How to Design a Really Great Conference Session

A Web-Based Seminar on Conference Session Design

To print all or part of this transcript, highlight the section to be printed and use the "Copy" function to paste it into your word-processing program.

• Introduction
  
  
• Two Key Factors
  
  
• Example Activities
  
  
• Easy to Use Activities
  
  
• Using an Activity
  
  
• Using a Role Play
  
  
• Completing the Process
  
  
• Wrap-up and Action Plan
  
  
• Dusty Miller's Biography
  
  

Introduction

Dusty Miller

Dusty Miller: Hello. I'm Dusty Miller. Welcome to "How To Design a Really Great Conference Session." This online seminar is part of the Council on Foundations' new Learn It Now series. This introduction to the program includes an orientation to this online medium, the objectives for the program, some expected benefits, and an overview of the six-step process I recommend for really great conference presentations.

But first, travel with me in your mind. Once upon a time … don't all good stories begin "once upon a time"?

Once upon a time, the way to put together a conference session was to identify a topic of interest, find a really good speaker or a panel of speakers, write a description, and that was the session. And some of those sessions were pretty good, I'm sure. There have been some excellent speakers and some excellent panels.

Unfortunately, there have been many that were … well … not as good. The speakers were flat … monotone. They didn't really engage or energize the audience. And one of the things we are finding is that these audiences want to be more engaged. They want to be challenged by conference sessions. And so we're getting a lot of pressure from the design committees for more engaging sessions.

The big question is then, how do you do that? How do you make a session more engaging? I hope to give you some answers in this program on session design.

Orientation to the Media

Before I get into the "meat" of the program, let me take a minute to talk about how you can get the most out of this online seminar. First, if you are hearing me right now, you are all set to go computer-wise. If you are reading this but don't see a "Play" button above, click on the "Help" button to the left. The Help screen also has a phone number that you can call for assistance. While you can just read the transcript, with the multimedia features you will be able to hear my voice and interact with the seminar and follow the slides as they automatically change.

This seminar is only about 45 minutes long. It is broken down into eight (8) subsections, as you see on the left. If you are just starting to design your session, it's best if you reserve enough time to go through the entire program in sequence in one sitting. But if you would like to review specific topics, you can access each subsection separately. Just click on the menu button for that section.

Please keep a pad and a pen or pencil handy. From time to time I'll ask you to jot a note or an action item.

By the way, if you would like to read the material at home or on the train, just press the button marked "Transcript" and follow the directions for a printing.

Finally, as part of this online seminar, I've included a short evaluation form that will appear toward the end. I would appreciate it if you took a couple of minutes to fill it out. We would really value your feedback about this course and about this technology.

Objectives

Okay. Here are my objectives for this program. I'm going to be going over a six-step "formula" for an effective conference section. During the session, I hope you will learn why it is important to consider the needs and interests of your audience; how to prepare a "real" objective - one that defines results, not just the process; and how to select or design a key activity that will stimulate and engage your audience.

Along with the six-step process for developing your session, I'll be sharing some tips, techniques, and suggestions to help make your session more effective. For example, I want to show you a trick for outlining and organizing the content of the session and how to prepare supporting materials. I hope to convince you that dress rehearsals are really beneficial. Along the way I hope you will come to understand why it's important to extend this extra effort and how to engage the other members of your team - the speakers and moderators - in the process.

While this session is primarily intended for designers, a conference session is often the product of a team, including people such as subject matter experts, moderators, speakers, and even graphic artists and media folks. So that everyone on the team is on the same page, it might be really helpful for all of them to take this course.

Benefits

From time to time I'm going to ask you a question and give you time to consider your answer. In fact, I'd encourage you to jot your responses on a handy note pad.

Here's the first one. I'm going to pause for about 30 seconds. Jot your answer to this question: "What do you see as the benefits of taking this online seminar? What's in it for you?"

Thank you. How do your responses compare to these. For example, I believe that, if you follow the process, you will significantly increase your chances of having a really dynamite session. But I also want you to get some new ideas and walk away with an action plan and some very specific action items to improve your session. And, even more than that, I'm hoping you will be energized by the process and more confident in yourself in the role of session designer. I hope you feel those benefits are of value and that you will take advantage of all the modules of this program.

