I’m stuck in a company conference this week. For three days I’m forced to listen to colleagues say “interesting” things about their web sites and the “new” initiatives they’re undertaking. There’s no wifi and only a few shared machines that we can use to check e-mail, etc. I believe there’s a special ring of hell that covers this torture.
More productively, I was also thinking that conferences like this should be banned and replaced with group work/collaboration/brain-storming sessions. There’s a room full of Web-loving geeks slowly rotting under the force of Power Point Presentations. Why not hand these folks an interesting problem or two or three and have them solve it over the run of this conference? I think our organization’s time, money and effort would be better spent, cooperation between the various branches would increase, and I mwouldn’t be sneaking out between sessions to grab a bit of Web. I will make the suggestion on the smile sheets they give out at these things, but I think I’ll corner the conference administrator, too.
Maybe it’s just me that hates these things, so does anyone else find PPT-driven conferences even remotely interesting? Anyone? How do you keep your interest levels up and learn something?
Of course, no one really likes these things. But I think a problem is that beyond “we need to share what we are doing,” people haven’t figured out better ways that dry presentations in windowless rooms.
Well, that’s not completely true. Look at OpenSpace and Appreciative Inquiry to get ideas on alternate modes. I believe these both start with a different assumption about trust and participation than do your typical work conferences.
Jack
The issue of trust in an extremely risk-adverse organization is an interesting one. I’ll continue to lobby people on a one-on-one basis and see if I can build critical mass for change.
I’ll look at the tools, too. Thanks for the recommendations.