ClappingTree’s Web 2.0

A reflection by Elliot Masie in the latest LearningTrends newsletter:

Dear Learning & Training Colleague,

You have watched me, as reader of Learning TRENDS, experiment my way through the design of a very different event, Learning 2005, over the past 12 months. (Me: “It has been truly interesting to watch.”)

In just 3 days, I’ll have the incredible honor of welcoming 1,500 learning colleagues from two dozen countries around the world to the start of a very different type of “conference”. We changed a lot of assumptions during the design process and I wanted to share those with you, as a personal reflection:

• Focus on conversations and dialogues rather than presentation. People want to have focused and meaningful conversations with peers.
• Take away the overhead projectors in most sessions and limit facilitators to one slide. As slides go up and lights go down, interaction and engagement go down.
• Don’t solicit a RFP for presentations, rather reach out to colleagues and ask them to lead a conversation or kick off a case study. Inviting gets a much different and richer level of participation vs. the same people presenting the same stuff at all events in our field.
• Drop the trade show. Put supplier materials in a backpack and create some one hour face to face case study sessions. Paid participants don’t want to be forced into the trade show. Exhibitors are frustrated with that format. And, over 78 top suppliers signed on as sponsors and are coming as learners, as well.
• Ask people to do something rather than just listen. So, we are creating 24 communities and 12 task forces.
• Shift from keynote presentations to interactive interviews with 15 thought leaders, like Malcolm Gladwell and Marshall Goldsmith. Speakers love being able to interact with a host, the audience and each other. I will bring Steve Johnson back on the stage to mull the future with Malcolm.
• Use technology for an Extreme Learning Experience:

• RSS Feeds of all content.
• PodCasts for three months before and three months afterwards.
• Social Networking System to make new colleagues.
• Put all content into an open wiki and allow participants to evolve the session focus.
• Give everyone a radio interactive device to carry around.
• Leverage SMS Text Messaging.
• Have a dozen bloggers throughout the event, documenting it all live.
• Create a Jam Band with two dozen music oriented colleagues.
• Place all content in the public domain, using the Creative Commons License.
• Build a virtual world called LearnLand to experiment withe 3D Learning.
• Honor the need to revitalize the classroom rather than replace it. Invite Bob Pike and others to dream about the future of the classroom.
• Create the entire event as a Sandbox, with a spirit that says let’s experiment and most will succeed, some will change and some might fail. Learning innovations requires that risk.

I have learned so much during this past year. I am moved that 1,500 of you will be in Orlando starting on Sunday. I know that dozens more will decide at the last minute to join us at Learning 2005 and we will welcome you at the door. And, I appreciate that the 60,000 readers of Learning TRENDS can be a part of this experiment with us, by accessing all of the content on-line after the event and perhaps planning to come to Learning 2006 (Nov 4 – 8 in Orlando).

Thank you and I look forward to continuing to learn with you, my learning colleagues.

Elliott