Steps of the Process

All set, then? Here are what I think are the six easy steps to a dynamic, engaging conference session. You may find them to be a somewhat unorthodox approach. For example, instead of thinking about a session based on its content, I'm going to suggest thinking about it first from the perspective of your audience and your objective. For some folks, it may be a different way of thinking about a session. If you haven't been down this road before … stick around … you might find it intriguing.

I think the steps are, first of all, to consider your audience: Why are they there? What do they want? What do they come in with and what do you want them to leave with?

Which then leads right into number two: Focus on one really hard-hitting objective. This is the one thing you're trying to achieve with your session.

I think the third step is kind of interesting. No matter what your topic, select or design one key activity that will really engage your audience and challenge them to think about what the speakers are saying. And, in the course of the session, I'll share with you some possible activities that are engaging and easy to use.

Number four is to outline the content that supports that objective and that audience. Rather than starting with everything that the speakers or the panelists know, you start with what the audience needs. Then the obvious things are: Step five, prepare the supporting materials and six, rehearse the session.

And that's pretty much our outline for this program. We'll go through the items one by one. I'll have some examples and some suggestions. And then, before we close, we will talk about how you can put those ideas that you may have picked up along the way into action.

For those of you just starting out, I suggest you follow the formula. The program will advance automatically. If you are just looking for ideas, try "Example Activities," "Easy to Use Activities," or "Using An Activity." And if you already have your session together, there are some other things that you will find along the way that may be helpful to you.

See you there.

Part 2: Two Key Factors

Consider Your Audience

This is Part 2 of the online seminar "How To Design A Really Great Conference Session" from the Council on Foundations. In this section, I'll detail the first two steps of the six-step process for developing your session.

Step one is "consider your audience." Here are the results of a little action research I've been doing to find out why people go to conferences. I've been to some conferences, I've done some sessions, I've talked to people, and I've pulled together a list of the top eight or nine reasons why people attend conferences.

I'm going to pause about 45 seconds so you can look at this list. Jot some notes to questions like these: Which one do you suppose is the most common or the most compelling reason? Which one is most like your reason for attending a conference? Why do you think people will want to come to your session?

Here is a sample of the responses I heard. "I like to get specific information on something of interest to me … something practical or concrete I can try out. I look for sessions that are applicable to what I do."

"It's a chance to think out of the box and learn about things that you don't really get to think about in your day-to-day work."

"I like to take a step back and see what's new or to think about the world of philanthropy and how it relates to the world outside of it. I like to hear more about bigger trends that you don't necessarily get a chance to think about in the day-to-day."

"For me, networking is the most vital reason … sharing ideas or strategies you may be grappling with … ideas you may be considering but unsure about. You want to know what other program experiences are out there or what other people's attitudes are about the issues you're considering. And that, to me, is probably the most energizing and engaging kind of exercise you could hope to have at a conference."

So what are the implications of these data to you as a session designer? Well … it seems to me that one could summarize these motives with three words: learning, networking, and energy. This is what your "customer" … the audience … wants out of your session.

So you need to deliver. There ought to be some information or concepts that are presented in a clear and organized way. There ought to be a way for everybody at the session to interact with somebody else. And the session ought to be presented with an energy and enthusiasm that is uplifting and contagious. If you follow the steps of the process, I'm sure you can do that.

Focus on One Real Objective

Step 2 of the process is to focus on one real objective. While you may have several objectives for your session, to give your session clear focus and direction I suggest that you get together with your speakers and your team and agree among yourselves which one of those objectives is most important.

In addition, be sure your key objectives, and any supporting objectives, are written in terms of the output or results you want to achieve. You'll find they are much more valuable if you can do that.

To see what I mean, look at the little diagram. It is a systems diagram of an ideal workshop session. The box itself is the session. It takes in certain inputs such as speakers, slides and videos and other visual media, handouts, and all the preparation that go into that session. The room itself and all of the people attending are also inputs to the session.

At a conference, you put all those inputs together and you perform a process on that system. That process may include lecturing to people, showing them some slides, question and answers … even individual and small group activities.

The arrow on the right-hand side represents the outputs of that session … the results. What outputs do you want from your session? How are people going to be different when they leave your session? What do you want people to carry away?

As I looked at some session proposals, I noticed that not all of the objectives were related to the output or results of the session. Many talked about what would happen during the session … the process. So you can see the difference, let me show you some of these. I've left off some of the details, but I think you can get the idea.

