80 percent of what we learn comes from informal learning.* Ironically, 60% to 80% of a conference attendee's time is spent in formal learning, passively listening to a presenter. Unfortunately, 14 days later we only recall 20% of what we hear in those presentations. (John Medina, Brain Rules; E. Dale, Audio-Visual Methods in Teaching). 30 days later, attendees have forgotten 90% of what they learned in the session (German psychologist and memory researcher Hermann Ebbinghaus). Most of what we … [Read more...]
The Conference Session Is Dead
The conference session is not the appropriate shell for most learning experiences. The sixty- or ninety-minute presentation was created for the convenience of the institution, not the learner. The conference session is a triumph of standardization and it is so ingrained in our thinking we still buy and sell seat time rather than performance improvement. It's the industrial revolution model, which puts a higher value of efficiency than on effectiveness. It clearly was not designed for the brain … [Read more...]
Catalyst Conferences: How To Plan And Produce Next-Generation Conferences & Events
Here is the slidedeck from my presentation to EventSolutions 2010 on Catalyst Conferences: How To Plan and Produce Next-Generation Conferences And Events. People today are learning in new ways that are both collective and egalitarian. They contribute to Wikipedia, comment on blogs, teach themselves programming and figure out work-arounds to online video games. They follow links embedded in articles to build a deeper understanding. They discuss issues in online chats in an interactive and … [Read more...]
