It's time to Re-Engineer Conferences & Business Meetings

Summary: Despite the volume of information about the best strategies to engage adult learners, conference producers continue to subject  participants to a series of long, boring presentations. Many internal corporate meetings also follow the same dreary and tedious model of passive disengagement. Join us for this exploration of common knowledge but far from common practice strategies for engaging conference and meeting participants.

Despite all the available research about how to engage adult learners, the conference and meeting model is STILL broken.

Typical Conference Model: In far too many instances, conferences still follow a predictable pattern. Participants sit in rows while keynote speakers talk at them while flipping Powerpoint slides. After that, in a series of breakout sessions, participants sit passively while more experts talk at them.

Typical Business Meeting Model: Our team building firm regularly gets requests from companies that initially request a full day of interactive team building. Typically, this time slot is then reduced to 1/2 a day and, ultimately, watered down to a request for a 1 or 2 hour strictly recreational activity after dinner that is awarded to the lowest cost provider. Why? Too much content. The actually meeting ends up being a series of dry presentations (information dumps) back to back. By the time the participants get to the dinner, they are exhausted. A cocktail reception and entertainment will not fix a bad meeting design.

Under either scenario, participants a hard time staying awake yet alone deriving benefit from the content that is presented. So, how can we fix a conference and meeting model that  is badly in need of repair? Long before I became involved in planning and producing events, I was a training and development specialist, specializing in accelerated learning. Based on this experience, my advice is that it's time to "spice" things up and re-engineer conferences and meetings with accelerated learning.

Troubleshooing Conferences

Why is your conference agenda bursting at the seams? It could be that you are covering too much content just because that's the way you've always done it. Use some of the strategies (below) in the "Preparation" section to zero in on the content that is most relevant to participants. It would be better to reduce the number of sessions by 30 - 50% and allow more time for in-depth coverage and an interactive format.

Troubleshooing Corporate Meetings

If every time you get your team together, you have an agenda that's jampacked, bursting at the seams and composed of wall to wall presentations while participants sit passively and listen, it's a symptom of a deeper problem.

1. Are there serious communication stopgaps and bottlenecks that prevent team members from getting the information they need?
   An information dump once or twice a year is not going to fix that. You need a cross-functional team to analyze what is blocking the information flow and propose solutions.
2. Are your meetings too infrequent?
   You many need to meet more frequently or arrange for virtual meetings in between your face-to-face sessions
3. Are you using the wrong medium?
   Not all information needs to be communicated face-to-face. Virtual meetings, blogs, independent study modules, intranets, pre-recorded material that is accessible in Second Life,or e-learning may be more suitable if the need is just to deliver content that requires no interaction between participants

Consider using another platform to deliver some of the content before participants arrive at the meeting. In this way, you can carve out more time for interactive content, team building, think tanks, and sessions that require brainstorming and interaction.

Accelerated Learning: What is it?

Many have taken a stab at defining accelerated learning. One definition that I have found useful is:

"Participant centered, brain based learning."

Accelerated learning is not a method. It is a result. All presentation methods, activities and exercises incorporated into a meeting or conference are there by design to produce theresult, specifically, covering more information (sometimes in less time):

• With less stress to the participants
• Greater skill mastery
• Improved retention
• Increased transfer of learning to the workplace

Accelerated Learning: Key Ingredients

The key ingredients for producing these results, in other words, accelerated learning, include:

• Solid content that addresses a clearly identified business need and produces measurable results
• An understanding of how the brain and the senses operate in the learning process
• The identification of the preferred learning styles of participants in order to cater to their preferences when selecting learning activities
• The selection of presentation and facilitation methods that reflect an understanding of the learning process and cater to preferred learning styles

David Meier the founder of the Center for Accelerated Learning has identified 4 phase of the learning process:

• Preparation: To get learners ready for learning experiences
• Presentation: Through a variety of approaches that appeal to all the senses, not just "pour and bore"
• Practice: Aimed at ensuring skill mastery and helping participants unpack what they have learned and determine how it applies to the workplace
• Performance: Follow up can greatly assist with the transfer of the new knowledge and skills back to work

Here is how this model can be applied to conferences and meetings:

Participant Preparation

Pre-Conference

1.Create a Twitter hashtag and use it in all conference related communication.

