objectives identified, and would work with staff and each other to ensure content appropriateness, flow, and diversity of teaching strategies throughout the track.
There might be some recommended readings and/or learning activities for attendees prior to the conference to set the stage (not repeat what will be covered onsite). And, there would be opportunities to apply what was being learned throughout the track (case studies, peer discussions, etc.) Ideally, the speakers would also attend all track sessions for better integration and flow. And, there might be an after-conference component of an “open-book” post-test with performance feedback provided for additional learning. There could also be an online discussion of some sort after the event.
Those are just some quick thoughts. I’m sure there are lots of other ways to bring more meaning to our conferences. By the way, outside of the traditional conference setting, certificate programs are an excellent example of context-full learning experience – they usually include all the elements I described above. Check out the certificate programs offered by the Commission on Dietetic Registration and an ASAE and the Center for Association Leadership’s Business of Meetings certificate program.
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