During my three years in high school, I diligently worked on our school yearbook. I even served as assistant editor and editor of our yearbook. I enjoyed the design process including creating each two-page spread layout. I also spent many hours making sure that as many of my peers were pictured in candid shots as … [Read more…]
The best conference organizers are proactively looking for fresh, new ideas to implement at their next annual meeting. They work hard at coming up with the next big idea. Shattering Status Quo The most innovative conference organizers are not satisfied with creating ordinary, mundane conference experiences. They have no patience for the status quo. As … [Read more…]
There is one important strategy that your presentation must have in order to succeed. Without it, you are guaranteed a fail. Without it, you will not connect with your audience. Without it, your words will fall on deaf ears. Adults learn on a “need-to-know” basis! You have to explain why the listener needs-to-know your information. … [Read more…]
We need more game changing, transformative learning at our conferences! We need more learning. Deeper learning. More effective education that leads to transformative, productive, professional change. We need more peer sharing and peer learning. We need more education experiences based on scientific evidence of how the adult brain learns. We need conferences to be the … [Read more…]
I don’t believe in cookbooks for learning. I’ve seen too many well-intentioned instructors pick up someone else’s education recipe and create a flawed experience. It just falls flat. The Meal Needs More Than Just The Right Ingredients I do believe in sound ingredients that can be combined and recombined in many ways to create a … [Read more…]
Listening is often the only thing attendees do in formal learning environments. Speakers talk. Audiences listen. They listen to keynote speakers at conferences. They listen to presenters in workshops. They listen to industry speakers in education sessions. They listen to staff in HR trainings. The truth is that all that listening amounts to very little … [Read more…]
Many of us have been to summer camp. We sleep in bunks in cabins. Swim in lakes. Row canoes down the stream. Take adventure walks through the forest. Eat meals family-style in log cabin lodges. Make lots of crafts. Our day typically ends with everyone sitting around a campfire as we tell stories and sing … [Read more…]
It all started in preschool and kindergarten. Every week, our teacher would ask us to bring something to class for show-n-tell. We would bring our beloved stuffed animal or a coin from a foreign country or a favorite toy or whatever caught our eye on the way out the door to school. The purpose of … [Read more…]
Learning at conferences is actually a fragile thing. Many things affect our learning. And those factors increase in a complex, content-rich, sensory-strong, ever changing, unfamiliar conference environment. Three Factors That Influence Our Learning Cognitive psychology researchers have shown that three major factors influence how much and how well we learn: ability, prior knowledge and motivation. … [Read more…]
Quickly, name your five senses. That’s easy! Right? Sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste. Now, what percentage of information comes though each sense? That one is not so easy. Here’s another way to think about this. How much information do we gather from each sense in the same amount of time as compared to the … [Read more…]
