Tag: active participation


Your Conference Audience Is Dead

It used to be that face to face presentations were one of the most important places people would go to get new, cutting-edge, critical information. They would pay a conference registration fee, airfare, lodging and expenses to attend a conference just to get that new information. But that has changed with the click of the … [Read more…]

Invasion Of The Participatory Culture [PPT]

If you haven’t made the shift from serving members to involving them, consider this your wake-up call — and your roadmap. Sociologists identify today’s online networked individuals as the participatory class. For many adults, the Internet primarily means the web. For others it means chat, connecting with friends, email, games, movies, social networks, text, video … [Read more…]

Three Event Infographics On Conference Education And ROI

Here are three Infographics from Experient’s e4 2010 Conference. Modernizing Conference Education – 15 min, TED-Style talk as part of Summer Storms Building A Customized ROI Tool That Measures Results – Terri Breining’s 15 min, TED-Style talk as part of Summer Storms Developing Next Generation Conference Education Sessions – Cafe Session Images by GraphicFootprints.  

Why The PCMA Learning Lounge Worked

“What if no one shows up? What will we do?” It was 6:45 am on a Monday morning in Las Vegas. We wondered if anyone would actually show up when PCMA’s Convening Leaders’ Learning Lounge opened at 7 am. As the final countdown started, we were about to find out first hand if people would … [Read more…]

Your Memory: The Engine And Bottleneck Of Learning

Myth: The more we sit and listen to conference lectures, the more we learn. Fact: Our memory is both the engine and the bottleneck of learning. The more information we receive without thinking about it, the more we corrupt our learning. Three Critical Factors Of Working Memory Working memory is the part of your mind … [Read more…]

The Brain As A Gambler And Conference Camouflaged Listeners

If we wanted to create an education environment that is directly opposed to what the brain is good at doing, we would design something like today’s conference lectures. Listening to a 45-, 60- or 90-minute lecture floods the working memory with information. We can’t store everything we hear in our memory. The Brain As A … [Read more…]

Myths, Facts, Challenges And Tips With Learning From Lectures

Myth: Our minds are like sponges that just soak up information which creates learning. Many of us grew up believing that myth. We believed that we could sit in a lecture and the speaker’s information would magically transfer to our brains. We thought we could automatically recall everything the teacher said. Without studying, our test … [Read more…]

Confronting The Challenges Of Today’s Participatory Culture In Conferences And Events

This post is my contribution to the free eBook, What’s Next In Events 2011: 9 Event Experts Weigh In compiled and created by Lara McCullouch-Carter. We are witnessing the emergency of a cultural phenomenon that supports widespread participation in the production and distribution of content, information and media. Sociologists call it the new participatory culture. We … [Read more…]

Information Dump Or Learning Facilitator?

It’s time to decide which one your conference is: information dump or learning facilitator. Is there a difference between information and education? Education and learning? A quick review of the definitions for each within the context of meetings helps provide clarity. Information Information is concepts, data, facts and research. Communicating information is normally show-n-tell lectures … [Read more…]

The Benefit Of Shifting From Presenting To Participating

“Not a presentation, a participation,” says Scott Gould. The Typical Presentation Like Minds Conference founder Scott Gould raised an interesting question on his blog this week.  He was talking to his compadre Robin Dickinson about an upcoming presentation he was delivering. The presentation was on participation. Robin challenged Scott to move from presenting information about participation … [Read more…]