I'm going to give you one minute. Take a look at each of the eight objectives and click the check box in front of those that are real objectives … that specify a result or an outcome … that tell how people will be different as a result of the session.

And if it's not a real objective, and you have time, try to speculate a little bit about what do suppose would be a real objective in this case. What do you suppose people really ought to get out of the session?

So, just go down the list, check them off if they're real, and then, if they're not, consider what might be a real objective for that session. I'll be back in just one minute.

Notice that Number 1, Number 4, Number 6, and Number 8 begin with words like "Gain an understanding …" "See how to …" "Learn how …" These talk about what people will learn or gain from the session. They are "real" objectives. They deal with results.

Now look at statements 2, 3, 5, and 7. Notice that they begin with words like "Participate in …" "Explore …" or "Discuss …" These objectives all talk about what people will do during the session … not what they will get out of it. For example, I'm sure the designer wants people to apply some best practices back home, not just hear about them. It's nice to know what they will do during the session, but process statements won't give your session focus and impact.

Step 3 of the process is to select or devise a key activity and there are three parts of this course devoted to this step: Part 3 has two examples of key activities, Part 4 has a list of easy-to-use activities and Part 5 has suggestions for using an activity in your session.

But before we go on … now is a good time to start a list of action items. How about your objective? Does it describe a result … an outcome? Does it tell how people will be different as a result of your session? Take a look at your session proposal. Does it have one clear, results-oriented objective? If not, I recommend that you and your session team prepare one and then build your session around it. It will be a much more powerful, hard-hitting session.

Part 3: Example Activities

Select of Devise One Key Activity

If you've been following along in sequence, you know that Step 3 is to select or devise a key activity. When you build into your session an activity that involves and engages your audience, it really enriches the experience for them.

Now some designers get a little troubled about now because they have seen some really clever activities like skits and quiz show formats that look like they are hard to plan and even harder to pull off. That doesn't have to be the case. There are many easy-to-do yet powerful and engaging activities you can use in your sessions. Here are two examples.

Suppose you're working on a session about a new way of doing what you do… I'll call M-W-N-A. That stands for "My Wonderful New Approach." While you will have to tell your audience about your method, your one key objective is that you want to convince people to try it.

So whatever you do in your session and whomever you bring to that session, you've got to focus on that one key objective. You want to convince them that M-W-N-A is a worthwhile thing to do. You will give them all the reasons … a clear rationale. And you can also help them overcome barriers.

Here's how a session like that might come together. It starts with a clear description of your new method and all the reasons people should try it. Then you say to them, "You all have probably already thought of reasons why this won't work for you." So, you ask the group as a whole, "Give me some of the reasons that are keeping you from doing this. What are some of the barriers?" And you write those on a flip chart. Maybe there are six or eight that come out of the group.

Then you say, "Now get into groups of four or five. Your charter is to pick one of these barriers and find ways to overcome it. Solve that problem. Figure out how to get around it."

You let them go to work for 10 minutes around a barrier. Then you reconvene and go to the first group and say, "What barrier did you choose?" "Okay. How do we overcome it?" You go to the next group, "What barrier did you choose?" "Okay. How do we overcome it?" In the process, people will come to see that perhaps there aren't as many barriers to doing this as we thought there were.

Once they have seen that they can overcome the expected resistance, they are ready for you to tell them how to implement your wonderful new approach.

Here's another example. If you're looking for an activity and can't find one, here is what I call the universal activity. It is applicable in many, many cases. It could be titled the "Apply It Back Home" activity. It goes like this: You have a speaker who talks for 45 minutes or perhaps as much as an hour. Then the moderator says to the group, "The speaker has given us a lot of ideas. We want you to discuss ways that you can apply some of them 'back home' in your own organization. So, form groups of four to six people, introduce yourself to each other, and take one minute each to talk about ways that you can apply these ideas back home."

The moderator then waits seven to ten minutes. When the time is up, the moderator reconvenes the group and then goes from cluster to cluster saying, "Give me one idea you talked about." And before you know it, you've got a whole laundry list of ways to apply it back home. It's an almost universal activity.

Those are just two ideas. There are lots more in Part 4 of this course and the outline for the moderator is in Part 5. Check them out.

