Educational Versus Inspirational
Comments(0)It’s funny how the importance of certain things is not obvious right at the start, and suddenly it hits you and you wonder why you didn’t realize it earlier.
It was clear to me from the start, when I started imagining Going Solo, that the programme would be built in such a way as to cover a range of topics I thought were relevant. What I didn’t realize is that this is quite different from having a conference/event “theme” and hunting for speakers who have something to say around that theme.
I’ve many times tried to express that although Going Solo is not a workshop or a training session, it is training-like, but I never quite seemed to find a way to explain this clearly. I wanted to say “yes, it’s a conference, but the aim is for people to learn stuff they can use when they walk out.” I think I’ve nailed it now, though: Going Solo is educational more than inspirational.
Most conferences I go to fall in the “inspirational” category. Of course, I learn things there, but mainly, I am inspired, or lifted (if the conference is LIFT). When I planned my Open Stage speech to present Going Solo to the audience at LIFT (watch the video), I wanted it to be inspirational. It’s not a video that teaches you anything, but that inspires you to attend Going Solo (and it did indeed inspire people!)
Even if the conference theme is more technical, and the sessions actually teach you stuff, most often it is a series of related sessions grouped together around a given theme. Reboot is a perfect example of how a theme is used to collect all sorts of contributions.
Not so for Going Solo. Putting together the programme for Going Solo feels much more like being in charge of defining the teaching programme for an academic year (only it’s a day, thank goodness, not a year). At the end of the day, I want the programme to have covered this, that and that. I try to organize the content into sessions, and then I talk with my speakers to see who can cover what.
I’m realizing now that this is the difficult bit — and as a speaker myself, I should have thought of this before. “Speaker topics” do not necessarily match “Steph-defined sessions” — which means I need to go back and reshuffle my sessions (perfectly doable, but it’s more work) to avoid overlaps and important topics slipping through the cracks.
Has anybody had similar experiences? And for any people reading who speak at conferences, if you agree on a topic with the chair and you’re asked to make sure your talk covers aspects x, y and z of the topic, does it make you feel micro-managed? Or is it something that happens regularly?
Understanding all this is helping me a lot in the process of finalizing the programme. I hope we’ll soon have the final session descriptions (I should probably call them “lectures”, because that’s closer to what they are) and speaker bios on the site, as well as the agenda. I know it’s important for people who are still not certain if they want to come or not, because the programme/agenda gives you a clear idea of what you’re paying for.
Yes, quite a few people have been asking if it was still possible to register. It is — there are still seats left (the exact number is of course national security top secret information and will not be communicated even under torture).
You should not wait too long though, because organizing travel and accommodation is more fun if you do it in advance (unless you enjoy stress and sleeping under bridges… we have a bunch of those in Lausanne) — and also because we’ll have to close online registration a week or two before the event so that we can give final numbers to the hotel for food.
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Steph
You wrote: “If you agree on a topic with the chair and youâre asked to make sure your talk covers aspects x, y and z of the topic, does it make you feel micro-managed? Or is it something that happens regularly?”
Well happens to me at most conferences. The conference chair has a vision or if it is a huge conference, it might be the session chair. You discuss what is to be covered.
Sometimes, especially when doing it for a large corporate conference …. I am asked to send in the slides early and get feedback from several people involved with the conference (the corporate’s conference crew).
What the heck, the objective is to be educational and not just inspirational. As well, many people who may not attend will download the material on the Internet and hopefully benefit. So its Going Solo’s attempt to strive for quality.
Go get them tiger.
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Thanks for the comment, Urs! Just to be clear (I’m not sure this is how you understood things, but I realise my post could be understood like that) — I’m not having any trouble with my speakers about the way I want to organize the programme. I’m just realising that there is an extra variable in there for me which I hadn’t accounted for when I started out (extra variable: make sure everything is covered).
I know that as a speaker, I’m often torn between “if only they would simply tell me what they want to speak about” and “I know how I want to talk about this topic, just let me do it my way”.
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[…] take place in Lausanne, Switzerland on May 16th. Organizer Stephanie Booth told me she means to inspire as well as educate the entrepreneurial crowd. Confirmed speakers include Stowe – the man with the Kangoo hat – Boyd, […]
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