Three great tools for blog post illustrations

The opening screen of Midjourney; one of the tools I recommend for blog post illustrationsFor the last 16 years I’ve posted one or more blog posts each week. Every post includes at least one image — over 1,400 blog post illustrations to date. Some of them are my own photographs, screenshots, or public-domain images. But the majority I create myself. I’ll never be a great graphic artist, but I enjoy visualizing and creating these visual reinforcements to my posts and am always looking for new tools that a novice like me can use successfully.

In 2019, I wrote about two free and easy ways to create graphicsCanva and Keynote. Well, I’ve added three more tools to my artist’s palette. They’re not free, but they’re inexpensive and I think they’re well worth the cost. You can, of course, use them for presentation illustrations too. So without further ado, here are three great tools for blog post illustrations.

Noun Project

I mentioned this $39.99/year tool at the end of the above 2019 post, but I’ve used it so much since then that I’m promoting it to “get-it” status. Noun Project describes itself as “Icons for Everything: Over 2 million curated icons, created by a global community”. You get unlimited royalty-free large SVG & PNG icons arranged in a searchable catalog. You can set the color of any downloaded icon. Noun Project is especially useful when trying to convey abstract concepts.

Here are a few of the ways I’ve used it:

Noun Project blog post illustrations
Four Noun Project icons are resized to form a composite image for a post about an online workshop.
consultant power
Three icons make up an illustration comparing the power of a consultant versus that of a janitor.
learning not education
Combined with historic photographs in a post about learning and education.
Noun Project blog post illustrations
An animated gif combining two Noun Project icons to dramatize a group working to change members’ lives.

A Noun Project subscription also includes a small library of “stock” photos that I’ve occasionally used.

Midjourney

Here’s a mind-blowing tool. Midjourney is an AI image creator that I am increasingly using for illustrations for my blog posts.

For example, for last week’s post on my top 10 digital tools for learning in 2022, Midjourney created this image as one of four generated with the simple prompt “top 2022 tools photorealistic”.

Midjourney blog post illustrations

Typically, I’ll use Midjourney images to build a composite illustration. Here’s an example from a recent post: What meeting planners who support women’s rights can do.

Composite of two images of Supreme Court Justices generated by Midjourney.

And here’s an image generated from the prompt “50 people meeting” with a few copies of the CDC’s digital representation of SARS-CoV-2 added at various sizes:COVID duty of care: an illustration of an audience at a meeting with large coronavirus molecules floating in the air above them

I should emphasize that I spent very little time creating these images. Others, with some work, have produced beautiful Midjourney images like these:

Midjourney prompt: “character: an eccentric beautiful elegant pale-skinned short-haired blonde androgynous thief-treasure-hunter, wearing a striped-bandana, black pants, a striped-shirt, a short-sleeved-black-jacket, an elaborate-belt, sapphire jewelry, ruby trinkets, white boots. In the style of Alan Lee.”

Midjourney is still in beta. (And may be for some time.) You need a (free) Discord account to use it.

Currently, you can sign up for a free trial of Midjourney at discord.gg/midjourney. Free users are restricted to a limited number of image generations. I subscribed to the Basic plan for $10/month which allows me to generate about 200 images per month, far more than I need.

I’ve only scratched the surface here. AI image generators like Midjourney are game-changers for the world of illustration. (Yes, there are others, like the free, ad-supported, Craiyon, but Midjourney is my favorite to date.) I strongly recommend you check out Midjourney.

SketchWow

Finally, there’s SketchWow. This is a great tool, available on Mac or PC, for adding a cartoon-casual, hand-drawn look to your blog post and presentation illustrations. Think of it as a drawing program for amateur cartoonists.

A glance at some of the SketchWow starter templates will give you a sense of this tool…

Sketchwow blog post illustrations

In the past, I’ve used OmniGraffle to create diagram-style illustrations. SketchWow has the same capabilities but produces more attractive results. You can include animated connectors and icons. SketchWow’s onboarding is straightforward, the user interface is intuitive, and the online help is clear. The core menu elements are easily accessible and what you’d expect.

