Yes, this will be my first blog ever… (I need to catch up to all that emerging 2.0 technologies!)
My main objectives coming here were to see what others are doing, gain some insight into the emerging trends and bring back some best-practices which may be applicable in our business environment. Were my objectives met? Certainly.
I participated from beginning to end, and beyond. There were four different themes each day with a choice of 60 sessions. I attended 15 sessions and four keynote presentations. I found that all of the sessions were too short, 45 min each, which did not allow a lot of room for questions, a very valuable part of a session. All conferences had the same approach: a power-point presentation. I would have liked to see some diversity such as a discussion panel. Luckily there was a lot of opportunities to encourage networking.
Out of the 15 sessions attended, I particularly liked “Connecting Knowledge, Learning and Innovation” by the Federal Reserve Bank; “Integrating Knowledge and Business Processes” by the World Bank and “Transferring Knowledge Isn’t just for Nice People” by Steve Trautman. There were a few nuggets from other presentations as well.
I will provide more details in my next blog about the sessions attended. I did not forget your question Kyle. But overall, I was quite impressed by the progress of the Federal Reserve Bank. Stay tuned…
Catherine
#1 by Peter Zakrzewski - September 27th, 2008 at 21:30
I have to agree with the quality of some of the PowerPoint presentations. But, it was a good learning experience to see how some professionals do it well and others, not so well.
As for the length, I think you’ll also agree that for some 45 minutes was too long. It really depends on the quality of the content.
Thanks for posting! Looking forward to hearing more about your perspective and take-aways from the conference.
#2 by Dale Arseneault - September 29th, 2008 at 04:56
Short sessions – a common challenge when the topic is “deep” and interesting. An approach that I’ve found that works well is to focus on the one or two most meaningful ideas from each presentation, and follow up with the presenter after the session, maybe asking for a bit more background, and exploring how the ideas could be implemented back at work. And you’re right Catherine.. networking is key. In many cases the presenters themselves are open to dialog after the conference to allow for deeper discussions about the topics.