To think about a conference is to think about community, networking, peer learning, food and table. In reality, if you are attending a conference and you are not getting hungry for more learning and peer sharing, that conference is missing the mark. Successful conferences provide ample opportunity for attendees to finger tasty ideas and feed their brains, their souls and each other. Your conference needs to introduce a whole new set of table manners. We need to encourage attendees to … [Read more...]
Using The Power Of Stories To Transform Conference General Sessions
We are a story driven world. We are each a story wrapped in a skin says Dr. Leonard Sweet. When we begin to share our journeys, our stories intersect. Our conferences need to create more story people. We need to transition from speakers talking at audiences and experts telling their stories. We need to move from storytelling to story sharing each passing our stories and narraphors to each other like we pass food around the table. Framing General Sessions With Important Stories Here is … [Read more...]
Morphing Attendees into Story People Through Narraphors and Frames
We are wired for stories. Every person you meet is a story wrapped in a skin says author, futurist and sociologist Dr. Leonard Sweet. As our lives intersect, so do our stories. We can encourage conference attendees to transition from story listeners to story sharers. Then our attendees become story people participating in a bigger story. The conference with the best narrative and story sharing experiences wins. Story Driven World Our brains are hard wired for stories. When we listen … [Read more...]
The Greatest Conference Story Never Told
It’s time to bring back the luncheon table at your next conference. When attendees break bread together at the table, community is born. It’s where the stories of our profession, our lives, our past and our future are shared, retold, relived and remembered. Too many conferences have made a catastrophic mistake. In the name of conference budget cuts, we have removed attendee gatherings around a meal. We have created sterile, exhausted attendee experiences. The result: the greatest … [Read more...]