Creatively Avoiding the Post Conference Trip Report

Going to conferences is one of the few perks I get as a Corporate Drone.  A lot of folks think I sit by the pool with cigars and scotch.  While conferences are far from “relaxing” as a lot of folks assume, I always find them refreshing and intellectually stimulating. 

Conference attendees get so much information, however, it’s very difficult to transmit in a way that’s meaningful to people who can use that information on returning.  Sure I took notes during sessions, but no who the hell wants to read those?  And no one wants to read the trip report either.  Nor do I wish to write it since in all likelihood it won’t be read.

So as I was trying to avoid the work of writing the trip report upon returning from the Consumer Electronics Show in January, I happened on the idea of doing a roundtable discussion for my department and special guests.  No slides, no formal presentation, just a moderated panel of a few of the other Drones who also attended CES.  It turned out to be an easy way for the attendees to spread their knowledge, and, more importantly, an easy way for the audience to absorb it.  Additionally, it helped people in the audience make connections with the speakers and further relationships. 

       

Since it worked for CES, I tried it again when a group from The Company returned from South by Southwest.  I wouldn’t say either event was successful from the perspective of attendance.  Each session had maybe 20-30 people.  (Around 120 were invited.)   But participant and audience engagement and enthusiasm was high.  So I’m counting it as a win. 

I think coordinating events like this is often overlooked as a form of sharing information.  But it seems to me that there is an opportunity here for librarians to stand out.  There are a lot of benefits to this oral information sharing…

1. Sharing the information orally is a low burden activity for everyone involved. No one has to prepare a formal presentation and the audience doesn’t have to suffer through PowerPoint.
2. The session spreads the information a few people have in their head farther into the organization and helps justify the expense of attending the conference.  
3. The experts who attended the conference are connected to people attending the debrief who may not know them thereby enhancing business relationships.  
4. The experts who attended get a chance to interact with each other.  I received numerous “thank yous” from roundtable participants who hadn’t had a chance to connect and share ideas with one another since returning. 
5. The Mercenary Part: It gives you face time in front of an audience (as the host) and you get marks for “collaboration” (again at very little effort on your part). 
6.  Another Mercenary Aspect: Even if you didn’t go to the conference itself, offering to coordinate a debriefing session makes you look like a hero by taking the burden off the returning participants to do so.