“My presentation is fine. It’s the audience’s fault if they don’t get it?” “Why do I need to change the way I present? My lecture has worked for years. I get great scores and reviews.” I’m sure you’ve heard statements like this. Maybe you’ve even said something similar yourself. So, why should speakers change how they present at your conference? The Lecture—The Presenters’ And Learners’ Desert Mirage The standard didactic lecture…It’s been used successfully for years. Right? All that … [Read more...]
Sagacious And Substantive Gists We Should Appreciate, Comprehend And Respect Regarding Learning
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 to this type of learning: auditory learning and passive learning. Oh how we’ve deluded ourselves into a false sense of security about learning. Five Wise Research-Proven … [Read more...]
Six Tips To Create The Conference Introvert Advantage
Are you an introvert or an extrovert? If you’re an introvert, you’re trendy right now. There is a lot of media buzz about introversion and their inner strengths in a primarily extrovert world. One In Four... At least one in four people tends to listen more than they speak, often feels alone in large groups, and requires a lot of private time to restore their energy. They are introverts says author, researcher, educator and psychotherapist Dr. Marti Olsen Laney. According to Susan Cain, … [Read more...]
Aligning Conference Schedules With Neuroscience To Avoid The Attendee Overwhelm Epidemic
Too many conferences foster attendee information overload. The plethora of presenters pushing information at warp speeds cause fragmented attention, overburden brains and data excess. It's a silent epidemic that cause stagnate mental engagement. And our conference schedules stretch attendees in ways that may have bigger implications than just unhealthy eating. They cause mental disconnection. Seven Activities That Promote Good Mental Habits Neuroscientists Dr. David Rock and Dr. Daniel Siegel … [Read more...]
Why Participant-Centered Education Rules
Participant-Centered Education from Jeff Hurt Our current association adult education is a victim to an outdated teacher- and expert-centered model. It has its roots in puritan beliefs that wisdom is evil and the less we know, the more innocent we are. To succeed we must move out of the didactic traditional training box. We must refocus on people, how they learn best and their needs. We need to transition from expert-centered models to participant-centered models. This requires a … [Read more...]
Is Your Conference Primarily Focused On Speakers Or Attendees?
Is your conference primarily focused on speakers? Is it so focused on speakers that it's become a conference of speakers speaking to other speakers because no one else attends the education sessions? Maybe you're saying, "No, my conference is focused on attendees!" How To Tell If Your Conference Focus Is Speakers Or Attendees Here's how to tell if your conference is focused on speakers or attendees. 1. Information Speaker-centric conferences assume that the attendee is dependent upon an expert … [Read more...]
Moving Towards More Peeragogy Learning Experiences For Conferences And Associations
What if at your next education experience, the speaker gave all the expert-power to the audience? What if the participants were empowered to take more control of their learning, collaboration and dialogue? It's happening in secondary schools, colleges, universities and some education experiences across the globe. It's peeragogy or paragogy, also known as peer-based learning. Defining Peeragogy In short, peeragogy is peer-based learning or learning from each other. It acknowledges the … [Read more...]
Preventing Death By Lecture Through Audience Discussion
Many people believe that PowerPoint (PPT) presentations are a leading killer of learning. We even call it "Death by PPT." Actually, the typical 45-, 60- or 90-minute speech has a higher mortality rate than PPT. And that speech may actually be a fugitive living under an assumed name like keynote, lecture, breakout, plenary, concurrent or education session. If the goal of the presentation is learning, then the speaker needs to allocate some of their talk time to the audience. The speaker needs … [Read more...]