Inside the Delegate

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Inside the Delegates HeadHow to Help Your
Clients Increase the Mental Value of Their
Meetings

• 48th ICCA Congress ExhibitionFlorence, Italy,
  November 9, 2009, 430-600PM
• Ib Ravn, Ph.D., Associate ProfessorAarhus
  University, Denmark, www.dpu.dk/fv

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1. My Points Today

• The classical meeting or conference makes
  delegates listen passively to presentations
• In the knowledge society, people want to be
  active and make connections and create new
  projects together
• The venue must help delegates do this.
• In physical space places to meet and develop
  ideas In facilitated space processes where
  people digest the input

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2. The Classical Meeting or Conference
(Laurentius de Voltolina Henricus de Alemannia
Before his Students, late 14th c.)
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3. Lessons from Psychology and Learning
Science about Meeting Participation

• Presentations are fine. But they should be
  brief, concise, provocative, narrative, personal
• Involvement Learners must be active now
  Opportunities to think, talk and use hands and
  bodies. Use it or lose it.
• Interpretation They must be given opportunities
  to see the input in the light of their own past
  experience.
• Construction They must apply the input to their
  future work
• The Principle of the 500 experts Use other
  delegates as resources. Help your delegates meet
  and interact.

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What You Can Do Physical Space The Meeting Room

• Drop the big round tables. You cant talk across
  them. Five-person rectangles instead.
• Quarter-circular theater seating, so people can
  see each other.
• Chairs in triads helps people say hello before
  presentations.
• Set out fewer chairs. Squeezes people together.
  Wow, this must be good! Have stacked chairs
  ready.
• Room to stand up and mingle during the session.

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5. What You Can Do Physical Space Elsewhere

• Chairs in lobby for casual encounters. Upright.
  Trios, snake.
• Bar the previous evening. Early arrivers. Host
  makes intros
• Fixed conference bar. Dedicated corner in the
  hotel bar.
• A long bar for stand-up socializing. No-chair
  zone.
• A stretch-your-legs zone at formal dinners. Meet
  new people
• Learning groups of seven meet 5-6 PM under sign
  in lobby
• Go eat with your sister learning group. 14 or 21
  people in town
• Good-bye zone for the last half-hour, with a
  smoothie

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6. What Did You Find Inspiring?

• Write down a couple of points in silence (2
  minutes)
• Share them with your neighbor (6-7 minutes)
• Lets hear some of them, and your questions and
  comments

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7. What You Can Do Facilitated Space

• Meet people. Initial hellos creates safe learning
  environment
• Short presentation, or break it in two, and stick
  in involvement
• Buzz dyads (talk to your neighbor) Digest the
  input
• Silent reflection Write down a few thoughts
• Constructive opening question What inspired you?
• Pluck inspirations, so as to inspire others. Then
  Q and A
• Delegate construction in triads What will you do
  with this?
• (refer to slide 3 Involvement, interpretation,
  construction)

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8. What Will You Do With This Back Home?

• Reflect in silence and write down Two actions I
  will take as a result of this session (2
  minutes)
• Get up and find two strangers
• A tells B and C about his planned actions
• B and C each points to a good thing that will
  flow from As projected actions
• Rotate. 15 minutes for the three of you.

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9. Resources Facilitation and Learning Meetings

• Our research group Facilitating knowledge
  processes www.dpu.dk/fv ? English
• The Learning Meeting Module, a web-based tool
  www.ims.dk
• Steen Elsborg and Ib Ravn Learning Meetings and
  Conferences in Practice. Peoples Press, 2007, 89
  pp.
• Papers at www.dpu.dk/about/ibr ? Publications
• Ib Ravn and Steen Elsborg Creating learning at
  conferences through participant involvement (25
  pp. scholarly paper)
• Ib Ravn The learning conference, Journal of
  European Industrial Training, 33, 212-222, 2007
  (12 pp. paper)