Most of us have had to suffer through a “discussion” occurring in the presence of a large number of people, most of whom never get an opportunity to speak. Here are three tips for facilitating group discussions. Use a fishbowl […]
Do you use round tables (aka “rounds”) at your events? Then it’s time to talk about the Nights of the Round Table. Read on, prithee! A medieval fantasy Sadly, it’s not clear that King Arthur’s famous Round Table ever actually […]
I have great respect and admiration for those event designers who can make conferences memorable by creating spectacle and wonder through a creative fusion of decor, environment, flow, entertainment, and technical production. Concentrating on these issues (and filling the holes) is especially […]
From attending to attention How can we move attendees from nowhere to now here? These days, when someone decides to attend an event we have organized we should be grateful. We live in a world with a myriad of viable […]
“There is talent everywhere. We just don’t know how to find it.” –Jonah Lehrer Today’s Wired article by Jonah Lehrer describes recent research on the NFL scouting combine that concludes that highly paid sports scouts barely do better than chance at picking great players […]
How do you facilitate change? In this occasional series, we’ll explore various aspects of facilitating individual and group change. The peer conferences I run are extremely effective at catalyzing change, both in the people who participate in them and the […]
Recently I was sitting on a plane about to take off and noticed something interesting during the usual safety instructions video. And I learned something about the importance of modeling listening. Did the flight attendants travel up and down the […]
How you program conferences depends (or ought to) on your answer to the question: Do conference attendees know what they want? No one ever asks this question, of course. But if they did, the conventional answer, given while under the […]
The Tyranny of TED? If you read my blog you’ll know that I’m a fan of short presentation formats like Pecha Kucha (20 slides x 20 seconds) and Ignite (20 slides x 15 seconds), and I have no fundamental objection to […]
You can’t please everyone. During my workshops on participant-driven and participant-rich events, people sometimes ask: “But what do you do with people who won’t participate.” When we explore what’s behind this question, we find an assumption. If we don’t get […]