How Conference Networking Improves Participants’ Brain Health [Webinar May 11]

Brain science research continues to prove that our brains function best when we’re engaged in meaningful We-centric conversations. We are a highly social species.

This research illustrates our need to design conferences that promote deeper and more meaningful conversations, especially in our networking. These We-centric conversations, as organizational anthropologist and author Judith Glaser states, move us from less surface what I can do into deeper conversations of what we can do together. They promote co-creation, mutual gain, growth and understanding and healthier brains as well as longer lives

Smart Networking: Promoting Brain-Friendly Conference Conversations That Matter

Glaser, author of Conversational Intelligence, has devoted her career to studying humans and how conversations shape their culture, brains and effectiveness as leaders.

Through her cognitive and neurological research, she has discovered that our conversations need to go much deeper than just sharing information (ask-tell) which is what typical speed networking looks like. This surface level interaction activates the lower more primitive part of our brain (amygdala) which triggers fight/flight responses.

We should be striving to design for longer, deeper and more meaningful (share and discover) interactions which stimulates the higher level intelligences of our brain (Pre-frontal Cortex). And they lead to healthier, longer lives!

As Glaser states, when this part of our brain is engaged it enables us to build societies, co-create, be strategic, handle difficult conversations, and build and sustain trust. All the things you should want your attendees to achieve from face to face interactions at your meeting.

Designing Higher Level Conversations

Look at your entire conference design. Ask yourself:

1. Where can we bake-in more time for deeper and longer conversations?
2. Where can we turn networking into transformative deeper experiences for our attendees?
3. What does this type of experience require of our conference schedule, our stakeholders and our participants?

Want to know more? Want to know where to start from moving from surface conversations to deeper transformative ones?

Attend our next free webinar on Wednesday, May 11, 2016 on How Conference Networking Improves Participant’s Brain Health, 2 pm Eastern where will go deeper on this cutting-edge topic.

Register now!