Planning Your Sessions - 2015 Annual Meeting
Call for Sessions
A Call for Sessions provides the philanthropic sector the opportunity to submit fully developed breakout sessions focused on the three thematic areas as a way to share innovative approaches, knowledge and expertise.
Things To Keep In Mind As You Submit Your Session Proposal:
Provide a Rich Learning Experience?
- Does your session showcase top innovators who share creative solutions and experimental approaches?
- Does your session deepen knowledge and build skills using experiential, hands-on learning techniques?
- Does your session provide concrete direction, practical application on ways to continue the learning after the conference?
- Does it engage the audience both in terms of content and compelling format?
Align with the Conference Audience?
- Would this appeal to the conference audience as outlined?
- Will this topic appeal to multiple job titles (C-suite, program officer, accounting, development director; etc.)?
Incorporate Adult Learning Principles?
- Does your session include active participation of learners through discussion, feedback and activities creates more learning than passive listening?
- Does your session have a problem-centric focus? Learners come to your presentation expecting to get their problems solved. Adults are problem-centric, not content-centric.
- Does the new information you plan to share have linkages to previous knowledge and experience or it will not be remembered?
- Is your content information truly relevant to the learner's life and work?
- Does your session design include clear explanations for participating in your outlined activities? Adult learners are self-directed learners who have some strong beliefs about how they learn. Explaining why the audience should participate in specific activity and how the process as well a content benefits their learning increases participation and satisfaction.
- Are your content, learning outcomes and activities well aligned?
- Since the adult brain can only process small bursts of information at a time, does your workshop design include time for reflection, discussion and presentation in a diverse yet integrated approach?