25.4.08

Your Best Class?

I've been really lucky the past five years to have come across professionals that have helped me in workshops, sessions, internet stuff and generally how to communicate.

Here's a few random thoughts; please discuss...

  • A subject matter expert that write a session is not always the best person to give it
  • The person that organizes a workshop is not necessarily the best person to present a session
  • You should always assume the teacher will not show up or say the dog ate the presentation- If you can cut a session's slides by 2/3 and say about the same thing, you should do it (I have to really start taking my own advice!)
  • Stop using PowerPoint as your primary means of communication; the slides are just there to support what the edu team has to say, not the other way around
  • People are freshest in the morning- People like freshly baked chocolat ship cookies in the afternoon
  • Put an energetic speaker on after lunch so as to not induce "food coma"
  • If you're managing a workshop, make sure the content is useful for the goals of the workshop- "Design" sessions are far easier to write than "Managing" sessions
  • Involve people that actually use the systems, not just the marketers of them
  • Everything has a means of regulation; if there is an AHJ out there that can impact your discussion or some legal precedent, you better be ready to talk about it
  • Many come to education sessions expecting there will be a discussion of the device's, system's or security program's cost- Many people will try to leave early
  • If you tie in some type of relavent accreditation or recognition, they will come in droves
  • Every industry has its terminology; show people how to survive a project meeting?
  • If you can provide the handout material electronically, people seem to prefer that media
  • If you have a professional event person like someone having the CMP (Certified Meeting Planner) credential, you'll take a huge step closer to success
  • Keep the room cold; plan on 20% of the people attending to show up unregistered (walk-ins)
  • Get plenty of sleep the night before your session, or just plan on having a Starbucks runner ;)

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