Sketchwow blog post illustrations

Here’s an example of how I used SketchWow for a blog post illustration. I combined a photo image from Noun Project with speech bubbles from Sketchwow. This was all done inside SketchWow. The sizing and positioning of the speech bubbles were quick and intuitive.

event choices

Pricing for SketchWow is a little, well, sketchy. If you go to Sketchwow’s website and click on Pricing, it looks as though it’s a subscription product, with the basic plan costing $19/month. It’s not worth quite that much money to me. However, SketchWow is currently also being sold as a one-time purchase, lifetime-updates product for $49. At that price, I recommend it!

Do you have other tools you like for blog post illustrations?

If so, please share them in the comments below!

Ask Me Anything—a better alternative to guest lectures

Ask Me Anything

Recently, I’ve been appearing as a guest at college event planning and hospitality courses to talk about meeting design. (I love to do this. Teachers, please contact me, it’s free!) Rather than lecture for an hour, I’ve been using an Ask Me Anything (aka AMA) meeting format.

Here’s why I think Ask Me Anything is almost always a better session format than a lecture.

I’ve written extensively on this blog (1, 2, 3) and in my books about why the meeting lecture is a terrible way to learn. (A one-sentence distillation: learning is a process not an event.)

But suppose a group gets the opportunity to spend time with a content expert who knows a lot more about their field than anyone else present? Isn’t a lecture the best format to use in these circumstances?

Well…sometimes. First, let’s explore the circumstances when a lecture may be the way to go. Then I’ll make a case for why an Ask Me Anything format is usually a better choice.

When a lecture is appropriate

Lectures have one thing going for them. They are very efficient ways to share a lot of information with a group.

Short talks

The problem with broadcasting information is, of course, that the recipients are passive attendees. And they may well not be attending. Research shows that our ability to absorb and retain broadcast information falls rapidly over time. To avoid significant “tuning out” it’s vital to share content in small chunks, typically not more than ten minutes long.

So one scenario where lectures work is when they are short. I’m a big fan of carefully prepared five-minute lightning talks and Pecha Kucha (6 minutes, 40 seconds) and Ignite (5 minutes) formats. The latter are invariably entertaining, which helps people absorb and retain what’s presented.

Brilliant presenters

Some people — but not as many as you might think — are really good at creating effective learning experiences via a lecture format.

However, these folks are rarely the people who get the big bucks for their inspirational keynote speeches. Highly paid speakers are usually good at creating emotional experiences for their audiences. Now, there’s nothing wrong with creating an emotional experience for an audience. In fact, learning is often enhanced. Unfortunately, a great speaker may well provide a more enjoyable and emotionally satisfying presentation—but the learning that results is not significantly better than that provided by a mediocre lecturer!

Sadly, I can count on the fingers of one hand the presenters who taught me, via lecture, things I still retain to this day:

  • My mentor Jerry Weinberg (a genius at telling incredible stories that illustrated the learning he wanted to impart);
  • The molecular biologist John Medina (who always divides his lectures into ten-minute segments, each introduced with a relevant emotional hook); and
  • A few of my high school science teachers who knew the draw of enthusiastically performing exciting experiments in front of us (“What will happen?” “Can you figure it out?“)

Conclusions

So, unless your presenters speak for a short time or are brilliant (and I’m not including motivational speakers in that class), lectures are a lousy way for audiences to learn. We can do better.

Ask Me Anything — a better format for learning

We know that active learning is a superior modality for learning more, learning more accurately, and retaining learning. So, how can we incorporate active learning into a session where the session leader/presenter has far more expertise and knowledge than everyone else present, and time is limited?

An Ask Me Anything format provides a great way to improve session learning. Why? Two reasons.

First, the attendees are not passively sitting listening or watching but are actually interacting with each other (see below) or the presenter. That means that active learning is taking place, with all the benefits that ensue.

Second, an Ask Me Anything responds to what participants actually want and need. Rather than a presenter guessing exactly what their audience wants to learn, an Ask Me Anything ensures that many topics, issues, and questions that are top-of-mind for the audience will be addressed.

OK, let’s see how this works.

Warming up an Ask Me Anything with preliminary small group work

I suggest priming the audience with a couple of introductory pair- or trio- shares.

If meeting in person, have people move into small groups with others they don’t know. Online, move people into a set of Zoom’s automatically assigned breakout rooms, or another online platform’s equivalent.

Typically, the first trio share is a “take 90 seconds each to”: a) introduce yourself to the others in your group, or b) “share how you got to be in this class/session/event”.

