One Report, Three Unique Sessions
How can the same core content yield multiple distinct sessions at the same conference? Have you faced this challenge?
I recently graphic facilitated three sessions at CoSN's conference for edtech leaders, all grounded in CoSN's Driving K-12 Innovation initiative (where I serve as project director). What differentiated each presentation was the audience, the facilitators, and the way they interacted with the material.
The Sessions
Panel + Discussion + Optional Q&A
Slide Presentation + Two Discussions with Share-outs
Brief Presentation + Discussion + Share-out
Audience
Sessions 1 & 2 had potentially overlapping attendees, so we designed them to be valuable for those attending one or both presentations. We thought Session 3 attendees (a committee of superintendents) would be less likely to overlap.
For each audience, we considered which ideas from the innovation report would be most relevant to them and focused on designing learning that was engaging, and actionable.
Facilitation
The facilitators for each session differed, and we considered how to share their unique perspectives and elevate the voice of attendees in the room (see Interactivity, below). In each session, we used graphic facilitation (my ears + brain + pen 😊) to capture insights, visualize relationships between ideas, and help people feel heard.
Session 1 featured a panel of edtech leaders from the 130+ member Driving K-12 Innovation Advisory Board. It focused on the implications of the top 9 innovation topics.
Session 2 was led by members of the EdTech Innovation Committee, which focuses on enabling action around timely innovation topics. This session prioritized small group discussion to strategize overcoming hurdles in attendees' schools and districts.
Session 3 I presented solo, introducing the collaborative process used in the initiatives and focusing on facilitated conversation.
Interactivity
In each of the sessions we designed time for attendees to interact around this content. Not only did we want to reflect the collaborative spirit of the related CoSN initiatives, but to take advantage of being in-person synchronously.
The interactive elements varied across sessions—from open discussion to guided collaboration—with interactive time ranging from one-fourth to the majority of the session. Graphic facilitation helped create cohesion in each session.
With this approach, we created three different learning experiences from the same content!
Do you find yourself speaking multiple times on the same topic? What factors influence if and how you tailor your presentations?
Joyfully,
Laura