Pirates are treasure hunters that don’t always play by the rules. As an association education professional, you too can buck tradition by searching for hidden treasures of content and delivering them to your members. The Pirate Spirit Many of us have negative images of pirates as shipmates that pillage and rob other vessels. Some of us think of the children’s version of Captain Hook in Peter Pan or of Johnny Depp’s drunken, flamboyant Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. Curating … [Read more...]
Establishing A New Model To Select Conference Content And Programming
Is it time to end the speaker call for proposals? Does the traditional open call for topics and speakers actually meet the conference audience’s needs? The traditional call for volunteer and professional speakers is a roll of the dice that the submissions meet the needs of the conference attendees. Too often staff and committees rely on the call for proposals to fill their conference education programming. There is little to no attention given to ensuring that the content is the right … [Read more...]
The Person Who Chooses Your Conference Content Has All The Power
"If we live in a world where information drives what we do, the information we get becomes the most important thing. The person who chooses that information has power," says Seth Godin. Currently many conference hosts put the power of their conference content into the hands of administrators focused on shuffling speaker proposals and scheduling speakers. Or they allow a volunteer committee that is often focused on personal agendas to choose the conference content. Rarely do either the … [Read more...]
Five Steps To Become Conference Content-Strategist-Curators (Part 1)
If you are a conference organizer, imagine your job as a museum curator. Art gallery and museum curators use judgment and a distinguished sense of style to select and arrange art. They juxtapose art pieces against one another to create a narrative, evoke a response and communicate a message. Conference organizers must approach a conference's content as a medium that needs to be strategically selected and placed to engage the audience, convey a message and inspire action. Steps To See Become A … [Read more...]
Seeing The Meeting Professional As Content Strategist And Conference Curator
Our conference participants are becoming progressively more sophisticated. At the same time, our digital network is becoming increasingly complex bringing current information and our audience closer. Often our conference participants walk into our events knowing more than our speakers. Their experiences applying knowledge and information frequently surpass that of our presenters. So how can we continue to offer cutting-edge content and learning experiences? In order to continue to succeed, … [Read more...]