On returning, ask everyone to think of one issue or question they’d like to discuss with or get answered by the presenter. Emphasize that it can be anything they want to know or hear about.

When working with students, ask the class teacher to pose this exercise a few days before the class and collect and share responses with the entire class and me. This helps the presenter, the teacher, and the class learn about what’s on students’ minds. Before running the next pair share, tell the students they don’t have to stay with what they submitted if something else has come to mind.

Next, run the second pair share, giving each member 90 seconds to share with their partner what they would most like to learn from the presenter. For students, this gives them a chance to prepare for asking the presenter what they want in front of the class.

The Ask Me Anything

Running the Ask Me Anything is straightforward. Have your presenter ask for questions, and enter a dialog with each questioner in turn. If there are a slew of questions, use a fishbowl (in person) or hand raising (online) to control the flow. Remind your presenter that silence before someone speaks is OK; they don’t need to fill it by speaking themselves. Also, make sure that everyone who wants to participate gets the opportunity before allowing more questions from people who have already spoken.

Closing pair share

I strongly recommend closing such sessions with a final pair share on “lessons learned”. This reinforces learning while it’s fresh, making it more likely to be retained, remembered more accurately, and retained longer. For more details, see my post on the fishbowl sandwich, or read the relevant chapter in my second and third books.

That’s it! What do you think of Ask Me Anything as a replacement for lectures in a session? Do you have comments to add or questions to ask? You can Ask Me Anything! Simply share in the comments below.

Avoid this common mistake when planning meeting programs

Process for selecting sessions: photograph of a crowd of people waving papers in the air
Although I have good reasons to champion meeting designs where the participants get to choose what they want and need to discuss and learn rather than a program committee, there is invariably a place for some predetermined presentations at conferences. Unfortunately, most program committees use a flawed process for selecting sessions.

They rely extensively on calls for proposals (CFP).

When you issue a CFP, you will get submissions for all kinds of reasons. For example:

  • Suppliers want to pitch (subtly or blatantly) their products or services.
  • Speakers have an existing presentation they hope to shoehorn into your program.
  • Sexy topics of the month attract pitches like moths to a flame.

Do not assume that the submissions you receive accurately reflect what your meeting actually needs. For an example of this kind of bias, here’s an excerpt from a recent Successful Meetings (July 2017 print edition) article:

“Through the call-for-papers process, you may notice certain trends in the content choices that your potential speakers are making. If potential speakers are flocking to apply for a specific subject matter, this may indicate a demand from your event to address that topic and include more speakers on it.”
How to Get Compelling Content For Your Conference by Allie Magyar, Successful Meetings, July 2017 print edition

The “many proposals” mistake when selecting sessions

Although Allie’s article includes many good suggestions, I take issue with this one. Receiving many proposals for a specific topic only indicates that there are many people offering to speak about it. It does not follow that the topic is pertinent or should be emphasized in your conference program.

If you only choose program sessions from those offered in response to a CFP, you are letting the CFP tail wag the meeting program dog.

Instead, do the following:

  • Confer with stakeholders and participants to determine realistic goals and desired outcomes for your event.
  • Use these goals and outcomes to determine topics you want and need to be covered.
  • Contact known-quality appropriate presenters who may be able to a) meet these objectives and b) suggest additional relevant topics for inclusion in your program.
  • Use the resulting information to work both inside and outside your CFP responses to select good presenters who can deliver on topics that your participants may actually want and need.

Don’t use a flawed process selecting sessions! Your meeting program will be all the better for it.

Should presenter contracts include a no brown M&Ms rider?

A portion of the infamous Van Halen concert presenter contract. It reads: Munchies Potato chips with assorted dips Nuts Pretzels M & M's (WARNING: ABSOLUTELY NO BROWN ONES) Twelve (12) Reese's peanut butter cups Twelve (12) assorted Dannon yogurt (on ice)Presenter contracts can be strange beasts. Van Halen‘s 1982 World Tour performance contract contained a provision calling for them to be provided backstage with a bowl of M&Ms from which all the brown candies had been removed. Although this sounds like a self-indulgent rock group’s outrageous whim, there was a sound business reason for inserting this peculiar request in the depths of a 53-page contract:

“The M&Ms provision was included in Van Halen’s contracts not as an act of caprice, but because it served a practical purpose: to provide a simple way of determining whether the technical specifications of the contract had been thoroughly read and complied with.”
Brown Out, snopes.com

If the group arrived at a venue and discovered brown M&Ms present, they knew they needed to immediately check all contract stipulations — including important matters like whether the stage could actually handle the massive weight of the band’s equipment. Apparently, David Lee Roth would also trash the band’s dressing room to drive home the point.

