2007 SLC Blog

PHOTOJOURNAL OF SLC 2007

Well, that was a whirlwind tour! Before I knew it, I was back on the Magic Bus back to Alexandria, VA. I did however manage to take a few pictures (thanks to those who did say cheese for me) while caught up in the SLC Tornado. I pulled some of the better shots to give you a taste for what the week was like. See the link above for more pics!

Some thoughts: I really thought the choice of speakers has improved in the past few years of national conferences. This year was no different – very thought-provoking or inspiring or both (ok, one of the speakers left me hanging for his remedy, but still had some interesting points). Also, I think the whole best practices concept – with one-page blurbs on successful efforts – was a real hit. I kept hearing that these one-pagers had to be recopied because they were flying out of their holders. That’s good news for sure.

Others have done a great job chronicling the events, so I won’t do more. Let me take a “how to improve tack” on this post. A small, but not insignificant challenge for us in the future – are Powerpoint presentations always the best way to deliver content?

Many of the sessions were admirably varied in approach. And hopefully, most sessions used powerpoint as a supporting tool and not as the centerpiece (and definitely not the sole type of media/interaction used), but where we over-rely on it, perhaps we could do better. I remember a Great Rivers conference I went to a couple years back where I attended a session in the little free time I had and was refreshed and relieved to see that the speaker was going to spend the whole time milling around us in front of the TABLE (you know, the big long one that looks like a barrier island). I realized how accustomed we all are to a single style/format/seating layout of presentation.

A couple of trainings recently encouraged experimentation – the big message of the first was “step away from the powerpoint” and make sure the speaker is the center of the show, not the technology. Move around, don’t be glued to the podium.

The second had a lot of points, but I’ll pick a few – 1) bring in physical objects to show people (adults still like show n tell) 2) if you do present info on a projected screen, try not to be limited by the graphics included in powerpoint 3) also, try to make sure as much ink as possible is devoted to delivering content (so,for example, what are the boxes for on an org chart? It’s clutter – get rid of it, they say. The trainer also made light of powerpoint templates with logos on every page. Perhaps we only need it on the first page and last page? )

Lastly, here’s a limerick collectively created by some especially deranged UWA staff on the LONNNGG ride home (thanks to a seemingly needless merge on the GW Parkway):

There once was jam that delayed us,
The info on Google betrayed us,
The wait was so long,
It drove us to song,
Next time, we won’t take the bus if you paid us. (ok, Baltimore in ’08 perhaps!)

Actually, it was a fun ride home. Started to take me back to some Spring Break trips (!)

Until next time!