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Xu Yi

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Nov 10, 2009, 4:19:58 AM11/10/09
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Three Ways to Make Conferences Better

5:26 PM Tuesday June 2, 2009
by Nick Morgan

Tags:Communication, Networking, Presentations

The meetings and conference business has taken hits from the economy and Joe Biden telling everyone he wants his family to stay off airplanes. But, much like the overall economy, the business is slowly turning around, or at least slowing its decline. So this is a good time to take a moment to consider the conference business in general. What could it do better when it comes roaring back in 2010? Following are my three radical suggestions for improving meetings and conferences.

1. Conferences and meetings should tell unique stories. Think about how conferences and meetings are typically planned. A committee picks a theme. Then someone finds a keynote speaker to open, and maybe one to close. Then the committee divides the rest of the time up into 60-minute slots and fills them with 'breakouts', panels, workshop leaders, and so on. The result? From the conference-goer's point of view, it's like a regular workday, only worse. You've got back-to-back meetings to attend, a day or days you don't get to schedule, and uncomfortable seating. The only choice you get to exercise is not to take part in some or all of the sessions. Then you feel guilty for sneaking off to the gym, or your hotel room, or the bar.

It's a dreary prospect, because it could be so much better. A conference should tell a story, one that unfolds and builds from the initial moments to the close. Like any good story, there should be moments of high excitement, followed by moments of relative calm. That's different from panic and boredom in ceaseless alternation. A good meeting should make linear sense from start to finish, in a way that allows attendees to retain what they see and hear rather than just feeling overwhelmed by the information.

2. Conferences should be for, by, and about the attendees. A meeting or conference should feel participative, and you, the meeting attendee, should have some significant part in it beyond being a warm body. Attendees should react, critique, judge, schedule, and vote for what they like and don't like. And that's just for starters. There are many ways to give attendees a larger role in meetings and conferences, from making them part of panel discussions to creating discussion groups to having them manage Q and A.

Every meeting should have an MC, or MCs, and they should do more than just point out the bathrooms and introduce the next speaker. They should integrate, challenge, pull together, combine, disrupt, and generally function as the representative of the attendees, making sense of it all and demanding more from the speakers and other leaders.

3. Conferences should be about more than just eating and sitting. We live more and more of our lives in the splendid isolation of the Internet, with all the faux connectors like Facebook, Twitter, email, and the rest. Getting together is an increasingly rare and important privilege. Meetings and conferences should be constructed to take advantage of the gathered group. Every meeting or conference should use the power of the group to give something back to the community in which the meeting is held. Help a local charity, fix a local problem, champion a local hero, start a new movement. There are many ways one could imagine making use of the combined energies of the people assembled. It's a crime to waste that gathered power.

To be sure, some meetings and conferences do some of these things now, but not enough, and few, if any, get them all done. Meetings take their toll on the environment, the workplace, and the families of the attendees. It's time to raise the conference stakes and make them serve us better.

Nick Morgan is President of Public Words Inc, a communications consulting firm, and author of Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma.


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Xu Yi, Kaverjody
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Test Automation Coach
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Xu Yi

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Nov 11, 2009, 11:17:07 AM11/11/09
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某人的blog上关于Agile2009和ScanAgile2009的一些回顾和想法:
 

Agile 2009: A Retrospective

Thursday, 3 September 2009 What I Liked About the Conference

  • Day 1: The Ice Breaker Evening Event – The activities at the event, such as Giant Chess and Jenga, multiple wii game stations and an open space area,  gave attendees a great reason to mingle and network.
  • The Can-Do attitude of the conference helpers and presenters was a good example of collaboration in action.
  • Day 4: Dinner Banquet – The quality of the dinner was superb for a meal served to a table of 8 let along for 1,400 diners.
  • Day 4 Keynote “The Dawning of the Age of Experience” by Jared M. Spool – An entertaining and educational talk on the importance and relevance of user-centred design in our lives.
  • Participants were exceptionally forthcoming with their session feedback which should help improve future runnings of the sessions.
  • Watching Ola Ellnestam and Gerard Meszaros in the finals at Programming with the Stars reminded me of what software craftsmanship looks like in action!
  • Discovering that The Business Value Game doesn’t make learning business value modelling sufficiently explicit.  
  • Getting better acquainted with old friends and making new friends.
  • The city of Chicago provided numerous opportunities for promenades to relax the mind and re-charge the body after a day crammed with learning.

What Would Make the Conference Perfect

  • Find a way for attendees to familiarise themselves with the programme quickly and easily (it took me at least an hour per day to decide on a session shortlist).
  • Find a way of reminding attendees which sessions they attended to fuel meaningful conversations during the breaks.
  • Create opportunities for the different types of attendees to cross-stage mingle instead of enforcing silos by primary interest.
  • Kick off the conference with a facilitated ice breaker exercise to encourage mingling from the start.
    Intersperse the conference with ice breaker exercises to encourage more mingling throughout the conference.
  • Introduce One-Minute-Presentations by session presenters at the start of every day (or every morning and every afternoon) so that attendees have more information on which to base their session choice.

