How to Improve Your Call for Presentations Process April 12, 2017 by Dave Lutz When Velvet Chainsaw Consulting conducted speaker research with 120 associations with research and consulting company Tagoras Inc. in 2013, we found that nearly 77 percent use a call for speakers/sessions process. Associations value member input. One-third of these organizations accept 60 percent or more of the proposals, indicating either a low number of submissions or … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education, Event Planning Tagged With: , adult learning, adult learning principles, call for presentations, conference best practices, Education & Adult Learning, presentation strategies, speaker practices
What If Attendees Remember Nothing From Your Event? October 24, 2016 by Jeff Hurt Yes, what if they remember nothing from your event? “Meetings are often so overloaded with material that learning may be hurt more than it’s enhanced,” says Andrea Driessen, Chief Boredom Buster, No More Boring Meetings. (Read her article for seven ways to boost learning.) What’s worse than remembering nothing from the event? If attendees learned … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , adult learning, adult learning principles, adult learning strategies, conference education
We Must Stop Promoting Conference Fast-Track, Artificial, Butt-In-Seat, Surface Learning September 13, 2016 by Jeff Hurt How are your conference attendees learning? Yes, of course we should ask, “What are they learning?” More importantly, we need to ask, “How are they learning?” We’ve got to confront the ineffectiveness of our conference education approaches! We must begin to offer effective alternatives to the traditional “sit and get” lecture. If we want to … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult learning principles, conference education, deep learning, surface learning
Your Conference Needs To Focus On Providing 4D Experiences September 12, 2016 by Jeff Hurt Conferences need 4D experiences: deep learning, deep play, deep reflection and deep connections. You probably recall a time in your life when you viewed a 3D movie. You wore 3D glasses and the images looked like they popped out of the screen. Your conference needs more than the gimmick of 3D glasses. It needs authentic … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , 4Ds conference experience, adult learning principles, conference experience, deep connections, deep learning, deep play, deep reflection, networking, reflection
Sagacious And Substantive Gists We Should Appreciate, Comprehend And Respect Regarding Learning May 25, 2016 by Jeff Hurt Learning: it is probably one of the most misunderstood and misapplied concepts today. Many of us assume learning results from attending a class. We believe that our brains are like sponges that just absorb whatever it hears or sees. We presume that learning is a byproduct of listening to a lecture. We’ve even given names … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , active learning, adult education, adult learning principles, adult learning strategies, andragogy, conference best practices, conference education, conference learning model
Why Bother With Conference Education Peer Discussions? February 17, 2016 by Jeff Hurt How many conference speakers have you seen that don’t want attendees asking, answering, commenting or participating during their presentations? From the speaker’s point of view, the presentation seems to be moving along nicely as the content is covered. The room is silent except the speaker’s voice. And surely that means that the audience is attentively … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , adult education, adult learning, adult learning principles, adult learning strategies, conference best practices, conference education, discussions, lecture, paragogy, peer-to-peer, peerology
Increasing Active Learning Yields Big Results Infographic October 16, 2015 by Jeff Hurt Dr. Russell Mumper, Vice Dean of the Eshelman School of Pharmacy at UNC Chapel Hill, decided to try the flipped classroom concept. He knew that with the explosion of information there was no way to teach his students everything. Instead he used his content to teach them how to become active, lifelong learners. He then … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , active learning, active participation, adult education, adult learning principles, adult learning strategies, brain friendly strategies, Flipped Education Model, flipped learning, interactive, lecture
More Dangerous Assumptions About Your Conference Education Part 2 July 24, 2015 by Jeff Hurt The research* shows that much of what we do in our conference education is actually counterproductive. (*See partial list of research and books at the end of Dangerous Assumptions Part 1 post.) We spend too much of our conference time on delivery of information. The web is a better information delivery model than our events. … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult education, adult learning principles, adult learning strategies, brain friendly strategies, brain-friendly conferences, conference education, conference strategy, education best practices, learning myths
Dangerous Assumptions About Your Conference Education Part I July 23, 2015 by Jeff Hurt It’s a very dangerous assumption. We assume that if our speakers are talking, our attendees must be learning. We equate telling from the stage with audience education. Telling does not equal learning. We’ve placed a value on experts talking instead of a value on attendees’ learning. It’s backwards thinking and it’s one of our conference’s … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult education, adult learning principles, adult learning strategies, brain friendly strategies, brain-friendly conferences, conference education, conference strategy, education best practices, learning myths
Creating Sticky Learning: Complimentary (Sales Free) VCC Webinar July 30 July 20, 2015 by Jeff Hurt As adults, we are rather lazy learners. Much of what we hold as fact regarding learning is actually illusion. We waste a lot of effort, time and resources with common-sense accepted educational practices that are rooted in intuition, tradition and myth. The most effective learning strategies and education programming are counter-intuitive. We need to build … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: , adult learning principles, adult learning strategies, brain-friendly conferences, conference best practices, conference education, learning