2. Use Survey Monkey to crowdsource the conference agenda & select burning issues of concern to your target audience

3. Incorporate learning style surveys or HBDI Inventories into your registration process so that keynote speakers and breakout session facilitators can tailor their approach.

Be sure to incorporate strategies that cater to a variety of learning styles in the design of your conference. Currently, most designs cater to analytical and structured learners only.

4. Send a separate package with detailed information about the breakout sessions and an opportunity for participants to select their sessions.

• Include learning style colour codes to give participants an opportunity to select sessions that appeal to their preferred learning style.
• With your synopsis of each breakout session, ask key questions to give participants a chance to clarify the reasons for their interesting this session.
• Provide information that is collected to the speakers and breakout session facilitators so that they can customize their content.

5. Give participants a chance to connect with each other, the speakers and facilitators before the conference through @Crowdvine

6. Use Youtube to release humorous or preview videos from some of the speakers and breakout session facilitators.

Humorous Videos

Preview Videos

General Session Preview

Speaker Preparation

7. Prepare your speakers with an upbeat and engaging speaker's camp.

Content is absolutely key for every conference. Bore participant to death with dreary presentations and they won't be back. They will also spread the word that the conference was a "dud". Unless you have attended presentations by individual speakers or seen DVDs that display an interactive style, each speaker should arrive a day early and attend a "Speaker's Camp". There is no need to increase the cost of your registration to offer a Speaker's Camp. It's an ideal sponsorship opportunity.
Here is how it could work:

Before Speaker's Camp:

• Get a sponsor to cover the cost of Speaker's Camp.
• When you send out your Call for Speakers make it clear that attending Speaker's Camp is part of the process.
• Release the call for Camp Counsellors at the same time as you release your call for speakers.
• Engage a team of Camp Counsellors to provide coaching to the speakers who require it. (These should be professionals facilitators who are also instructional designers). You'll need 1 specialist for every 5 speakers.)
• Two months before the camp, ALL speakers will need to send a copy of their packages (e.g. PowerPoint, handouts) to their assigned Camp Counsellor.
• The Camp Counsellors will review the packages, provide a makeover for slides if the speakers don't have the skills, offer suggestions for exercises to make each session more interactive. Once the speaker has agreed to add the interactive content, the training and development specialists can help them design the instruction and worksheets for the handout packages.

During Speaker's Camp:

• You'll need 1 camp counselor for every 3 - 4 participants.
• Have the speaker's arrive the night before Speaker's Camp for an upbeat outing to get the group relaxed
• Arrange for each speaker participating in Speaker's Camp will do a run-through of their presentation and it will be video taped. This should be done in front of the other speakers so that they have an audience. You will need to run this simultaneously in a number of rooms.
• Each speaker will review their DVD privately with their assigned camp counsellor.
• This will be followed up with a private coaching session during which each DVD is reviewed with the speaker and there is an opportunity for coaching and rehearsal.
• At the end of Speaker's camp, the speakers should reassemble and present their greatly improved content to the group. For some variety, re-arrange the groups for this final rehearsal.
• Not every subject matter expert will have the skill set to be a facilitator. The Camp Counsellors can, if required, facilitate the interactive exercises and energizers during the general sessions and breakouts.

During Conference

7. Use a cracker barrel session with facilitated table top discussions to give participants a chance to identify questions and concerns that relate to the topics to be covered during the conference.

Provide the information that is uncovered to the speakers and breakout session facilitators. Ask each speaker or facilitator to start their session with a review of what participants have identified as their areas of concern and how the content relates to them. If you provide a template, a couple of slides can be ready so that presenters can quickly add the information to their presentations.

 
The 2010 PCMA Education conference in Montreal modelled this approach beautifully model. Late in the afternoon before the Montreal conference started a snack that was available throughout the session was provided. Mike McCurry @MichaelMcCurry  facilitated a well attended session using this model. Participants had a chance to switch tables twice. There were also some "open topic" tables.

8. Music boosts retention. Incorporate music into the conference design. Use it while people wait for general sessions, in presentations, during breaks, and at lunch.