My experience with presenter contracts

Over the years I’ve contracted with hundreds of organizations for meeting facilitation and design consulting, and I’m starting to wonder if I need to adopt Van Halen’s approach.

For example, I have arrived at presentation venues to find, despite a written contract agreement to the contrary:

  • The room is full of furniture that prevents participants from moving around. “We didn’t realize it was important, and we need this room set for the session after yours.”
  • I can’t post materials on the walls. “Can’t you use some tables instead?”
  • The requested audio equipment isn’t available. “We couldn’t get you a Countryman/lav, but here’s a hand mike.”
  • The unobstructed free space is far smaller than what I requested or was told. “We needed a stage for the afternoon keynote.“/ “We decided to hold the buffet in the room.”
  • Ballpoint pens replaced fine-point Sharpies. “Oh, I see, yes, I guess no one will be able to read all the participant Post-Its at a distance. We’ll just have to make do.”
  • Projector resolution is not what I was told or requested. “Your slides will be a bit distorted, but I’m sure people will still be able to read them.”
  • Tables that were supposed to be covered with taped-down white paper for participant drawings are still bare. “Kevin said he’d cover them, but we don’t know where he is. Surely it won’t take long; can you help us?”
  • Carefully diagrammed room sets have been replaced with something different. “Well, our staff have never set up curved theater seating before — it’s not on their standard charts — so they set the rows straight.”

Why it’s necessary to read and follow contracts

It’s true that I’m not the standard-presenter-talking-from-a-podium-at-the-front-of-the-room — i.e. “Give me a room full of chairs and my PowerPoint and I’m all set!” Yet there are sound reasons for my, apparently to some, strange-seeming requests. Those contract provisions are not about making my life easier or more luxurious — I need them to provide participants with the best possible learning, connection, and overall experience during my time with them.

I am well aware of the incredible demands made on meeting planners before and during events. I’ve had that role for hundreds of events, and know what it’s like. Things rarely go according to plan, and we need to invent creative solutions on the spot. No matter what happens, I always work with planners to the best of my ability to ensure that the show goes on and it’s the best that it can be under the circumstances.

What’s frustrating is that we can almost always avoid complications like the examples above with a modicum of planning — if meeting planners read and take seriously the terms of presenter contracts to which they’ve agreed. I will bend over backward to resolve pre-event concerns, but being hit with last-minute surprises is, at best, annoying, and, at worst, can significantly reduce the effectiveness of what I have been paid and contracted to do.

Read contracts!

No, I’m not going to start trashing dressing rooms like David Lee Roth. (Full disclosure: nobody’s ever even offered me a dressing room.) But, folks, if you hire me, don’t spoil the ship for a ha’p’orth of tar. Please read my presenter contracts before signing. Ask me about anything you don’t understand or concern you so we’re clear about my needs and your ability to fulfill them. Take my requests seriously, and, as the event approaches, keep in mind your commitments so you don’t overlook them.

I will appreciate your professionalism and everyone — your attendees, you, and I — will reap the benefits.

Please don’t call me a speaker

a photograph of a large rusty loudspeaker mounted on a corrugated metal wall. Photo attribution: Flickr user theenmoyPlease don’t call me a speaker. Yes, anyone who’s met me knows I like to talk. It’s true: I have been accused (justifiably at times) of talking too much. Yes, I get invited to “speak” at many events.

A typical conference speaker spends the vast majority of his or her time speaking, while an audience listens. These days, “speakers” often show pictures or videos too (but they’re still called speakers; interesting, yes?)

To be clear: there’s nothing wrong with the act of speaking itself; it’s the timeframe that’s invariably screwed up.

Most speakers speak uninterrupted far too long. How long is “too long”? Ten minutes is about the maximum for effective learning. Up to twenty minutes may be acceptable occasionally. More than twenty minutes—you’re doing your audience a disservice!

