I’m in the middle of a two-day conference in Tsawwassen, BC and I have one idea to share about a presenter’s responsibility to her participants. I feel like I could write a whole manifesto on this (maybe someday I will!) but for now here’s just one thing:
A presenter has a responsibility to ask questions of her participants. To ask them to tell her what they think. To ask them to tell their table what they think. To ask them to ask questions of each other.
I will go so far as to say that we should be done with caring solely about what one person thinks. Sometimes what one person is thinking is what the rest of us were thinking five years ago. In this world, one person’s contribution to a conference session is very limited. We want to know what many people think. The innovation of our work depends on it!
Hi Beth.
I’ve seen the result of a meglomaniac presenter in a conference. The group mind is ALWAYS more profound and invigorating than what one person alone can bring. And there is the added benefit of building huge buy-in and involvement.
I’d write that manifesto with you! Good post.
Ha, great word! So true. It was really top of mind for me that the “job” of especially a keynote presenter is to seed the group with the most innovative questions, so that magic happens in the combined answers. Unfortunately I didn’t get that at the conference. It was a VERY long 2.5 hour, mostly lecture start to the day!
Well, every conference is a chance to learn something… Even what NOT to do!