Understanding Your Attendees’ Goldilocks Leads To Conference Success December 11, 2012 by Jeff Hurt We’ve all experienced it: that overwhelming sense of dread! A tsunami of emails. Total exhaustion from too many meetings. The constant barrage of urgent texts from colleagues, family and friends. Change piled upon change, often when we can’t or won’t tolerate it. Our brain has its limits! Too much stress and pressure and it gets … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult learning, adult learning principles, adult learning strategies, brain science education, brain-friendly conferences, conference best practices, conference education, meeting planning best practices, presentation best practices
Is Your Presentation Like Facebook Or TV? October 24, 2012 by Jeff Hurt Is your presentation a one-way monologue for listeners? Or is it an invitation for listeners to enter the conversation? If you want your listeners to remember what you said, then your presentation needs to be more like Facebook than TV. Why? The best learning occurs in a social context not in a passive listening experience. … [Read more…] Filed Under: Speaker Coaching Tagged With: , adult learning, adult learning principles, adult learning strategies, presentation best practices, speaker tips
Speakers Required To Promote Your Conference In Social Media Must Follow FTC Endorsement Guidelines October 3, 2012 by Jeff Hurt We’ve come a long way, baby! ~ Loretta Lynn The times they are a-changing. ~ Bob Dylan The catch-phrases are abundant that our world and work continues to evolve. The Ever-Evolving Conference Speaker Contract Nowhere is this evolution more evident than some conference speaker contracts. I have personally seen a change in some conference speaker … [Read more…] Filed Under: Speaker Coaching Tagged With: , conferences, presentation best practices, presenter, Social Media, social media best practices, speaker, speaker tips
Your Presentation Needs To Start With A Presenter Attendee Agreement October 2, 2012 by Jeff Hurt I start the majority of my presentations by making an agreement with my audience. I call it my presenter-attendee agreement. Why use valuable presentation time for the presenter-attendee agreement? Most people come to conferences and presentations with an implied agreement that the presentation is about and for the speaker, not the audience. In reality, the … [Read more…] Filed Under: Speaker Coaching Tagged With: , master presenters, presentation best practices, presentation strategies, presenter, speaker tips
Boring Conference Education Creates Zombie Attendees September 12, 2012 by Jeff Hurt 10, 11, 12, 13… I found myself counting the ceiling tiles. It was the only thing I could do to keep myself awake because I was so bored. I didn’t want to become one of the conference walking dead infected with the boredom virus. I had to force myself to pay attention. But it wasn’t … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult learning, adult learning principles, adult learning strategies, conference best practices, conference education, conferences, lecture, presentation best practices
Three Pitfalls To Your Conference Education Success September 11, 2012 by Jeff Hurt I was extremely irritated. In less than twenty minutes I visited four different conference education sessions. Each of them was a waste of my time. Two sessions were about content that I already knew, even though their session descriptions said they were for advanced audiences. One session had two bumbling, rambling presenters speaking jargon and … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult education, adult learning, adult learning principles, conference best practices, conference education, conferences, meeting professionals, presentation best practices, presentation strategies, speaker tips
Overcomplicating Conference Content Confuses Attendees September 10, 2012 by Jeff Hurt Is your conference content like an encyclopedia, a textbook or a report? Does your conference promote content-centric or learner-centric design? Unfortunately, most conferences default to content-centric design without even knowing it. SMEs Do It Difficultly If your conference prides itself on securing subject matter experts (SMEs) to present information, then consider the following. Your attempt … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult education, adult learning, adult learning principles, conference best practices, conference education, conferences, meeting professionals, presentation best practices, presentation strategies, speaker tips
Considering The Learning Journey At Conferences August 29, 2012 by Jeff Hurt Many years ago I taught school during the day and high school dropouts preparing for their GED exam at night. It was a grueling schedule. Yet, it was extremely rewarding. On The Road To GED Every evening, after a long day of teaching, I spent another five hours on my second job at Students For … [Read more…] Filed Under: Conference Education Tagged With: , adult education, adult learning, adult learning principles, conference best practices, conference education, conferences, meeting professionals, presentation best practices, presentation strategies, speaker tips
What Do Yearbooks Have To Do With Presenters And Audiences? August 28, 2012 by Jeff Hurt During my three years in high school, I diligently worked on our school yearbook. I even served as assistant editor and editor of our yearbook. I enjoyed the design process including creating each two-page spread layout. I also spent many hours making sure that as many of my peers were pictured in candid shots as … [Read more…] Filed Under: Speaker Coaching Tagged With: , adult learning principles, adult learning strategies, conference best practices, conference education, presentation best practices, presentation strategies, speaker tips
Which Would You Rather Attend: A Speech Or A Movie? August 1, 2012 by Jeff Hurt Which would you rather attend: A ninety-minute speech or a ninety-minute movie? You’ve got to be kidding, right? The majority of us would rather go to a movie than a speech. Now, let’s put this into a conference context. Given a choice, would you rather go to a two-day film festival or a two-day conference? … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference best practices, conference education, conferences, participatory culture, participatory learning, presentation best practices, presentation strategies, speaker tips