9. Extend the conference or meeting beyond its 4 walls. Use Second Life or similar platform to include virtual attendees. In the main conference room as well as breakout rooms, provide reserved tables near electrical outlets for tweeters and bloggers to share conference highlights and engage a larger audience.

This approach appeals to kinesthetic learners and net savvy attendees. It's a powerful way of taking notes to boost retention. It is also a great way to move your conference outside its 4 walls and whet the appetites of those who follow the tweetstream to attend your next local or national conference. This approach was modeled beautifully during the 2010 PCMAEC in Montreal.

Re-engineered Pre-Conference Design:

Pre

2 Days Before Conference

• Speaker's Camp: Full Day Train the Trainer, Rehearsal, & Coaching for Subject Matter Experts Who Are Used to Lecture Based Delivery

Day Before Conference

AM

• Reserved for Optional City Tours & Site Inspections

PM

• Opportunity to engage participants by creating video instructions for breakout sessions of interactive exercises for general sessions with participants who arrive early (see Hidden Faces of Diversity Video ) below
• Optional Off-site Networking Lunch for Early Arrivals
• Optional Venue & Destination Orientation
• 3:00 Afternoon Tea for networking
  Replaces a cocktail reception and ensures that people are bright and alert
• 3:45 Crackbarrel/Tabletop or Unconference Session
• 5:30 End to give participants an opportunity to get an early dinner and lots of rest for the next day

Presentation

10. Re-engineer the design of your conference agenda to make provide more interactive content

• Expand your breaks to 30 minutes to build in more opportunity for networking and give facilitator more time to set-up between sessions.
   
• Instead of sticking with standard 1 hour time slots that force presenters to do an information dump at breakneck speed, provide a variety of time slots.

11. Cater to diverse learning styles through a variety of presentation formats. Provide icons to help participants identify the learning styles to which each session caters.

No one has only one learning style. We use a number of styles to decipher meaning. Each individual has one or more preferred learning style. These ideas are primarily for breakout sessions. It is a good idea to gear your breakout sessions to a couple of styles. Kinesthetic/Visual and Analytical/Structures are natural fits. However, there are also many Visual/Analytical learners.
You can appeal to more than one style in the same room and even incorporate these approaches into general sessions by using colour coded tablecloths on some of the table to help participants easily identify learning environments that are a good fit for them.

Kinesthetic (Red)

Provide:

• Provide large sheets of paper and thin coloured markers to encourage mind mapping.
• Provide a dedicated discussion room with couches clustered in small groups.
  This is a sponsorship opportunity.Kinesthetic learners need a chance to engage  and discuss the content with other conference participants.

Presentation:

• Ensure that each presentation segment is no more than 20 minutes.
• Then, involve participants in a group exercise.
• Have a short energizer every 40 minutes
• Puzzles
• Game shows and trivia contest with prizes
• Do a lyric writing exercises to help participants prepare summaries of their experience using songs. These can be presented at some of the general sessions.
• Forum role-plays. (Video provides example of in-house video used to provide instructions for internal meeting).

Energizers:

• Tactile objects on most tables (i.e. wooden hand massages, stress balls, Chinese stress balls, lego, play dough, silly putty, slinkies, Rubik's Cubes)
• Use stretching, massage chain or dance breaks every 40 minutes

Visual (Yellow)

Provide:

• Use lots of posters and peripherals when setting up the room
• Provide digital cameras and give groups an opportunity to summarize the output for their group exercises on video.
• For longer sessions, provide Bristol board, scissors and glue and give participants time to create a collage to summarize what they learned
• Provide flip chart sized post-it notes on easels or on the wall for cartoonists and artists in the group to capture the content in a unique format.

  Michael Gelb's wife did this in a training and development conference in Toronto some time ago and I have never forgotten this.

Presentation:

• Photos
• Cartoons
• Video Clips
• Colourful visuals on slides

Energizers:

• Have a 5 minute vacation break and project vacation DVDs with music. The end of the video signals the end of the break.

Analytical (Blue)

Provide:

• Provide a quiet, reflection room with outlets for laptops away from the hubbub of the conference.
  You can likely get a sponsor for this.
  Analytical learners need time to pause and reflect on what they are learning.