People cannot listen and simultaneously think effectively about what they’re hearing or seeing. We need quiet time to reflect on what we have just heard and seen; time to think about what it means, how we understand it, whether we agree with it, and so on. We also greatly benefit from doing this reflective work with other people as it exposes us to different interpretations, new points of view, additional relevant experiences, and so on.

None of this can happen with a speaker, no matter how engaging and entertaining, who speaks for fifty-five minutes non-stop, leaving five minutes for questions.

Even if you give me just twenty-five minutes, I will include time for people to interact with the content and ideas I’m sharing. People will learn more, retain it longer, retain it more accurately, and develop more ideas of their own when they participate actively during our time together.

So, Adrian, what would you like us to call you?

Well, please don’t call me a speaker. A presenter is a better descriptor for what I do. “Presenter” can, at least, imply that I present some content and then give the audience opportunities to work on that content alone / in small groups /collectively, rather than just listen.

Another word that is often appropriate is facilitator. As a facilitator, my job is to help participants engage in their learning and sharing. As a facilitator, when I’m working with a group of people who have experience and expertise in a common topic, I can help them learn in valuable ways from each other without possessing comparable knowledge myself. Because the combined expertise and experience available in a room full of peers is generally greater than that available from a single expert, effective facilitation is a powerful tool for providing great learning experiences, with the added benefit that participants become aware of other resources for their learning and development besides the folks at the front of the room.

A request

The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers
—William Shakespeare, Henry VI

I’m not suggesting that you banish all speakers from your events. (Though many meetings, in my experience, would be better if you did.) But I do want you to be aware of the consequences of blithely calling everyone who contributes a “speaker”.

So, please don’t call me a speaker. Whether you describe me as a speaker, presenter, or facilitator, I’m going to keep on doing what I’ve been doing. But language is important. I’m asking meeting planners and their clients to stop labeling people like me as “speakers”. And, if you want your attendees to receive optimal benefit from your events, I urge you to remember the reality that filling your program with speakers lecturing at an audience is a terrible modality to use if you claim that your conference is really about adult learning and connection, rather than promotion and status.

Photo attribution: Flickr user theenmoy

Do great speakers just provide a better emotional experience?

Do great speakers just provide a better emotional experience?

speakers emotional experience Black and white advertising poster with a picture of a bowler-hatted man. The text reads (typos are left in): Motivational Speaker for the Professional Hair Stylist Do’s & Don’ts plus more 1. Learn to be on time 2. Learn to respect 3. Learn to attend shows 4. Learn to have confidence and common sense 5. Learn to respect yourself & never use profanity 6. Learn business sense 7. Learn marketing Go to the bank every day and smile there & back Jose LaCrosby Internationally known, award winning educator and instructor. The master stylist, master weaver and consultant WITH OVER 50 YEARS EXPERIENCE AND WINNER OF OVER 100 WARDS Classes Sundays or Mondays From San Francsico and Berkeley, CA Do’s & Don’ts poster Coming Soon Photo attribution: Flickr user psilocybes

Feeling good—for a while

At MPI’s 2011 World Education Congress I heard the best motivational speaker I’ve ever seen. Bill Toliver gave an amazing twenty-minute speech.

I felt inspired by Bill. Here’s what I tweeted at the time.

speakers emotional experience: screenshot of a tweet by @ASegar "Amen RT @psalinger Thank you Bill Tolliver for an honest assessment and brutal candor and an injection of reality into @wec11fp #wec11"

But three months later, I didn’t remember a thing Bill said. (In fact, I didn’t even remember his name when I came to write this post and had to ferret it out from an archive.)

Now this may be simply because my memory is declining with time—though I suspect that you may have had a similar experience. But I don’t think my dying brain cells are to blame.

As a counter-example, I still vividly remember the workshops I attended over ten years ago.

Why do I remember what happened at those workshops but not what Bill said? We’ll get to that shortly, but first….

