Another great info-chunker is learning evangelist Kathleen Edwards, who is rapidly becoming one of my new favorite meeting design experts. At her 15-minute session at the Learning Pavilion, she had kind of a new year's theme, as in "Out with old, in with the new."
What's out:
A small group of people on a program committee who may or may not know what the audience wants and/or needs making all the content choices for the conference.
What's in:
Using technology to connect with the audience to learn what they really need.
What's out:
Speakers who try to cram everything they've ever learned into a session.
What's in:
Outcomes-focused, learner-centered sessions that focus on key points that can be digested over the course of the session.
What's out:
Sage on the stage providing a one-way firehose of information.
What's in:
Guide on the side who engages the learners and facilitates learning by making it all about you, the learner.
What's out:
Learner apathy, as in people who just sit and passively absorb (or not) the information.
What's in:
Learners who take charge of their learning. If they aren't getting what they want, they'll go somewhere else to get it.