Presentation:

• Use presentations but ensure that they are engaging.
• Graphs
• Statistics
• Start with a "write your own case study" exercise and re-visit it at the end of the presentation.

Energizers:

• Candy
• Gum
• Suduko
• Chess sets in Reflection Lounge (Participants will start a game and come back to it during breaks)
• Reserve Venues Pool, Billiard or Darts Lounge

Structured (Green)

Provide:

• Standard Markers and notepads

Presentation:

• Ensure that each presentation has clear objectives, a structured agenda, section introductions and summaries. Keep them brief so that you don't put the kinesthetic learners to sleep.
• Use case studies
• Charts
• Flow Charts

Energizers:

• Candy
• Gum
• Checkers
• Number Puzzles
• Word Search

Appeals to all Styles

The structure will appeal to structured learners. Analytical learners will benefit from reflecting and providing content. Kinesthetic learners will welcome the opportunity to participate in the role-plays. Incorporate colourful elements or perhaps video tape the scenarios to appeal to visual learners.

• Fishbowls
• Forum role-plays

Performance

12. Provide USB drive with notes and worksheets that participants can use to apply what they have learned in the general and breakout sessions once they get back to work.

13. Provide videos with conference highlights on Youtube or a dedicated conference website to make it easy for participants to review what they learned during the conference.

14. Follow-up with hashtag chats on Twitter twice a month using the conference hashtag.

Each chat should have a different focus and give participants an opportunity to engage and share success stories and ideas for applying the conference content at work. Involve some of the conference speakers in the Twitter chat.

How it all Comes Together

Re-Engineered Meeting Design:

Preparation:

• Learning styles inventories and participant profiles sent out before meeting to assist with planning, crowdsourcing agenda and team formation if required.
• CEO presentation to set the stage for the meeting & Identify Business Objectives
• Table top exercises in which participants work in small group to identify related issues of concern to their team or department.

Presentation & Practice:

• Re-group into cross-functional teams
• Team Building Simulation
• Recreational activities and team challenges interspersed throughout the session to keep the participants alert, engaged and, most of all, awake

Application:

• Debriefing

Presentation

• Interactive Presentation and Breakout Sessions with Focus on Key Business Issues
  Short energizers throughout the sessions

Application:

• Business Application Exercises in Original Teams
• Business Meeting to Generate Solutions and Formulate an Implementation Plan
• Implementation and Follow-up

Re-Engineered Conference Design:

Day 1

AM

Start early on day 1 when delegates are fresh and have a lot of energy

• 8:15 Morning Keynote
• 9:15 Networking Break
• 9:45 - 11:45 Interactive Breakout Sessions

PM

• 12:00 Lunch
• Choice of:
  - One 3 hour session (1:15 - 4:30)
  - Two 1 1/2 hour sessions (1:15 - 2:45 3:15 - 4:45)
• 2:30 Networking Break

Day 2

AM

• 8:30 Keynote Speaker
• 9:30 Networking Break
• 10:00 Interactive Panels
• 11:45 Lunch

PM

• 1:00 Fishbowls, Forum Roleplays, Unconference Sessions
  Highly interactive sessions will help keep delegates engaged when they are becoming more tired
• 3:00 Networking Break
• 3:30 Upbeat, high energy keynote
• 4:30 End

Day 3

AM

• 9:00 Digestive Session to Review Conference Highlights & Share Key Learning
  Analytical Learners will love this
• 9:45 Final Networking Break
• 10:15 Upbeat Keynote to End on a High Note
• 11:30 Bag Lunches

PM

• Reserved for City Tours & Site Inspections

Information & Resources:

• Executive Corporate Meeting Re-engineering Guide A Companion Piece to this Feature. For Executives Focusing on Internal Corporate Meetings and Sales Rallies
• Accelerated Learning Smorgasbord
  Turn down the sound there is music.
  Brainstorming of various presentation and training methods has been done for you.
• What is Accelerated Learning
• Top 10 Mistakes Made By Event Organisers

Photo Credits: (c) PCMA - From 2010 PCMA Education Conference in Montreal - Used with Permission

Dear Loyal Few Thousand Readers,