Recently I attended and presented at a conference for district level administrators. I had attended this conference for the past few years, so I knew the audience and the structure of the two days. However, this year I was fortunate to approach the conference from a different perspective.
Not long ago I left my position as a district administrator and have begun working for an organization that provides consultation and professional development. This year when I attended the administrators conference I was not preoccupied with what was going on back at the district office. I was present. And, it became obvious to me, that very few of us were.
I remember the feeling that things back in the district were seemingly more important then what I could be learning at the conference. I remember missing out on sessions because I had to take urgent phone calls from teachers and other administrators. Or skipping out on sessions just to sit in the hotel lobby and catch up on all the emails I was getting from being out of the office. I remember ditching out on the whole conference after lunch because I hadn't had a break from work in weeks, and leaving a conference a few hours early wouldn't even put a dent in balancing out the hours I had put in late in the evenings. I remember returning from the conference and feeling that I didn't get much out of it.
I combined those memories with some observations that I made during those two days at the conference. Administrators were on their computers all. the. time. If the computer was closed, the phone was out. Everyone seemed to be rushing to get everywhere. Hurry up and get into the keynote so you don't get stuck sitting right in the front. Hurry up and get to the bathroom before there's a giant line. Hurry up and get to the next session, again, so you don't have to sit in the front. Hurry up and open up your computer so you don't have to make small talk with the person sitting next to you. Hurry, hurry, hurry.
OK, so where is all of this going... hurry up Rachell and get to the point.
I guess what I am getting at, is why can't we just be present for the conference and participate in the moment? Is what's going on back at the office so much more important then you're own professional development? Then collaborating will others? Then taking a few moments to just breathe?
While I was presenting, mind you it was the last session on the last day, I discovered very few attendees appeared to be engaging in what I had to say. Very few people looked up from their devices to make eye contact while I was talking. I saw very few nods from those who were agreeing with what I said. And I saw a lot of reluctance when I asked them to turn and talk with one another. How dare I ask adults to engage in a strategy we ask students to do all the time!
This got me thinking, was it my topic? my delivery? my outfit? did I talk too fast? did I not include enough humor? was I just totally off base about the whole thing? Or was I over-analyzing it all and not putting enough responsibility on the attendees?
What is the role of an attendee at a conference? And why is it even important? Maybe the majority of administrators left energized and returned to their districts on Monday ready to tackle the world! Or maybe most of them felt like I used to, inconvenienced and annoyed that I had to spend two days away from my tasks.
This is year I left the conference feeling great! I connected with other administrators and specialists in similar positions as myself. I took in the information I learned from various sessions and have already begun to apply it to my work. I left feeling exhausted, but in a totally different way than in previous years.
It all leads me to think that our mindset going into a conference can play a huge role on what we get out of it. I approached those two days differently for two reasons. One, I didn't have the district level responsibilities on my shoulders. And two, I knew networking at this event was crucial for my new position. But does that mean that only persons in roles such as mine were able to feel this way? When 90% of the attendees were district administrators, do they all feel the way I used to?
So, who's job is it to change the feeling a conference leaves you with? Is it ours, the presenters at the conference? Or is it the attendees job to disconnect for a little while and take a chance that they may actually have a positive experience and learn something?
There are a lot of similarities that can be made from my recent conference experience to that of current classrooms and the importance of mindset. I won't get into that today, but I'm sure you can begin to draw these conclusions yourself.
Am I making this all up, and in truth, the problem is with the conference? Think about conferences you have attended. What has attributed to your experiences as an attendee?