Testing two styles of lecture learning

I am not surprised by the results of research published in the May 2013 issue of Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. Here’s the experimental setup:

“Participants viewed one of two videos depicting an instructor explaining a scientific concept. The same speaker delivered the same script in both videos. The only difference was in how the information was delivered. In the fluent speaker condition, the speaker stood upright, maintained eye contact, displayed relevant gestures, and did not use notes. In the disfluent speaker condition, she hunched over a podium, read from notes, spoke haltingly, and failed to maintain eye contact.”
Appearances can be deceiving: instructor fluency increases perceptions of learning without increasing actual learning—Shana K. Carpenter, Miko M. Wilford, Nate Kornell, Kellie M. Mullaney

Right after watching their video, participants were asked to estimate how much of the information in the video they would be able to recall after about 10 minutes:

“Participants who viewed the fluent speaker predicted that they would remember a greater amount of information than those who viewed the disfluent speaker. However, actual performance did not differ between the groups [emphasis added]…

…It is not clear precisely which aspects of the lecturer’s behavior influenced participants’ judgments, and the experience of fluency may be subjective. What is clear, however, is that a more fluent instructor may increase perceptions of learning without increasing actual learning [emphasis added].”

What can we conclude from these results?

It’s just one experiment, but it does support something I’ve believed to be true for years. A great speaker may well provide a more enjoyable and emotionally satisfying presentation—but the learning that results is not significantly better than that provided by a mediocre lecturer!

Am I saying that we should discount the value of the quality of a speaker’s presence, examples, stories, and presentation as a whole? No! If we’re going to learn something from a speaker, there’s value in having the experience be emotionally satisfying.

What I am saying, though, is that it is a mistake to correlate the quality of a speaker’s presentation with the learning that occurs for those present. That is a big mistake.

Highly-paid speakers may provide a better emotional experience, but that doesn’t mean their listeners learn and retain what they hear especially well.

But there’s another mistake we’re making when we fill our conferences with speakers.

What’s the use of lectures?

Back to those workshops I attended. Why do I remember vividly what happened in 2002 but not what Bill, the magnificent motivational speaker, said in 2011? Because in the workshops I was participating in my learning. I was interacting with other participants, receiving feedback and insights about what I said and did, and what happened led to deep learning that has stayed with me ever since.

When we give center stage at our events to presentations at the expense of participative engagement, learning suffers. The best speakers may be far more entertaining and emotionally satisfying than the worst ones, but, according to the above research, we’re not going to learn any more from them. Perhaps a truly great speaker may inspire her audience to take action in their lives—and that can be a good and important outcome—but I wonder how often that happens at our events. (There’s an idea for more research!)

What we have known for some time though, is that if we are truly interested in maximizing learning at our events, hiring the best speakers in the world will not do the trick. Instead, we need to incorporate participative learning into every session we program. That’s the subject of my next book. Stay tuned!

So, do great speakers just provide a better emotional experience?

What do you think is the real value of good speakers? How much have you learned (and retained) from presentations compared to interactive workshops?

Photo attribution: Flickr user psilocybes

A post about posting (on walls) at events – part 1

post on walls: photograph of an outside wall with a small barred window. A written sign says "NO POSTING" in English and Chinese. Photo attribution: Flickr user pierrelaphoto

Recently I’ve felt frustrated and baffled. No less than three venues (two hotels and a conference center) in the last month told me that I couldn’t post anything on the walls of the room I was meeting in.

I couldn’t post anything. No flip chart paper, masking tape, stick pins, thumbtacks, sticky notes, or wall clips.

That’s a blanket “no”

To add insult to injury, none of the venues apologized or offered any suggestions on alternative ways I could display materials on a vertical surface. None of them had any substitute surfaces, like large portable notice boards or whiteboards available.

One conference organizer wondered if I could use tables instead. Unfortunately, tables are not a comparable substitute for walls for two reasons:

  • On walls, notes or cards can be placed anywhere in a seven-foot band between the floor and where people can reach. On tables, human reach limits us to a three-foot band.
  • Many more people can easily see information placed on a wall compared to a table.

Why we need to be able to post on walls at meetings

Some of the most powerful techniques available for group problem-solving require ways to display multiple pieces of information to an entire group. Members can easily and publicly move items around to cluster, list, sort, and map relationships. Schools have used blackboards (chalkboards) for two hundred years to display information to students. Thumbtacks (aka drawing pins) have existed for over one hundred years. Masking tape was invented in 1925. We’ve been using Post-it Notes for over thirty years. These are not new technologies, folks, why are venues banning them from their walls where we meet?