ScanAgile 2009: A Retrospective

Friday, 16 October 2009

It’s my second visit to Helsinki and it’s been quite an adventure! It’s been almost a year since my first visit.

What Went Well

  • The location: Getting the chance to see beautiful Helsinki in the fall
  • Over 280 participants attended – and it’s only the second time ScanAgile has been run!
  • The conference was well-organised, everything went really smoothly!
  • Learnt a bit about Beyond Budgeting from Bjarte Bogsnes in his experience report on implementing the techniques at Statoilhydro
  • Being challenged by questions that made me think hard about how I coach and why
  • Meeting Agilists from all over the world, including Brits who now live in Finland!
  • Getting a chance to sample Open Space sessions on Day 2 of the programme
  • The Toyota Way Management Principles session with Pascal: Illustrated how to implement a kanban system using baskets with the help of Snow White’s Seven Dwarves and the Evil Queen
  • Receiving feedback and recommended reading list from Tom Poppendieck (thanks Tom!) on our Toyota Way session
  • The Conflict Resolution Open Space session by Pascal where we learnt that we don’t have to compromise: it’s not either or. It’s  AND!
  • Post-conference get-together with the very warm and friendly folks from Reaktor (voted second in 2009 Best Workplaces in Europe competition)  at their very stylish office (with its very own onsite sauna!)

What Went Wrong

  • Too many theoretical presentations
  • Too few sessions based on real-life experiences of using Agile
  • No list of attendees, where they work and the country of where they come from

Puzzles

  • How do you get the most out of Open Spaces?
  • What’s the best way to hear everyone speak and engage those interested at an Open Space?
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarves proved popular with the crowd: Would ScanAgile be interested in featuring an Agile Fairytale session next year?

Lessons (Re-)Learnt

  • I learn more from interactive sessions
  • I learn more when I disagree with the material being presented or the speaker because it forces me to question what I think and why I think it
  • We often ask questions not to find answers, but to merely seek for affirmation of our pre-prepared answers. By asking questions with a closed mind, we limit our capacity to learn compared with when we inquire with an open mind
  • ‘You don’t lose weight just by standing on the scales’ – thanks Bjarte Bogsnes for a great reminder!
  • Fixing budgets once a year is like having banks that only lend to customers once a year. That simply wouldn’t be acceptable nor practical
  • It’s customary in Finland to relax with your colleagues in saunas in just your birthday suit!
  • Design and creativity are a matter of national pride judging by the myriad of colourful shops of handmade goods and crafts!
  • Using Thinking Tools such as the Conflict Resolution Diagram allows us to have our cake and eat it! No more compromises through clear thinking. Hoorah!
  • Instead of eating your own dog food, drink your own champagne instead. Cheers to ScanAgile’s organisers and the humorous participants!

Steven Mak

unread,
Nov 12, 2009, 3:51:46 AM11/12/09
to Scrum Chengdu
她不是 "某人" 了吧 :) Portia 會說廣東話的~

