Recently I attended a webinar given by Jeff Hurt of Velvet Chainsaw Consulting. You can view the webinar here.
He identified principles for Designing Next Generation Conference Education Sessions
First he talked about “What is education?” What intrigued me is that we are learning in the same outdated manner today as students from the WWII era. In WWII thousands of troops had to be trained at once, so the top down approach was developed. The students walk into a classroom and the teacher gives them the knowledge that they need to be able to go out and work in a factory. This approach is still used in conferences today, but it doesn’t mean that it works. It’s the push method, the instructor “dumps” their knowledge and the students are supposed to learn and retain that information. This situation works with “novice” employees, but not with employees with over five years of experience.
Now learners require a pull method, why? The students need to choose how they learn. Blame the internet! Jeff talked about MMO, or massive multi-player online role playing games, and it’s not just the average teenage boy sitting in his room playing the game. The median age of MMO players is 36 years old, and a third of the players are female. How does this relate to conference sessions? These MMO players are used to problem solving that requires teamwork. They’re not afraid to take chances, and they also believe in trial and error. So, how are they going to respond to sitting in a large room during a conference to listen to a lecture? These people want to participate in finding solutions to problems, and they want to collaborate. Learning is not passive, and we need to embrace lifelong learning.
Jeff noted that his 73 year old mother knows that in order to communicate with her grandchildren, she'd better send them a text message, because children today do not answer their cell phones. She also knows that it’s easier to email or facebook her children.
Bottom line: Embrace change and grow! “The internet has changed how we learn.”
How do you incorporate this into your next conference?
- Open the Invitation to Engage Individuals Who Cannot Attend the Conference
- Jeff tells nonprofits that they have extend their invitations to those individuals and organizations that cannot afford to attend their event, or they cannot attend because of schedule conflicts. You have to be willing to share the information and ideas.
- “Embrace Learnscaping For Conference and Events”
- Remove the barriers to learning. Months before the conference give out the course content via wiki, blog, facebook or podcast. Give your attendees time to think about what is going to be discussed at the conference. Everyone is on the same page, and it increases the amount of discussion about your event, therefore; it can also be used as a marketing tool.
- Coordinate experienced facilitators to encourage the attendees to participate in the discussions during conference sessions. Facilitators keep the ideas and the conversation flowing.
- Provide informal seating areas, include free laptop charging stations with lounge areas around it, so that the attendees can sit and discuss the relevant conference topics.
Conference Room Environments
- Provide free Wi-Fi
- Traditional theater style classrooms or ballrooms with chairs facing the screen are not conducive to a interactive learning experience
- Set to the long wall
- Curve the seating in a chevron shape
- Have the chairs face each other
- Set the outside chairs in straight rows facing the presenter
- Provide multiple screens
- Stimulate the senses – visuals are most important, because 80% of what the brain receives is visual. Cover the walls with posters or words, light and color affects how the brain learns (orange, red and yellow stimulate more brain activity)
- Combine audio with your visuals
- Provide Active Learning Discussions by encouraging your audience to participate in a tweet chat on Twitter
- Help your audience visualize what the new steps are that they should be taking to learn the material you are teaching.
Barriers to the “New” Style of Conferences
- Inform you attendees well in advance of the new conference format.
- Conduct a webinar six months in advance of the conference to inform and educate them of the new format
- Blog about the conference and the new and exciting changes
- Moderate a linkedin discussion about your upcoming conference events
- Use blogtalk radio to interview your presenters before the conference and post links to and reminders in your blog.
- Use sponsors to help pay for any additional costs that you may incur
- Offer traditional conference lectures and New conference sessions – let your attendees choose which style they prefer
- Use mentoring to teach the non techies
- Do a webinar on the new technologies that you will be utilizing at your conference
What other Conference Session Ideas Does Jeff Have? (Remember, “A conference must include structured human connectivity, socialization and networked learning”)
- Role playing
- Peer2Peer Discussions or Panel Dialogues
- Paired Square
- Structured Note taking by showing a PowerPoint, but leave out words so the attendees can fill them in on their note sheet
- Tradeshow Scavenger Hunts with mobile devices
- Speed Networking
- Hold early morning coffee klatches - It helps to know your audience, because if you have a group of techies, they tend to be creatures of the night!
- Schedule Book Clubs
- Plan a table-storming Session
- Design a Break out Café
- More of Jeff’s ideas
My favorite webinar quote: “Open conversations increases motivation.”
Jeff Hurt gave a great presentation, so if you’re interested in learning more about Jeff’s innovative ideas follow him on Twitter at #2010Connect or jeffhurtblog.com