Part 4: Easy To Use Activities

More Activities

Step 3 is to select or devise a key activity and in Part 3 of this course I gave you two examples of key activities. But there are many more possibilities. Here is a starting list. Let me quickly run down this list and try to give you some examples of how you might use each one.

A worksheet is an easy way to get people to be more actively engaged in your session rather than just listening and watching the screen. There are two ways to structure a worksheet: guided or unguided. For example, suppose you had a handout with eight sample objectives and I asked you to identify the "real" ones. That would be an unguided worksheet. In a session you could work on it individually or I could ask you to work in pairs or threes. After I have given you a minute or two to mark your choices, I would go down the list one by one, calling on individuals, or the whole group, for their responses. A worksheet with a list of controversial statements to which you are asked to agree or disagree can really generate a lot of discussion!

Use a guided worksheet when you want people to stay with you step-by-step to make sure they understand before you go on. For example, suppose you were working with grantee financial statements or some analysis or evaluation tools, you might want to step your audience through the process. That's how they teach people to complete a 1040 - line by line.

The interview is an interesting one. In one form a speaker or moderator can "interview" the entire audience using a show of hands. Sometimes it's called polling the audience. How many feel this way? How many feel that way? How many think we should? Are there any who feel we shouldn't?

A more engaging form is to ask folks to get up out of their chairs, walk around, and interview others in the session. It's best if you give them some specific questions to use and encourage them to find out why the person they are interviewing feels the way they do. That way they get a much deeper perspective on an issue.

If you want to get more specific data from your audience try a survey or a poll. The easiest is a simple show-of-hands … but be sure your questions are clear. You can really begin to get a sense of how people feel about a certain issue.

The next few generally involve small groups, although some can be done individually.

It's really easy to form a small group or cluster and ask them to make a list. For example, a moderator or speaker could form groups of five or six and say, "List ways foundations are now using their web site." Or, "List ways foundations impact public policy …"

Brainstorming is very similar … only you are asking people to create new ideas. For example: "List ways foundations could use their web site, or "list new ways for foundations to influence public policy."

Suppose you want people in your audience to learn how to do something, you would use a skill-building exercise. If the topic of your session were accountability, perhaps you would want to help people learn the skill of developing an evaluation instrument or the skill of writing evaluation questions. Skill-building activities begin to have the look and feel of things you did back in school … math problems, diagramming sentences, and the like.

A problem-solving activity is one in which you pose a short situation or scenario and ask people to consider what they would do to resolve the issue. It can be done individually or in groups of four or five.

A case study is very similar except that the description of the situation is longer and includes much more detail. Here is the situation. What are the key issues here? What would you do in this case?

You don't see role-play used much in conference sessions that are very content driven. But I can imagine a session on information gathering or investigation that might lend itself to role-play. And role-play can be a particularly powerful tool if you want to engage people in a controversial issue. Just continue to or click on Part 6: Using a Role Play for more on this topic.

The next section deals with using an activity in your session. But before you go on, take a minute to consider what kind of activity might work well in your session. Even a short time when people can get together in twos or threes and discuss your topic can add a lot of punch and pizzazz to your session.

Part 5: Using An Activity

Using an Activity in Your Session

In Part 4 of this program I listed a variety of ways that you can engage your audience in an activity. Just about any kind of activity that involves and engages your audience can really enrich the experience for them.

In this section, I'll be responding to questions about actually using an activity in your session: How much time to allow, what's a good size for buzz groups or clusters, and how to arrange the room. I'll also share some ideas about demonstrations, panels, and why activities work.

If you have already checked out the example activities in Part 3, then you probably noticed that I was following this outline for an activity. It's a pretty good model for just about any activity.

First, the leader or moderator must give a very clear introduction to what you want people to do. And if you can't do that in one or two or three very quick sentences, the exercise is probably too complicated.

Allow them time for individual or small group work. Five to seven … maybe as much as 10 … minutes. When it's time to reconvene, the moderator must quickly regain control of the group. A strong voice and a microphone really help.

Next is the debrief … the process of gleaning the key points from the small group discussion. The trick here is not to go to the first cluster and say, "What did you talk about?" and let them do the report for the entire group. By the time the moderator gets to the third or fourth one, they'll say, "Well, everybody has pretty much said what we talked about."

