Genealogical Meeting and Conference Dynamics

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DearMYRTLE posted 90 minute institute and conference sessions yesterday, with a link to Rethinking how we 'conference' How to design a conference with the brain in mind, published on April 22, 2011 by David Rock in Your Brain at Work.

Rock's article was interesting, with the concept that an ideal presentation should include:

"Simply put, a session can't have more than 30 minutes of formal, pre-planned delivery. Within those 30 minutes, every 10 minutes there needs to be one of 4 interactive components:

• Digestion (which means just letting participants discuss the ideas amongst themselves).
• An Exercise, which means an activity that participants do alone or with each other to experience a model.
• An Application, which involves discussion about the applications or implications of an idea, often facilitated by a person that is not the presenter.
• And of course, Questions, which is a standard Q&A."

He also suggests that an ideal conference session would be 90 minutes, not 60 minutes, and that there should be a significant break (30 minutes or more) between conference sessions.  That's interesting, isn't it?  We've been doing it wrong, with 60 minute sessions and 10 minute breaks to get to the next meeting room, go to the restroom, or visit the exhibit hall.

How can a local society deal with this in their monthly programs?  It seems to me that a 90 minute program or meeting with 30 to 45 minutes of presentation on a specific topic, in three segments, including discussion, exercise and application periods, would be ideal. 

Let's use a typical society program with a speaker's presentation.  How could something like this work?  Say I was giving my FamilySearch presentation (which is 90 minutes in length):

*  An overview presentation of FamilySearch Historical Record Collections and how to search for them. (15 minutes)
*  An application period to demonstrate online searching for a specific person in all databases, and searching in a specific database.  Use audience requests for this. Attendees with laptops running could do their own searches. (15 minutes)
*  An overview presentation of the Family History Library Catalog and use of it. (15 minutes)
*  An exercise by each person (on a sheet of paper) to try to identify resources in the Catalog that could advance their research. (15 minutes)
*  An overview presentation of FamilySearch Research Wiki and use of it. (15 minutes)  Have attendees identify areas that they could add content on a worksheet. (15 minutes)
*  Question and answer session on everything presented and discussed. (15 minutes)I've used 15 minutes as the time segment rather than 10 minutes (thinking that genealogists can concentrate longer than the average person...), plus it's impossible for most genealogical speakers to limit remarks to 10 minutes, let alone 15 minutes, in one segment!  The 45 minutes of presentation is actually less than what I usually prepare for a 60 minute presentation. 

At present, I try to prepare 90 minutes of presentation material because the San Diego Genealogical Society has two 45 minute sessions with a break between them.  I try to have five or six modules (different aspects of a subject), 10 to 20 minutes each, in those 90 minutes, so that I can remove two or three of them for a 60 minute presentation at another society, if necessary.  The reduction in my presentation time from 90 minutes to 45 minutes will enable me to create another presentation with the material not used the first time.

My example above could also apply to round-table discussions on a specific subject.  For example, I chair the Chula Vista Genealogical Society Research Group, where I make a 30 to 30 minute presentation on a subject (tomorrow's subject is Maps and Atlases), then ask for attendee examples of their research on the subject, and then general discussion of the subject or genealogy in general.  It's a two hour session, and is working pretty well.  The time goes really fast for me and for the attendees.  Many of them share their experiences and ask questions, then try to put the offered suggestions into practice.  We don't have reliable Internet access in the conference room; if we did we could do a demonstration as part of this meeting.

The goal of all genealogical conferences, seminars, classes, programs and meetings should be to facilitate learning by the attendees.  I like the concept of adding more discussion, exercises and applications to programs and sessions - it might actually reduce the presenter's workload, and would improve communication between presenters, organizers and attendees.  Conferences and seminars might be more effective, while requiring fewer speakers and offering more exhibit or impromptu discussion time.

What other suggestions do you have to put David Rock's suggestions for program meetings and conferences into practice for genealogists?