How do you inspire conference attendees to take action?
This question arose when I was facilitating Vermont Vision for a Multicultural Future, a conference addressing the challenges and opportunities of a more multiracial, multiethnic, and multicultural Vermont. Conferences that tackle wide-scope topics like multiculturalism or sustainable business practices are not going to come up with definitive comprehensive solutions to the countless problems discussed. This can demoralize participants who are hungry for change or filled with a desire to “do something”.
One of two common Conferences That Work closing sessions, the personal introspective, gives attendees a chance to explore changes they may want to make in their lives and work as a result of their experiences during the conference. To address the desire for big-picture change, we pointed out at the start of the Vermont Vision introspective that many of the participants had influence in their professional lives (state government, education, law enforcement, faith community, etc.) So we asked each person to focus on what they wanted to work on in their sphere of influence.
Having supported and emphasized the need for personal change during the introspective, we moved to the group spective, the final Conferences That Work session. I often start a group spective by using plus/delta to quickly evaluate a conference. For plus/delta, participants first publicly share their positive experiences of the conference. We list them in the plus column of a flipchart or projected Google Doc.
When all positive comments have been aired, participants list the changes they would like in the delta column. This simple technique provides a quick basis for participants to share experiences. Then we move into a discussion about what the group wants to do next.
An action plus/delta
To transform plus/delta into a tool for action at Vermont Vision, I redefined the two columns as follows:
Plus ==> actions I/we want to work on
Delta ==> issues that concern me but that I don’t know how to address
This allowed us to move from the personal decisions made at the introspective into sharing, discussing, and supporting initiatives to which individuals had committed (the plus column). The delta column then allowed us to explore other ideas and who might be able to work on them.
We found that the plus column was much longer than the delta column. That was encouraging! Even though significant issues in the delta column remain to be tackled, participants came away from the session knowing that many concrete plans had been generated through our time together. Unlike the outcomes of many conferences that work on problems that seem overwhelming, participants left Vermont Vision feeling that we had built momentum around specific objectives that we had a realistic chance of achieving. Perhaps that is why every single conference evaluation asked us to hold this inaugural conference again next year!
How do you inspire conference attendees to take action? Share your thoughts!
I love this idea. Is it also a useful way to encourage participants in other sorts of conferences, say an association annual meeting, to take action with what they learn?
Hi Sue! The personal introspective (the penultimate session in all Conferences That Work) is what I use to move attendees to personal action from what they’ve learned and experienced at the conference. There’s an overview of the process at the link in the post. From many evaluations over the years, the majority of participants find the session “highly useful”.
You don’t have to use the Conferences That Work design to incorporate a personal introspective; it can be used a a stand-alone closing session at any event where learning (hopefully) occurs, including association annual meetings. For example, I’ll be running a personal introspective at the end of MPI’s Chapter Business Summit in Dallas in September.
Great post Adrian! It’s not what we liked or learned, but what we will use or change that is the key.
Thanks Kenny, glad you like it!
Also take a look at http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/dave-snowdens-reflections-on-a-theory-of-change/
“…look at the narrative landscape and then ask the questions ‘What can I (we) do tomorrow to create more stories like these and fewer like those?'”