Instead, the moderator should go to the first cluster and say, "Give me one key point you talked about." And then go to the second cluster, "Give me another." And the third, "Give me another." You still won't be able to get around to all 10 or 20 groups in the room, but at least you'll engage a lot of them in that process.

Finally, you should have some way to summarize the activity. I like to challenge the speaker or speakers to really listen, take notes, and then summarize what the small groups came up with.

A simple, small-group activity can be a powerful learning experience for everyone. But please remember that these activities have to be structured around a particular question, or a particular issue, or a particular case or instrument or work sheet. You can't just say, "Get into your small groups and talk about this." That just doesn't work.

And if you do form small groups, figure on at least 30 to 45 minutes for the complete activity. It takes a few minutes to get small groups formed and started. You need to allow some time for them to work, and then you have to process or debrief the activity.

Of course, there has to be a balance between presentation and participation. Most people attend because they assume the speaker or speakers are experts and have something of value to share. But people also like being involved. How do you strike that balance?

To determine how much of your session should be delivering content and how much should be interaction, turn to your objective. If your objective is to impart some technical information - like a session on using the computer or some complex financial concept - then weight your session time that way. If your objective is "To convince these people that this is a good way to go," then you should weight it toward discussion because small group discussion is a good way to help people convince each other and overcome any barriers.

So, if you have the world's leading expert on your panel, you should probably defer to that, regardless of their ability to present or the audience's desire to interact. At the same time, I think many conference speakers come with a certain set of experiences, but that there are also people in the audience who have had similar or perhaps different experiences that may be just as valuable.

One way to visualize this balance is to chart your session as a time-bar. In the example on the screen, there is time for an introduction, a presentation, a small group activity, and a summary or conclusion. Notice that there seems to be good balance among the segments of the session.

Here is another session. Note the time given to the content. Perhaps that's the way the designer or the team wants this session. But look at it from the audience's point of view. What are they doing all that time? Is there any way they can be more engaged?

I have been asked: "Is there any sort of optimal size for small group discussion?" The answer is around six … well … five to seven. It takes a critical mass to generate lists, ideas, etc. I wouldn't go much over eight or nine because people have to be too far apart, they can't hear each other, and they can't really participate.

What about the room arrangement? Most of your session rooms will be set up theater style … all the chairs facing the same direction. But that's usually not a problem. People can cluster three in front and two in back and work over the back of a chair without too much trouble.

I was also asked about demonstrations. Demonstrations can be really powerful - particularly computer demonstrations. Just remember that, even in a demonstration, your audience is still passive. And be sure to factor in Mr. Murphy. The more electronic equipment and the more interconnections you have, the more likely something will sabotage your demonstration. This is especially true if you are at all nervous when you are a speaker. Getting ready for a demonstration and making sure the equipment works will make your anxiety go through the roof.

Finally some thoughts about a very common format: panels followed by questions and answers. Panels can be very powerful sessions, but they can also be very deadly.

I believe even a panel should have a key activity … and not just questions and answers at the end of the panel. A panel is simply more than one speaker and I would encourage you to still have a key activity.

Here's my rationale. Think of a session with 50 to 100 in the audience. There are about 10 to 15 minutes left. The presenters have just finished and the moderator opens the floor to questions. How many out of those 100 get to ask a question? Maybe 5 or 10. In other words, perhaps 5 to 10 percent of the audience ever got to dialogue or discuss. If you choose one of the tools I listed in Part 4, virtually 100 percent of the group gets to participate.

The trade-off is time. If you allow 45 minutes for three speakers and 45 minutes for an activity, each speaker gets only 15 minutes.

If you can tap into the power of the group, you get a very rich learning experience - first of all, because of the diversity of the audience - people with widely differing viewpoints that you couldn't possibly represent with a panel. And, secondly, engaging in small group discussion is a very powerful learning process, as opposed to just sitting and listening to the speaker. By sharing an idea, by drawing out other opinions, by hearing other perspectives, each person will have a much richer learning experience.

In this part of the online seminar I've shown you all about using an activity in your session. If you might want to use a role-play in your session, check out Part 6. Otherwise, go on to Part 7 where I'll cover the final three steps of the six-step formula for a successful conference session.

