Marc Stoiber was speaking at an environmental meeting. He noticed something about the audience. "About 90 percent of people never looked at the stage," he says. Instead, they were speed-typing the content of the speeches into their tweets or blog entries. I was impressed, thinking I was witnessing a glorious mass communication revolution. That was until I peeked over some shoulders and saw what they were typing—posts like, 'Speaker says green is here to stay' and 'Green is good for business.' A pretty anemic version of what was actually being said."
Stoiber continues, "Then it dawned on me. These audience members were so intent on flexing their social media muscles that they missed 95 percent of the message. Technology had turned them into stenographers—and not particularly good stenographers. There was no synthesis, no analysis, no thinking. I'm certain the writers felt they were making a difference. But they were, in fact, adding little more than chatter. And that, I believe, is a problem."
This is my fear of the current focus on conference technology. It sounds innovative yet I often wonder if we define objectives for using technology. Here is my point: If you want to use electronic tools, make sure it is strategic in terms of adding value to the event.
For events that plan to use a big screen behind the speaker to show comments, provide guidelines prior to the start. It is not an opportunity for sarcastic comments or complaints about the speaker. Encourage people to contribute:
• Big insights—their "aha!" thoughts
• Ideas that start with, "Wouldn't it be great if..."
• Important questions they would like the speaker to answer
• Actions that they will take as a result of listening to the speaker.
Some events use a form of electronic polling. Participants usually vote from options or a simple yes/no format. If you want to use instant feedback, make sure the speaker changes the presentation in some way to reflect the results.
Some events use keyboards at round tables to generate ideas to tackle common challenges or problems that people have. This is a brainstorming activity. If you are planning to use this approach, here are some guidelines:
• Be less concerned about the number of ideas and more concerned about the quality of the ideas
• Encourage people to use full sentences to explain their ideas
• Do not ask for ideas if you have no intention of doing something with them afterward
• Plan to do something with the ideas after the event.
Following these guidelines can help shape the contribution of the audience to benefit everyone in the room. Train your audience to be effective conference participants.
Our business leaders say that we're in a knowledge economy. We know that our meetings are full of educated and sophisticated people. However, if you ask a sample of your attendees the following three questions about the last conference they attended, what conclusion would you come to?
1. Did you take notes and never look at them again?
2. Did you put your conference binder on a bookshelf and never take it off the bookshelf?
3. Did you go home with a pocket full of business cards of people you can't remember?
Experience suggests that 60 to 70 percent of them freely admit that they never look at their notes again.
Like Marc Stoiber, I asked people at several conferences if I could take a look at their notes after the event. What I saw were notes that looked like summaries of the key points of the speaker, much like the notes we all took in school while listening to a teacher. This got me thinking: How should people take notes that lead to new ideas, not just a summary of the session?
I then wondered if people could benefit from learning some new skills for participating in a conference more effectively. I then conceived some ways to listen to speakers in order to take notes that lead to ideas:
• Listening for insights
• Listening for ideas
• Listening to define good questions
• Listening to capture useful references (websites, books, articles) and contacts
• Listening for actions.
Most of the conferences I now speak at open with a short mini-keynote that talks about how to be a more effective participant to get more value from the event. At your meeting, arrange for someone to open the event with a dialogue on how to use the content and ideas from the speakers in more effective ways. The best ideas are those that people act on after the event. This is the most powerful way to create value at your conference.
Ed Bernacki created the Idea Factory to help people and organizations create more innovative solutions to their challenges. He also wrote Seven Rules for Designing More Innovative Conferences. To contact him, visit www.innovativeconferences.com.
Originally published Oct. 1, 2010