Acronym

Another thought from yesterday's “Diamonds in the Rough: Turning Speakers into Exceptional Content Leaders" session Jan Ferri-Reed and Gail Swanson: one of the audience questions was on how to prepare a conference of, say, 100 speakers. My immediate thought was of a webinar or teleseminar. Thinking myself pretty smart, that was one of the options given, and, noted Swanson, it's something that ASAE & The Center did for this conference. Ok, so I'm not so revolutionary smart--but I do have access, so I caught up with Senior Manager, Learning Megan Denhardt, who pulls together the Learning Labs for the annual meeting.

She said there are more than 250 speakers in the labs. This year, ASAE & The Center did a conference call only, in previous years, they've integrated the Web into it. She estimated that 50 to 60 percent of speakers participated, and noted that they record the session and send it to all speakers on CD.

Gary Rifkin, himself a speaker at many ASAE & The Center events and someone who trains speakers as part of his work, facilitated the discussion with Denhardt. The session covers all the basics--the room sets, the demographics, how to tailor a presentation to the audience, and just basic tips on delivering a strong presentation from a variety of different settings (single-person presenter to facilitated discussion to panel discussion).

They also open it up so that anyone can share their own tips and tricks. She also noted that the Speaker Orientation session is only one of several ways they prepare speakers for the annual meeting.

A final note: the 3 general session speakers and the 20 thought leader sessions receive more one-on-one care and handling.