Fast Company January Commando Briefing by Scott Kirsner Issue 21 page 124 Nathan Johnson

One of the requirements for the class "Researching Relevant Professional Development" is to attend a conference and share the information with others in the group. With that in mind, I thought this article about how one person views attending conferences might be interesting. The article is about Esther Dyson, a lady who attends many conferences around the world, when she is not hosting her own.

Her first tip when looking at what conference session to attend is to try new things. Don't be afraid to attend conferences that interest you but may not apply directly to your field of expertise. Her point is that it is sometimes a good idea to get off the beaten path. It can be a good change of pace to hear new ideas and thought processes found in different circles of business and education. I think it is easy for an educator to get caught up in the idea that since we are working in a specialization area we shouldn't stray to far from that topic. With that mentality you can end up listening to alot of the same speakers over and over, which in some cases is fine but there are times when this can make for along day.

Her next tip is this, if the conference is organized with concurrent sessions, consider attending a session based on what a friend might think is interesting. You never know what will be learned at the session but one thing is for sure without the suggestion from a friend you wouldn't have considered going to it.

She recommends bringing in a laptop computer or newspaper for the session while sitting in the back of the room. Now, this is where I would draw line, even if it was a speaker I didn't enjoy, and I am not referring to sitting in the back. I was brought up to believe that it was disrespectful to work on something else when a speaker is up front sharing ideas they have spent many hours putting together. She rationalizes doing this by stating that working on something else helps get her through the slow spots in the presentation and keeps her mind fresh for the important ideas. While this might be true, I think this kind of attitude shows a lack of respect for the individual presenter. I would be interested in finding out how she would feel if she was giving a presentation and saw someone thumbing through the newspaper without regard to what she was saying. Would it bother her, I'll never know!

-- Anonymous, January 25, 1999