And after this course, get with your team. Take a look at the design for your session. What is your key objective? How are you using your time? (To answer this question, try charting your session.) Could your session benefit from an easy, small group discussion activity? It can significantly enrich the learning experience for your participants.

Part 6: Using A Role Play

This is Part 6 of the Council on Foundation's online course on designing a really good conference session. In Parts 3, 4 and 5 you saw some example activities, some different kinds of activities and how to use activities.

This segment will focus specifically on one type of activity: role play. While just about any kind of activity can really enrich the experience for your audience, a role play can be particularly powerful.

Role play is most often used as a skill-building activity in management or communication courses. And sometimes a conference session has a similar purpose … a session on how to conduct grantee interviews might by one.

But there are a number of other situations in which you might want to use role play in a conference session. For example, you can ask role players to "take sides" of a controversial issue in order to explore the issue or bring out diverse perspectives. This can be particularly stimulating if you ask people to discuss the issue from the "other side" … the side with which they disagree.

Similarly, you can ask role players to discuss the pros and cons of a proposal and thus bring out the rationale, the barriers and possible strategies to overcome the barriers.

Rules for Role-Play

If you do use role-play, let me give you a couple of suggestions. First of all, never call it a role-play. People get all uptight when they hear the phrase "role-play." So, call it an "exercise" or an "activity" or a "simulation" or anything else; just don't use the words "role-play."

And the second rule is: Never ask people in the audience to come up and try to play-act it in front of everybody. That puts them on the spot and it rarely works out the way you intended.

Instead, if you want to have some speakers or some presenters or panelists role-play, have them well prepared to do that. Or if you want the audience to role-play, get them together in groups of twos and threes throughout the entire room, and let everybody role-play it at once, so that nobody is on the spot. That's called a multiple group role-play. After a multiple-group role-play you debrief by asking a few of the groups what happened and how the discussion came out.

Example of Role Play

Let me give you an example. Suppose the session is about getting grantees to be more accountable and you note that sometimes it's hard to convince them. You could say to your audience, "Let's see what ways you can find to convince a grantee. Form groups of three and quickly decide who will be Number One, Number Two, and Number Three." Give them a little time to form groups and then say: "Number One, you represent a grantor. You want your grantees to be accountable, but you want to convince them to cooperate rather than force them by leveraging your influence.

"Number Two, you are a grantee. You have a long record of outstanding work, but you don't want to be further encumbered with more reports and paperwork. Number Three, you are the observer and recorder. Look for the technique Number One uses and the kinds of resistance Number Two puts up. If necessary, you can help either side if they are having difficulty."

When they have had a chance to talk for five or ten minutes, the moderator calls time and asks many of the observers to report. The moderator can begin by asking what objections the grantee put up and what the grantor said to try to convince the grantee that they should be more accountable. When there have been a number of reports, the moderator might even ask the audience which ones they liked best or which ones seemed to be the most convincing.

In the right circumstances, role-play can be a powerful learning tool. If you have not already done so, you might like to check out some other possible activities for your session in Part 4 of this course and how to use them in Part 5.

In the next section, Part 7, you'll learn some neat tips for organizing the content, developing the support materials, and getting it all together with rehearsals.

Part 7: Completing the Process

This is Part 7 of the Council on Foundations' online course on designing a really great conference session. In Part 1 I outlined an easy-to-follow six-step process for developing a conference session. In Part 2 you learned the first two steps: how to consider your audience and how to prepare one key objective. Step 3, Select or Devise a Key Activity, was covered in Parts 3, 4, 5, and 6.

This segment will focus specifically on Steps 4, 5 and 6: How to organize the content, how to prepare supporting materials and how to get it all together with rehearsals.

How to Prepare the Content

When the time comes to prepare the content, here is what normally happens. The designer calls upon an expert speaker. The designer says, "The topic of this session is X." The speaker then takes a huge body of knowledge and sort of digests it into an outline. Tools like PowerPoint encourage outlining and then it turns our outline into slides.

But there are several problems with outlines. First, they are too linear. They don't work the way the mind works. And outlines don't consider the audience. They don't consider the objectives.

So, encourage your speakers not to start with an outline. Rather, talk to them about the audience. What can you speculate about your audience? Who do you think will show up? And what are their needs and their interests? And then, what is that one key objective? What is that one thing we want them to leave with?

