Your Brain Wants To Avoid Thinking In Conference Settings August 14, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Your brain is built to survive! It’s in the biology and chemistry of your brain to survive at all costs. Survival and protection are at the top of the list when it comes to brain activity. It even outranks thinking in priority. Survival Trumps Thinking Your brain will avoid thinking in order to conserve energy … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , brain science education, brain-friendly conferences, brain-friendly meetings, conference best practices, conferences, education best practices, thinking
Increase Your Conference Attendee Engagement By Increasing Relevance July 18, 2014 by Jeff Hurt “How can I increase engagement at my conference?” It’s a question I hear a lot. “How can I help my attendees increase their engagement?” What’s my answer? Increase the relevance. Increase the relevance of the content. Increase the relevance of the learning experience. Oh and by the way, what type of engagement are you talking … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , adult learning strategies, attendee engagement, conference relevance, education best practices, engagement, presentation best practices, speaker selection
Changes In The Information Cycle Are Driving Conference Education Reform July 2, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Conferences (and associations) used to be the go-to source for information and content about a profession or industry. Today, the tools of content creation and distribution actually rest in the hands of individuals. Anyone can create and share content. While not everyone wants to be a content creator, everyone has an interest in organizing and … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult learning, conference education, content, education best practices, paragogy, peer-based learning, peer-to-peer, peerology, sense-making
Most Association And Conference Beliefs About Attendee Learning Are Wasted Efforts June 27, 2014 by Jeff Hurt The empirical research on how we learn and remember shows that… …Most of what we know as truth about learning is nothing more than wasted effort! The learning opportunities that we offer to our customers and members are based on outdated theory, lore, past experiences and gut instincts. And the empirical evidence says much of … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult learning, conference education, conference learning model, education best practices, learning myths, neuroscience
Who Killed Adult Curiosity? May 23, 2014 by Jeff Hurt As young children, curiosity made us jump in a mud puddle. Try to catch fireflies. And chase our shadows. It was our motivation for learning and play. When we discovered that if we mixed red and yellow finger paint, we created orange, we went on a frenzy mixing all types of colors. Our final images … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult learning, curiosity, education best practices, learning
Frank Conversations On Better Conference Measurement May 5, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Recently, I wrote about how most conference organizers are really bad at measurement. Oh, we’re fairly good at measuring our conference goals. As long as those goals are based on common conference inputs and outputs. You know, expenses/revenue, attendance, exhibitors and sponsors. But rarely do we measure anything else that proves ROI, ROO or ROA … [Read more…] Filed Under: Business Model Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference evaluation, education best practices, speaker evaluations
Conferences Need Quality Measurement Tools And Feedback To Spur Innovation April 23, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Most conferences suck at collecting data. (Oh, were good at collecting registration and fees but that’s about it!) It requires work, intentionality, time and interpretation to get the feedback we need to make improvements and drive innovation. I like what CEO and meetings professional Hugh Plappert says about conference measurement: Measuring requires planning. Planning requires … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference evaluation, education best practices, speaker evaluations
Conferences Suck At Measurement! April 22, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Conference professionals suck at measurement. If you trust your conference smile sheet evaluations as a barometer of how effective your conference education was, you are just being foolish says learning research psychologist Dr. Will Thalheimer. Ouch! The truth hurts! The Emptiness Of Smile Sheets Evaluations Thalheimer points to research that the smile sheet evaluation shows … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference evaluation, education best practices, speaker evaluations
Bringing Authentic Conference Conversations To Life April 16, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Peer conversations are more important to your conference than you know. I’m not talking about one of your attendees serving as a speaker talking at the audience. That’s a lecture. I’m referring to peer conversations in pairs, threesomes and small groups. You know when it’s happening at conferences because the rooms are buzzing with discussions. … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , adult learning, conference best practices, conference education, conversations, discussions, education best practices, peer-based learning, peer-to-peer, peerology
Kneebucklingly Sweet Idea Generation Tool: Brainwriting April 2, 2014 by Jeff Hurt Brainstorming is out! Brainwriting is in! Brainstorming Challenges Brainstorming is something most of us know and have used at some point in our lives. It’s a tool often used to create a list of spontaneous ideas contributed by a group. Alex Faickney Osborn popularized the tool in 1953. Osborn claimed that brainstorming was more effective … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education, Experience Design Tagged With: , adult education, brain-friendly meetings, education best practices, introverts