On Nov 12, 12:17 am, Xu Yi <kaverj...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 某人的blog上关于Agile2009和ScanAgile2009的一些回顾和想法:
> -http://www.selfishprogramming.org/
>
> <http://www.selfishprogramming.com/2009/09/03/agile-2009-appreciations...>
> Agile 2009: A Retrospective<http://www.selfishprogramming.com/2009/09/03/agile-2009-a-retrospective/>
>
> Thursday, 3 September 2009 What I Liked About the Conference
>
> - Day 1: The Ice Breaker Evening Event - The activities at the event,
> such as Giant Chess and Jenga, multiple wii game stations and an open space
> area, gave attendees a great reason to mingle and network.
> - The Can-Do attitude of the conference helpers and presenters was a good
> example of collaboration in action.
> - Day 4: Dinner Banquet - The quality of the dinner was superb for a meal
> served to a table of 8 let along for 1,400 diners.
> - Day 4 Keynote "The Dawning of the Age of Experience" by Jared M. Spool
> - An entertaining and educational talk on the importance and relevance of
> user-centred design in our lives.
> - Participants were exceptionally forthcoming with their session feedback
> which should help improve future runnings of the sessions.
> - Watching Ola Ellnestam <http://ellnestam.wordpress.com/> and Gerard
> Meszaros <http://xunitpatterns.com/gerardmeszaros.html> in the finals at
> Programming with the Stars reminded me of what software craftsmanship looks
> like in action!
> - Discovering that The Business Value
> Game<http://blog.nayima.be/2009/08/27/agile-2009-report-wednesday/>
> doesn't
> make learning business value modelling sufficiently explicit.
> - Getting better acquainted with old friends and making new friends.
> - The city of Chicago provided numerous opportunities for promenades to
> relax the mind and re-charge the body after a day crammed with learning.
>
> What Would Make the Conference Perfect
>
> - Find a way for attendees to familiarise themselves with the programme
> quickly and easily (it took me at least an hour per day to decide on a
> session shortlist).
> - Find a way of reminding attendees which sessions they attended to fuel
> meaningful conversations during the breaks.
> - Create opportunities for the different types of attendees to
> cross-stage mingle instead of enforcing silos by primary interest.
> - Kick off the conference with a facilitated ice breaker exercise to
> encourage mingling from the start.
> Intersperse the conference with ice breaker exercises to encourage more
> mingling throughout the conference.
> - Introduce One-Minute-Presentations by session presenters at the start
> of every day (or every morning and every afternoon) so that attendees have
> more information on which to base their session choice.
>
> <http://www.selfishprogramming.com/2009/10/25/barcamp-is-brill/#respond>
> ScanAgile 2009: A
> Retrospective<http://www.selfishprogramming.com/2009/10/16/scanagile-2009-a-retrosp...>
>
> Friday, 16 October 2009
>
> It's my second visit to Helsinki and it's been quite an adventure! It's been
> almost a year since my first
> visit<http://www.selfishprogramming.com/2008/12/04/life-in-the-cold/>
> .
> What Went Well
>
> - The location: Getting the chance to see beautiful Helsinki in the fall
> - Over 280 participants attended - and it's only the second time
> ScanAgile has been run!
> - The conference was well-organised, everything went really smoothly!
> - Learnt a bit about Beyond Budgeting from Bjarte
> Bogsnes<http://www.epmreview.com/Resources/Interviews/Bjarte-Bogsnes-Project-...>in
> his experience report on implementing the techniques at
> Statoilhydro <http://www.statoilhydro.com/>
> - Being challenged by questions that made me think hard about how I coach
> and why
> - Meeting Agilists from all over the world, including Brits who now live
> in Finland!
> - Getting a chance to sample Open Space sessions on Day 2 of the
> programme
> - The Toyota Way Management
> Principles<http://www.agilecoach.net/coach-tools/the-toyota-way>session
> with
> Pascal <http://blog.nayima.be/2009/10/18/scan-agile-2009-retrospective/>:
> Illustrated how to implement a kanban system using baskets with the help of
> Snow White's Seven Dwarves and the Evil Queen
> - Receiving feedback and recommended reading list from Tom
> Poppendieck<http://www.poppendieck.com/people.htm>(thanks Tom!) on our
> Toyota Way session
> - The Conflict Resolution Open Space session by Pascal where we learnt
> that we don't have to compromise: it's not either or. It's AND!
> - Post-conference get-together with the very warm and friendly folks from
> Reaktor <http://www.reaktor.fi/> (voted second in 2009 Best Workplaces in
> Europe competition<http://www.reaktor.fi/web/en/news/reaktor-the-second-best-workplace-i...>)
> at their very stylish office (with its very own onsite sauna!)
>
> What Went Wrong
>
> - Too many theoretical presentations
> - Too few sessions based on real-life experiences of using Agile
> - No list of attendees, where they work and the country of where they
> come from
>
> Puzzles
>
> - How do you get the most out of Open Spaces?
> - What's the best way to hear everyone speak and engage those interested
> at an Open Space?
> - Snow White and the Seven Dwarves proved popular with the crowd: Would
> ScanAgile be interested in featuring an Agile
> Fairytale<http://www.agilefairytales.com/>session next year?
>
> Lessons (Re-)Learnt
>
> - I learn more from interactive sessions
> - I learn more when I disagree with the material being presented or the
> speaker because it forces me to question what I think and why I think it
> - We often ask questions not to find answers, but to merely seek for
> affirmation of our pre-prepared answers. By asking questions with a closed
> mind, we limit our capacity to learn compared with when we inquire with an
> open mind
> - 'You don't lose weight just by standing on the scales' - thanks Bjarte
> Bogsnes for a great reminder!
> - Fixing budgets once a year is like having banks that only lend to
> customers once a year. That simply wouldn't be acceptable nor practical
> - It's customary in Finland to relax with your colleagues in saunas in
> just your birthday suit!
> - Design and creativity are a matter of national pride judging by the
> myriad of colourful shops of handmade goods and crafts!
> - Using Thinking Tools such as the Conflict Resolution Diagram allows us
> to have our cake and eat it! No more compromises through clear thinking.
> Hoorah!
> - Instead of eating your own dog food, drink your own champagne instead.

Xu Yi

unread,
Nov 12, 2009, 4:33:41 AM11/12/09
to scr...@googlegroups.com
2009/11/12 Steven Mak <stev...@gmail.com>


她不是 "某人" 了吧 :) Portia 會說廣東話的~

 
我不认识,她是什么来头?

Steven Mak

unread,
Nov 12, 2009, 10:49:46 AM11/12/09
to Scrum Chengdu
Emergn 高層,他們有做外包中介、敏捷咨詢、培訓/指導等工作。

她最善長的是創作學習敏捷開發過程的遊戲:

http://www.agilecoach.net/
http://www.agilefairytales.com/

On Nov 12, 5:33 pm, Xu Yi <kaverj...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/11/12 Steven Mak <steven...@gmail.com>

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