 Increasing
the impact of workshops, training and presentations
During the RTC’s
annual Building on Family Strengths Conference, attendees are asked
to provide their feedback on the plenary sessions, the workshops,
and the conference as a whole. Overall the feedback tends to be
very positive; however every year we hear from people wishing that
the information could be communicated in different ways, and suggesting
that the sessions could be more interactive, more experiential,
less didactic, less reliant on overheads or PowerPoint slides, or
simply more fun.
People who make
these criticisms have a valid point. It is true that most of the
workshops and presentations at our conference—as indeed at
most conferences—are in a didactic mode with the presenter(s)
doing the large majority of the talking. Yet even as we appreciate
this criticism, it has proven difficult to make changes that significantly
alter how information is communicated during conference sessions.
As we look ahead to next year’s conference, this seems like
an ideal time to encourage dialogue about the essential ingredients
in a successful training experience. We invite you to share your
experiences and ideas on this topic. For example, think of all the
trainings, workshops and conferences that you have attended, then
tell us....
- What was
the best brief presentation, workshop, or training (up to two
hours in length) that you have experienced, and what made it successful?
- Are there
ways to change the structure or agenda of a conference to provide
more variety in the types of experiences available?
- Has a workshop,
presentation, or training (brief or longer) ever had a major impact
on how you think or what you do? How much of this impact stemmed
from the mode of presentation? From the information presented?
- How much
do you feel that you take away with you from a conference? What
can conference organizers do to increase the value of the experience?
- When you
present at a conference, workshop, or training, do you use a variety
ways to present the information? Is this necessary? Do you have
the tools or resources necessary to present material in different
ways?
We value your
responses!
Janet S. Walker,
Web editor
Your
thoughts…
Comments:
 That is amazing to read. You know I am doing a science project right now on visual and auditory memory learning and I've learned sooooo much just by all of this!!!! Thanks alot!!! Muah <3 Posted Friday, May 2, 2008 by Taylor at 09:50 PM
As a presenter at many different conferences for many different audiences my main goal is to do three things. First share personal experience with the workshop topic. Second have a few people (or more) in the audience (depending on the size) share something personal about the topic being discussed. Third make the session interactive and try to use different techniques to use "sound" for auditory learners, "sight" for visual learners, and "hands-on stuff" for kinesthetic learners.
I guess there is a fourth thing ... ALWAYS leave time for people to ask questions ... and have some "rhetorical" questions ready in case no one in the audience wants to start the ball rolling. With the rhetorical or even hypothetical you can say ..."At other conferences where i have presented I get this questions a lot ...." or "Sometimes people are curious about this and then share a piece of information here and there". If you have engaged your audience and they feel comfortable you should not have trouble getting questions from the attendees! Hope this helps ... Posted Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 02:57 PM
I have done lots of trainings. I find the most accepted and most fun to present are trainings/workshops where I
*define the topic
*demonstrate (give an example)
*participation- offer activities that actually give people the experience.
*discussion- give solutions and ask for more solutions.
I also agree that too much material can kill the whole training. Remember- KIS (keep it simple) Posted Wednesday, June 28, 2006 at 06:25 AM
I took part in the Georgetown University/SAMHSA Training Institutes 2004 in San Francisco in June. Overall it was a wonderful experience, with so many resources in one place.
I found the lecture type of venue to be a good teaching tool, along with a few visual props. I am more adept at audio learning than visual. I did find, however that sitting for several hours at a time(4 hours) was difficult. I started to loose focus. The shorter sessions(1.5 hours) were easier to digest.
The more lengthy version of the agenda was given to participants at the conference. With so much time and energy invested by presenters and participants, it would have been helpful to have that info prior....content description was very sketchy in the preregistration packet. several offering simply did not have titles that aligned them with the true topics
On the super plus side, was the vastness of the offerings. The conference was about building Systems of Care, with loads of sub topics. Folks could find topics to reach their individual levels of involvement.
I also enjoyed the some of the more recreational/social activities we were offered. A break from a straight leanring experience can be huge benefit in helping one abosrb more fully. Posted Friday, July 2, 2004 at 08:17 PM
This is great stuff - thanks.
