Conferences Are Providing Inferior Education Through Lectures June 5, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Conferences are providing inferior education if all they provide is didactic, presenter monologue lectures. Yes, that’s right. The speaker lecture is ineffective and inferior! If all your attendees do is sit and listen passively to speakers, you’re providing bad conference education! At least that’s what 2001 Physics Nobel Prize recipient, Stanford professor and former director … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , active learning, adult education, conference best practices, conference education, lecture, participatory learning
The Wrong Way To Approach Conference Sponsorship June 4, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Logos hanging from the ceiling at the tradeshow. Ads covering windows, elevator doors and escalator ramps. Symbols, signs and emblems stuck to the floor, carpet and wrapping columns. Logos on lanyards, room keys and conference bags. All of these are the traditional ways conferences approach sponsorship. And the majority of them have little value or … [Read more…] Filed Under: Sponsorship & Exhibits Tagged With: , sponsor acquisition, sponsors, sponsorship
Conference Improvement Means People Improvement June 2, 2014 by Jeff Hurt The quality of a conference’s education program cannot exceed the quality of its speakers. The message is simple. What speakers do during keynotes, breakouts, concurrents, symposiums and workshops, matters. The greatest variance in our conferences relates to our presenters. In short, a conference education program cannot give what it does not have. If it doesn’t … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conferences, Speaker Emerging Practices
Who Killed Adult Curiosity? May 23, 2014 by Jeff Hurt As young children, curiosity made us jump in a mud puddle. Try to catch fireflies. And chase our shadows. It was our motivation for learning and play. When we discovered that if we mixed red and yellow finger paint, we created orange, we went on a frenzy mixing all types of colors. Our final images … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult learning, curiosity, education best practices, learning
Your Conference Needs An Innovative Strategy May 22, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Executives and conference organizers need to train themselves to look for change! Innovative organizations look out the window, away from the organization as well as look inside the organization for opportunities. They embrace change as an opportunity to innovate. Not as a threat. Your Success Can Be Your Failure Many conferences that have got into … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , conference best practices, conferences, Innovation
She Who Dares Conference Improvement, Wins May 21, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Most conferences are so safe. Yawn! So boring…so tame! Contagious yawn, setting off a chain reaction of conference meeting yawns. Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t think that conferences are supposed to be boring. But most are! Big yawn, time to sleep. Creating An Adventure What if your next conference was an adventure? Weren’t conferences created … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conferences, Innovation
Frank Conversations On Better Conference Measurement May 5, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Recently, I wrote about how most conference organizers are really bad at measurement. Oh, we’re fairly good at measuring our conference goals. As long as those goals are based on common conference inputs and outputs. You know, expenses/revenue, attendance, exhibitors and sponsors. But rarely do we measure anything else that proves ROI, ROO or ROA … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference evaluation, education best practices, speaker evaluations
15 Myths We Hold As Truths About Conference Education April 30, 2014 by Jeff Hurt We all believe in myths. Some of us don’t know that our own personal beliefs are actually based on fiction. Some of us hold on to our own personal experiences as supporting evidence of our beliefs. We don’t realize that our realities are often grounded in confirmation bias. We fail prey to the adage, “But … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult education, conference education, learning myths
Conference Execution As Attendee Learning April 28, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Most conference organizers believe that the delivery of information in an efficient, timely, productive manner is the key to attendee satisfaction, success and financial stability. We focus primarily on the efficient execution of delivery of content. But in today’s knowledge economy, that is not enough. The focus on controlling information flow, creating a one-way and … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult learning, conference best practices, conference education, conferences, learning, meeting planning best practices
Snack Bite-Size Learning Rules The Roost At Conferences April 25, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Blogger Karla Gutierrez gives five reasons why bite-size learning works at Shift’s eLearning blog. Here’s one key point all conference organizers and speakers should know and implement: Chunk Content In 10 Min Sections Bite-size learning as well as bite-size instruction improves an attendee’s psychological engagement. It prevents cognitive overload and mental burnout. It also encourages … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education, Experience Design Tagged With: , adult learning, adult learning principles, adult learning strategies, brain science education, Ignite, meeting planning best practices, Pecha Kucha
