Learning Task #6--Ilene Sorensen

The Sixth Annual Nutrition Seminar was held in Brookings, South Dakota. I interviewed some people that attended the seminar. The questions related to the value, location and how much effort had been put into the preparation of the conference.

One hundred twenty people registered for the Nutrition Seminar. This conference was a new type of endeavor in that the programming was a collaboration of many partnerships. This attempt was a first in program delivery with hopes of avoiding duplication of high quality information.

The program format was traditional with presentations by speakers who were a mixture from several organizations. Topics were 1--Agriculture and Nutrition 2--Meal replacements for Weight Loss 3--Phytochemicals and functional foods 4--Fad Diets 5--Gastrointestinal Response to Dietary Fiber 6--Irradiation:Food Safety Benefits and Consumer attitudes 7--Calcium and Iron Needs During Pregnancy 8--Nutrition and Stress 9--Communicate for Healthier Life Styles 10--Perennial Problems:Coming Home.

I attended all the sessions. My motivation was to obtain knowledge and material that I could utilize in programming efforts in my county. I interviewed three people who attended the seminar. I selected these people because of their career and background.

I asked the following questions. 1--What is your occupation? 2--How did you find out about the conference? 3--Was the information valueable to you? 4--What will happen because you attended the conference? 5--How could the conference be improved?

Bonnie is with extension as a Nutriton Education Assistant. So we had similar expectations of the seminar. She became aware of the seminar at a monthly staff meeting. She will use the information from a couple of the sessions in her group sessions. She was very glad to see such a variety of organizations involved in the planning. Bonnie was disappointed with the session on Communication for Healthier Life Style. It covered a different area than stated on the flier. For the most part Bonnie found the seminar useful.

Karla was hoping for more explanation and details. She is a Nutrition Education Assistant and thought it would be easier to understand with more explanation. Some areas were rushed over. She does hope to use some the management strategies to stretch the budget. The audience could have been asked to be involved more. She felt some of the sessions were cut a little short. She also liked that she could pick the sessions that she wanted to attend and the location was great.

Marie become aware of the seminar on a telephone call. She felt the information was top-of-the-line. As an Extension Educator she will be sharing the knowledge with others. It helped her gain confidence and will help in program planning. The conferebce was definitely researched-based. The location was excellent.

This conference was high in quality. It is rare to have a conference this close and with the high quality speakers. The content and attitude of participants was excellent. The overall opinion of the people interviewed was that it was a good conference and should be continued. It was informative and well presented.

I believe the conference met the needs of most participants. Many of them had different learning styles. I believe this was taught very traditionally. The speakers that asked questions and created dialogue seemed to be most effective.

I enjoyed the seminar.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2000