There is nothing quite like an ILTA conference to re-energize you (no pun intended, AC/DC). Learning, networking, brainstorming, tweeting, idea-sharing . . . it’s enough to make a person want to blog. In fact, here I am in new territory, motivated by the countless sessions I attended where folks were either tweeting content live or taking notes for their blogs. How do they do it, I wondered. Well, it turns out it’s kind of easy – you find a topic you’re passionate about and the words start flowing.
I went into the Gaylord already thinking about what I’d take back to work at the end of the week (and I’m not just talking about requests for stress balls). How do you translate or repackage a week’s worth of fantastic interactions with peers for those back at the office? Or for yourself, for that matter. I decided to play to my strengths as a list-maker. Bulleted lists with hand-drawn checkboxes are my specialty. I’m one of those people who likes to write down what I just did so that I could cross it off the list and feel better about doing it. I digress.
I made a few lists – first of the key takeaways from the sessions I attended. Next a list of the sessions I didn’t get to attend but wanted to remember to check out the materials or recordings. Another list of brilliant things other folks were doing that I knew I needed to start doing, too. Finally, a list of what I considered at the time to be radical ideas I’d have to find quiet time to reflect on before I could turn them into action items. I still have to capture all the nuggets shared via twitter (big shout-out to the tweeters). I already incorporated ideas from Tom Koulopoulos’ keynote into a recent team meeting. There were plenty of other takeaways from that week – materials from vendors with plans to get demos for my team, inspiration from all the great peer award nominees’ accomplishments in the past year, business cards from the new connections I made with intentions of continuing conversations or just making sure we LinkedIn. And I even jotted down ideas for sessions I’d love to see considered for next year. If you want to be part of the volunteer team that makes the magic happen, be sure to check out Peggy Wechsler’s e-Group post or head straight to the ILTA volunteer page.
Ayelette Robinson, who was part of Conference Committee this year, has shared some great tips in the past on how to “come back a star.” Here is a link to one of her posts: http://2010conference.iltanet.org/MainMenu/MakeTheCase/Conference-Value-Continues.aspx. She has some excellent suggestions for carving small blocks of time for big rewards after conference. Steve White and Julie Brown have also blogged some great ideas and recaps from conference, too.
The Professional Services Peer Group has created a “meeting in a box” on this topic to encourage discussion at the local level. We’d also love to know if you attended (or heard about) any sessions that should be considered for an encore webinar. We know recordings are available for most sessions, but an encore gives folks a chance to interact with the speakers. Another way to keep the interaction going is to join the discussion on the e-Groups.
Those of us who were in D.C. for conference were lucky to experience ILTA’s peer-to-peer philosophy first-hand. The obligation and challenge we have is to not only act on some of what we learned on site, but to share it with our peers back at the workplace. And prove the value of ILTA so we can meet again in Vegas next year.
How did you recap your ILTA experience for your coworkers?