We are trying to get some education going here, north of Calgary, Canada, about the new vitamin-mineral supplement that is making many Canadians who were formerly mentally ill,(and Americans as well), healthy.(See www.truehope.com)
We will use some of these suggestions in our upcoming application for educational funding dollars. Posted Saturday, March 27, 2004 by Jackie, researcher,PhDstudent at 02:21 PM
As a parent presenter my goal is to take the raport I have when sharing information with another parent one on one, and get that same interaction with a group. It seems that being candid and getting personal, along with really adressing core issues in new and affirmative ways is what gets everyone going. I balance this openess with a refusal to violate my own family's right to privacy. Visuals are good, and a bit of experiancial interplay. A skit can be better than role play, I sometime give participants scripts to demonstrate a concept. I think it is essential to allow the audience to own the material and exchange information, yet I feel a commitment to deliver the information promised and not allow the time to become just a venting session. One thing I do is to make sure that participants are connected to the proper followup resources and help, either from me or with a referral. With families, the need to be heard has to be parlayed into an effective response and referral, to ensure that one person, who really does need to talk does not derail the whole presentation. And in a family/provider audience, I try to keep any group from being stigmatized. Posted Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 05:36 AM
I need to feel included in a training. If I am only talked to, and never given the opportunity to ask questions, or raise concerns, or offer my perspective, I feel the time has been lost.
As for conferences, many people use them for a dual purpose: to gain new insights and information, and to network. The worst conferences/trainings/workshops I have gone to are those when the participants are never asked to introduce themselves. Sometimes we gain the most pertinent information we need from fellow conference participants, not necessarily those presenting. Posted Monday, November 10, 2003 at 09:09 AM
I had a training-- a series of 10 2-hour sessions-- in techniques of client centered interactions. This training had an ongoing impact on my professional and personal life-- I learned how hard it is to truly listen to another person without letting your own needs and agenda interfere. However, I din't think this sort of training could have worked in a shorter time span, or without the opportunity to practice the techniques and do other "homework" between sessions. Posted Sunday, August 10, 2003 at 10:06 AM
To me, the absolute worst conference presentations seem to be those where a panel is assembled. The people on the panel represent a number of different programs of the same type, and they are there to give testamonials of what they do. The problems are 1) we don't know if these programs are really successful and 2) (this is the really big problem) there is often no coordination about what people are going to say and they talk about the introductory questions in a long and rambling way that they use up all the time without communicating any information. These types of sessions need better preparation-- just because you say you're an expert doesn't mean people will be fascinated by any and everything you say! Posted Wednesday, July 23, 2003 at 09:47 AM
One big problem at conferences is presenters trying to put too much information into a short time. This means they have to skip stuff and hurry, making it more difficult to follow. Then all the time for questions is used up. Posted Wednesday, July 23, 2003 at 09:16 AM
I agree with most of the points made so far-- a presentation or workshop is more interesting to me based on: how important I think the information is, how entertaining the presentation is, and whether it provides a new and useful experience or skill directly. I think we could pay better attention to matching people with appropriate training so as to improve the experience. Posted Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 01:47 PM
As a third grade teacher, I have learned some simple tricks for catching students' interest. The easiest is to customize the material to reflect or represent the students' lives. I am also a firm believer in providing situations, discussions or hands-on activities, that allow learners to "discover" something or reach a meaningful decision that will have an impact on them. For example, before undertaking a project, we may have a discussion about "criteria for excellence"-- how will you know when the product is good? We will work together to come up with guidelines that will be used to evaluate. Later on, after kids have had a chance to review eachother's products, we return to that discussion and they work more on finalizing the criteria. Posted Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 09:25 AM
I think trainings that give you a mini experience of the skill you are trying to learn are among the best-- it provides you with a little "aha" moment that can motivate you to keep learning. This kind of presentation would not be so much an information-based training as a skill training. For example, years ago I attended mediator training where we practiced reframing attacking statements into statements that conveyed some information but were not attacking. I have never forgotten that, and still use that skill. I have also participated in training student mediators and students learning the Tribes curriculum for supportive classroom community. The very first sessions are best and set the whole tone if the trainer can "hook" the kids by providing a little experience, or demonstration. For experience, I see kids having an "aha" moment when they practice reflective listening on eachother. Also they are hooked when an experienced peer mediator does a simulated mediation with puppet disputants. Posted Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 09:20 AM
I have been to presentations and short workshops where the presentation was just talking, and because of the material presented, its interest to me, and the clarity of the presentation, I found it fascinating (though the person next to me might have had a different view). I have also been to presentations that were lots of fun, where we played get to know you games and moved around a lot, but the fun seemed unrelated to any meaningful content. People seemed happy though. I suppose the best presentations combine the best of these two, but sometimes I think people are so used to being entertained in a TV kind of way that they don't want to put the mindful effort into trying to comprehend something if it is not presented as a game or other entertaining fashion. Posted Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 09:13 AM
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