Comments on: How to Set the Interaction Dial

By: samueljsmith

samueljsmith — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:58:57 +0000

@jeffhurt – Thanks for bringing in the educational design perspective to this discussion. I think it is really important to look at the solutions from a variety of perspectives and Bloom’s is a great tool to use.

(note to other readers: If you don’t know Bloom’s taxonomy google it.)

I am really happy that you wrote “When you look at an overall event or conference experience, you design a lot of different interactions and try to help people proceed from the basic to the higher levels of Blooms Taxonomy. Add attendee interaction and you’ve created a successful engagement model.”

To me the attendee’ experience is the sum of all of the interactions and experiences at an event. AND, I believe that event organizers engineer all (or most) of these experiences and interaction opportunities – knowingly and unknowingly. I think that gets lost sometimes.

Jeff, thanks again for your contribution! Always appreciated!

– Sam

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@Jenice – Thanks for the nice compliment! I appreciate it!

I think that you hit it right on the head. We need to first get out of our “business as usual” mentality. That is the real problem here isn’t it? In some cases using an unconference format or the fishbowl technique would be a perfect solution. I don’t see the business as usual crowd – using those formats either.

In my opinion the promise of interactive meeting technology is in its ability to bring together people that couldn’t be or wouldn’t be brought together otherwise at the event. This could be for networking, exchanging ideas, etc… But, it doesn’t have to be done with technology – there are so many wonderful interaction ideas out there.

Thanks for your comment!

– Sam

By: Jenise Fryatt

Jenise Fryatt — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:20:16 +0000

Thanks for getting to the meat, Sam. Your posts always get right to the heart of an issue in a short time. I think with all of the technological options out there these days, it’s easy to lose site of the forest for the trees. A great way to stay within a budget is to just go back and reassess your goals. There are lots of non-technological ways to achieve a desired outcome for an event. But first we have to get out of our “business as usual” mentality. Just because no one’s ever done it, doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

By: Jeff Hurt

Jeff Hurt — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:39:09 +0000

Sam:

You’re speaking my language here! Right on the mark too.

I take the same question in a different direction: “What 1 to 3 things do I want people to remember from the presentation?”

Then I build the Learner Objectives using Bloom’s Taxonomy with this question: “After attending this session, the learner will be able to…” What is it the learner can really do after attending that presentation? Next step is I look at Bloom’s and ask myself, does the attendee need to know, comprehend, apply, analyze, synthesize or evaluate the main takeaways.

Once I decide that, I proceed to find quantifiable action verbs for the learner objectives. Someone attending a 60-minute presentation can’t walk out with improved sales techniques for example. But they can walk out from the session with a list of ways to improve their sales techniques. This is where many meeting professionals get it wrong and try to use marketing hype, “Improve your sales, take my course” as an example. When I choose my LO action verbs, I look at my interaction dial and decide the level of engagement by the attendee.

When you look at an overall event or conference experience, you design a lot of different interactions and try to help people proceed from the basic to the higher levels of Blooms Taxonomy. Add attendee interaction and you’ve created a successful engagement model.

Well, I probably lost a lot of meeting professionals with my education design thoughts here. Thanks for the post.