Online Conferences  
RSS
Threads [ Previous | Next ]
Conferences - same old same old?
Showing 2 results.
Conferences - same old same old?
5:10 PM EST 1/15/08
I am putting together ideas for an upcoming state conference. As I review what we have offered in the past years, it's beginning to sound all too familiar. In addition, one of my colleagues was lamenting that many programs are too "theoretical" in nature. What she wanted was difficult for her to describe, but I gathered she wanted to be able to take away the real nuts of bolts of a project or task. That's hard to give to a varied audience, in a short time, with only a podium and laptop. So "What DO we want"?
Would you attend a program that handed out forms that I use to give staff evaluations? Is this too "duh" level for most of the attendees? Would you attend a program that listed 40 story time themes along with the copied color sheet and a list of movies and books? Is this already a "no brainer" for most of us? What Do YOU want?
I would gladly attend yet another program about Blogs, IF I came away with a DVD that I could load into my PC and tada ! there was my blog and all I had to do was put in my library name. Or I would gladly go to a teen book talk talk, if it had the books, the questions, the answers and the refreshments all bagged up and ready for me to grab on the way out. But it doesn't happen that way. So, give me some ideas for programs and I promise you I will try to incorporate them into my suggestions for our state conference.
Re: Conferences - same old same old?
2:46 PM EST 1/16/08 as a reply to Diana Skalitzky.
It's been a long time since I've been involved in conference planning ... the issue seems to be that there are so many people seeking solutions to *their* problems and these are all over the map.

I tend to like the theoretical issues but realize that these fall flat for most others. On the other hand, the non-theoretical tend to the workshop-type issues that can be caught up on w/o having to attend a state convention.

Maybe one way to go is to ask the "perennial presenters" (lawyers, consultants, etc.) what they think they should talk about. Otherwise, they're likely to get stuck talking about old chestnuts ... and that must be very boring for them.