Improve meeting session learning with this simple tip!

Want a simple way to improve meeting session learning? Provide a shared Google Doc where all participants can take notes, ask questions, and get answers!

A shared Google Doc is an easy, familiar tool you can use to facilitate and improve real-time conversation and learning around presented content. And when the session is over, participants have a convenient archive for reference.

The idea was sparked by discovering this deleted tweet thread.

improve meeting session learning

“I learned today that a group of students used a Google doc to take lecture notes–they all took notes simultaneously in a collective file.”

“As they took notes they would mark places they were confused or couldn’t follow the lecture–other students would see & explain, real time.”

“At the end of the semester, as they are prepping for finals, they have this massive document of notes, questions, & explanations from peers.”
—from a 2016 since-deleted tweet thread

Now this isn’t an original idea. I’ve used collaborative Google Docs at meetings since 2010 to collaboratively brainstorm and solve a problem, for scribing answers to The Three Questions, and to capture the pluses and deltas in a group spective. And a quick web search will discover numerous examples of teachers who use this technique in elementary through college classrooms.

Here’s an example from a community college class…


A group of us did something similar in 2014 when we live-blogged the PCMA Convening Leaders conference. Offering the same technique to all participants at meeting sessions may be new. (If it isn’t, let us know in the comments below!)

How to do it

Before the meeting

  1. Create a Google Doc for each session. Give it the name of the meeting session. Change the editing permissions of the Google Doc so that anyone with the link can edit it.
  2. Create a short link to each Google Doc. I use a link that combines an abbreviation for the event with a short version of the session title. For example, an “Improving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” session at the 2022 XYZ conference might have the link tiny.cc/XYZ2022ImproveDEI.
  3. Add the session title and the short link to the top of the linked Google Doc.
  4. Repeat for all meeting sessions.
For meeting owners

Before the meeting publicize that meeting session participants can and are encouraged to create collaborative notes on each session. Right before the meeting provide participants with a list of links to the collaborative docs for each session. Also, ask session presenters to display the URL for their session’s Doc and encourage participants to use it.

For session presenters

Even if meeting organizers haven’t adopted the above approach, there’s nothing to stop presenters from incorporating this technique into their sessions.

After the meeting or presentation

Change the access for each Doc to “viewer” (people with the link can see the document but not edit it) and then make the session notes available appropriately. You could share them on a private website, email the Doc links to participants, or use any other distribution method that fits.

What do you think?

If you use this method to improve meeting session learning or have ideas on extending it, please share your experience in the comments below.

Six ways to avoid wasting attendee time

avoid wasting attendee time: an illustration of a bored personRaise your hand if every conference session you’ve ever attended was accurately described by its program blurb.

Anybody?

Anybody?

Bet your hand didn’t go up.

Wasting attendee time

When we have to sit through a session that bears little resemblance to its description, attendees waste time. We tend to blame the presenter. But, in my experience, it’s often conference producers who should be held responsible. Last week, Peggy Duncan sent me an example:

“I’m a conference speaker, and I am often put into an awkward situation. When I’m hired to do a seminar and the meeting organizers bill it as a workshop, people who do not use those words interchangeably are expecting something hands-on. I was recently hired to conduct a 1-hour SEMINAR at a conference on using the iPad for work, but the meeting planners are describing it as a workshop in their marketing. I’m trying to explain the difference, but their response is “Well, that’s just the terminology we use.” No, that’s like saying the color is red when it’s blue. These words are not interchangeable, and here’s [a blog post about] the difference.”

Language is important

People, language is important! A “workshop” implies that attendees will get experiential learning, while a “seminar” implies more of a traditional session, with a presenter talking most of the time. Big difference.

Unfortunately, incorrect terminology is just one of the ways that a session can turn out to be very different from its description.

For example, I’ve had a client write and publish a description of my session on the basis of a quick phone call, without requesting any additional input from me. Then there are the folks who take carefully written session descriptions and brutally rewrite them, sometimes to a point where I barely recognize them. Unsurprisingly, the subsequent renditions do not accurately portray what I was intending to do. Usually the first I know of this is when I surf the conference website and see I’m being billed to teach juggling notation (please don’t ask me to do that).

So how can we avoid session descriptions that avoid wasting attendee time? Here are six ways:

If you’re a conference producer:

  • Be clear about what you want! Your presenter should be happy to help you figure out what that is—make the most of their expertise.
  • Listen to your presenter! Yes, you have the right to ask for what you want. But if she says “I think X would be more effective”, or “That’s too much to cover in the time you’ve assigned”, “I can’t do that”, or any other responses that indicate that a mind-meld hasn’t yet taken place, then continue discussions and keep paying attention.
  • Feel free to edit/change a session description. But, send your changes back for presenter review and final sign-off before publishing them!

If you’re a presenter:

  • Don’t assume that the conference producer will accurately represent your session to attendees! Trust, but verify. Even if your client assures you that he will simply copy your description to their conference marketing, insist on reviewing it before it’s up on the web. And if they print it, double insist.
  • Be persistent! Meeting producers are busy. They may consider a description change to be a minor detail to hazily delegate or put off. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
  • Be willing to go through several rounds of rewrites! Don’t give up until the session description accurately presents what you’re going to present.

Not-as-advertised sessions squander the time of hapless attendees and are far too common. Luckily, it’s easy to avoid wasting attendee time if you follow the above advice.