The key here is use a flexible system. Outlining is too rigid. It forces us to think linearly when our mind isn't ready to think linearly. By a flexible system, I mean either index cards or self-stick notes that you can stick up on a wall.

It goes like this. As you look at your audience and your key objective, your mind will begin to generate ideas for your session. Jot them down - one idea per card. Over a few days you just generate ideas, one idea per card - around that objective. Include anything that has come to mind … things you've seen in articles … things that you had in prior presentations … examples …. war stories. This works really well if you do it as a team. Generate lots of ideas … one idea per card.

Then you put them in a sequence that builds your case that leads you from where you think people are to where you want them to be … to that output objective. Some people call that story-boarding, because you could take those self-stick notes and stick them on a wall in a row that makes a storyboard.

Then you have to select only those ideas that contribute to your objective. I find the easiest way to do that is to take away any of the ideas that do not contribute to your objective.

And, let me tell you, this is the hard part. It really breaks your heart to take away some of those ideas. There are some fascinating concepts there that you want to talk about. But if they don't contribute to your key objective … take them away.

When it comes time to outline the content, work with your speaker. They have a lot of ideas to share. Unfortunately, not all of them will be appropriate for this session. Help your speaker generate ideas and put them in sequence. Then be ruthless about purging out things that don't really fit your audience or your objective.

Develop the Supporting Materials

Step Five says, "Prepare visuals and handouts." You all have been down this road before, but let me give you a couple of quick points. In order to "aid" the speaker, visuals must be easy to see, to read, and to understand.

Be very careful. Avoid the temptation to use a small font and cram a lot of stuff onto those visuals. Follow the rule of six-by-six. The rule of six-by-six says that on a bullet chart you should have no more than six bullet items and no more than six words in each item.

Instead of using a whole big, long sentence find the six key words in that sentence that will best reinforce the thought. No more than six bullets and no more than six words per bullet item. That will give you visuals that really reinforce.

Graphics can really help reinforce the message. But use graphics to communicate, not just to jazz up the visuals. That will just make it harder for some people to get the message.

And let me also suggest that if the slides are really the outline of the presentation, be sure to give your speaker a printout of the slides to follow. That way they don't have to turn and read their notes off the screen. It really blows a good presentation if they have to turn and talk to the screen because that's where their notes are.

Then consider your handouts. Whenever possible handouts should be more than just images of the slides. That is, at least it should include an executive summary and references or resources.

Rehearse the Session

Now, Step Six, rehearse the session. A couple of suggestions here. First of all, many of you are working with speakers and moderators who are not physically located close to you, so that you're going to have to do a lot of this by telephone. The Council on Foundations recommends, and in fact encourages you, to have at least one conference call. I would suggest to you that you need more than one. You actually need three with your speakers and moderators and designers together.

The first one is to revisit your session proposal and really understand what is the key objective and what are some of the content pieces, so you will conceptualize the session again from your description.

The second conference call should get down to the nitty-gritty … who is going to talk about what … particularly if you have a panel. I know you've been to sessions where the first panelist will give an excellent talk and then the second panelist will say, "Well, you pretty well covered what I was going to cover." That's not fair for panelists.

Then the third one is a real live dress rehearsal … a dry run … where we actually hear what people are going to say. This is particularly important if you have a panel. You want your panelists to hear what the other panelists are going to say and how they're going to say it.

Unfortunately, dry runs feel pretty strange. So, make it as real as possible. If people have to be on a conference call, encourage them to do so from a conference room with a speakerphone, where they can actually stand up and give their presentation or at least a good chunk of it. It's helpful, too, if you can audiotape the rehearsal so the speakers can actually hear what they sound like.

One added thing to think about here. Based on my experience and that of many other conference presenters, you need to set the deadline for your dry run well ahead of your session. It has happened to me many times. All of a sudden in the dry run things begin to jump out at you: It doesn't say the right thing on the slide; we haven't described the exercise; the handout isn't in the right sequence. A thousand things happen that need to be fixed between the dry run and the presentation.

If you are doing this the afternoon before your presentation, you are going to be in deep panicsville. I know presenters and moderators are busy … they're going to want to put it off … they've done a session like this before. It doesn't work.

Try this: Make a time line. Set some deadlines … with the dry run at least a month before the conference … so that you've got time to fix it if anything is amiss.