I understand that people use venues for many different purposes. Wall damage, through incorrect use of attachment technology or marker bleed-through, costs money to repair. But “wall work” is an essential component of group problem solving, and for a venue to prohibit its use while offering no alternatives makes it hard to hold many kinds of useful meetings.

In the second part of this post, I’ll cover some of the technologies now available for posting information on walls, including some that you may not know about. Stay tuned!

Have you had venues not allow you to post materials on their walls? What did you do?

Photo attribution: Flickr user pierrelaphoto

Why presenters need to incorporate audience engagement

Photograph of small groups meeting at the edACCESS 2011 peer conference
Small groups meeting at edACCESS 2011

Why is it important for presenters to incorporate audience engagement?

“…it isn’t our schools that are failing: it is our theory of learning that is failing.”
— Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown, authors of A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change.

An inconvenient truth

Think back on all the conference presentations you’ve attended. How much of what happened there do you remember?

Be honest now. I’m not going to check.

Nearly all the people to whom I’ve asked this question reply, in effect, “Not much”. This is depressing news for speakers in general, and me in particular as, since the publication of Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love, I have been receiving an increasing number of requests to speak at conferences.

When I ask about the most memorable presentations, people (after adjusting for the reality that memories fade as time passes) tend to mention sessions where there was a lot of interaction with the presenter and/or amidst the audience: in other words, sessions where they weren’t passive attendees but actively participated.

Take a moment to see whether that’s your experience too.

Social learning

Conference sessions that are designed to facilitate engagement between rather than broadcast content provide wonderful opportunities for social learning: the learning that occurs through connection, engagement, and conversations with our peers.

Social learning is important, and here’s why, courtesy of Harold Jarche:

incorporate audience engagement: Harold Jarche • Social learning for business Here’s an elevator pitch, in 10 sentences, for social learning, which is what really makes social business work. The increasing complexity of our work is a result of our global interconnectedness. Today, simple work is being automated (e.g. bank tellers). Complicated work (e.g. accounting) is getting outsourced. Complex and creative work is what gives companies unique business advantages. Complex and creative work is difficult to replicate, constantly changes and requires greater tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is best developed through conversations and social relationships. Training courses are artifacts of a time when information was scarce and connections were few; that time has passed. Social learning networks enable better and faster knowledge feedback loops. Hierarchies constrain social interactions so traditional management models must change. Learning amongst ourselves is the real work in social businesses and management’s role is to support social learning. Harold Jarche • Social learning for business Here’s an elevator pitch, in 10 sentences, for social learning, which is what really makes social business work. The increasing complexity of our work is a result of our global interconnectedness. Today, simple work is being automated (e.g. bank tellers). Complicated work (e.g. accounting) is getting outsourced. Complex and creative work is what gives companies unique business advantages. Complex and creative work is difficult to replicate, constantly changes and requires greater tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is best developed through conversations and social relationships. Training courses are artifacts of a time when information was scarce and connections were few; that time has passed. Social learning networks enable better and faster knowledge feedback loops. Hierarchies constrain social interactions so traditional management models must change. Learning amongst ourselves is the real work in social businesses and management’s role is to support social learning.

There are additional reasons why supporting social learning during conference sessions makes a lot of sense:

  • Active participants almost always learn and retain learning better than passive attendees.
  • Participants meet and learn about each other, rather than sitting next to strangers who remain strangers during a session.
  • Participants influence the content and structure of the session toward what it is they want to learn, which is often different from what a presenter expects.
  • Being active during a session increases engagement, creating better learning outcomes.
  • Actively participating during a session is generally a lot more fun!

A mission for conference presenters: incorporate audience engagement

Conferences provide an ideal venue for social learning; they are potentially the purest form of social learning network because we are brought together face-to-face with our peers. And yet most conference sessions, invariably promoted as the heart of every conference, squander this opportunity by clinging to the old presenter-as-broadcaster-of-wisdom model.

Of course, there are conference sessions that routinely include significant participation. Amusingly, they have a special name so they won’t be confused with “regular” conference sessions: workshops!

In my opinion, every conference session longer than a few minutes should include significant participation that supports and encourages engagement. If you’re a conference presenter, make this part of your mission—to improve your effectiveness by incorporating participation techniques into your presentations. Your audiences will thank you!

Are you a conference presenter? How much do you incorporate participation techniques into your presentations? Please share your ideas here!