So there you have it … Steps 4, 5, and 6 of the six-step process for a really good conference session. Use a flexible system to organize the content. Keep your visuals simple and your handouts valuable. And set some deadlines for meetings or teleconferences and a full dress rehearsal.

In fact, why not try it right now. On a sheet of paper, enter today's date and the date of the conference. Then plug in some targets for the first team meeting, the second team meeting, and the dry run. Then join me for Part 8 of this online seminar: the summary and conclusion.

Part 8: Wrap-up and Action Plan

This is Part 8 of the Council on Foundations' online course on designing a really good conference session. In Part 2 you learned why it's important to think of your audience and set a clear objective for your session. In Parts 3, 4, 5, and 6 you learned how to select or devise a key activity. And in Part 7 you got some tips for organizing the content, preparing supporting material, and honing the session with rehearsals.

In this wrap-up segment I want you to consider how this approach will benefit you, how to get your team on board, and how to put the approach into action.

Benefits

What I've described in this course sounds like a lot of work. I'll bet most designers of conference sessions are hoping that they can select a presenter or two as panelists and a moderator and all agree on the session description, and hey, they're done. Following the recommended six steps may seem like a lot more work than you imagined when you first made your proposal.

So, the questions for you are: Why bother? Why go through the exercise? What's in it for you? What are the benefits or payoffs for putting together a really good and engaging session?

Here are some of the answers I've heard from people just like you. One payoff is simply to share something that is a strong interest for you or that you're really passionate about. Another is to test out some things that you've been thinking about but you're not sure … you'd like to hear how other people respond to it and get some feedback that way.

Another benefit could be that, as an individual or an organization, you become identified with a particular topic or issue. Then organizations that are interested in your area or doing things you may not be aware of may contact you because they know of your interest.

Part of the reason some designers or committee members do all of this is "giving back." It helps the field. To be able to give back to our profession things that we've learned or things that we've discovered along the way, or at least stimulate that discussion, I think is vitally important.

What is a key benefit or payoff for you? Why are you giving of yourself as a member of the conference session team? I'm going to pause for about a minute. Take that time to note your reasons.

Good. Be sure to keep those reasons handy just in case you have some second thoughts.

Getting Your Team On Board

I hope I've convinced you of the value of following the six-step process. Now you, in turn, have to convince the speakers and moderators and panelists that you bring to the table as part of your team. And the question is: How do you get them to buy in to some of these ideas, particularly a key objective or a key activity? Even doing a dry run sometimes will take a little arm-twisting.

One way is to encourage them to take this online course. Let them see and hear the same suggestions and the same process.

Then, involve them in the process from the start. That is, do a lot with conference calls. Get them together. Let them participate as a team and make some of these decisions as a team, in such a way that they feel like they have a stake in those decisions.

On the Council web site is a short "white paper" I wrote on successful conference sessions. I would encourage you to share that with your speakers and your moderators. It has a lot of the same stuff I've been talking about today.

Another idea would be to focus on the benefits and the payoffs … what's in it for them. Find out what they see as benefits and point out what they are going to get out of it.

Action Plan

Now it's your turn. Think back across the ideas and suggestions you've heard during this course and on a piece of paper somewhere complete the following sentence: "One thing I'm going to do to improve my conference session is…" Let me give you just 60 seconds to jot a note, and then you can compare your action plan to those of some other designers.

Well, that wasn't quite a minute, but I'm sure you had more than enough time. Now here are some responses I got in a live version of this course…

"The thing I thought about was getting more involvement of the audience. I could put together a few hypothetical funding proposals and give those to the audience to analyze."

"I need to be very clear as to my objectives and relate the activity to them."

Thank you so much for your time today. I really hope this session has been helpful. In a moment, I want to leave you with one closing thought. Before I do, however, please complete the evaluation form that is on your screen. Simply click on the button beside your responses. You may also give us your thoughts by clicking in the dialog box and typing. These online seminars are a whole new thing for Council on Foundations and we would really value your candid feedback. You'll have about two minutes to complete the form.

Thank you for your help. Now one closing thought. When the conference is over and your session has been very successful, your colleagues may never know how hard you worked to make it happen. And you may never hear anybody say how much he or she appreciates your effort as a session designer. But you will have the personal satisfaction of a job well done and knowingthat yours was a really great conference session.

[TOP]