Good Stuff from Joan Eisenstodt

Periodic musings of one of the Meetings Industry\'s recognized educators.

Stay up to date and in the know on the industry's top issues and events. Joan has over 30 years experience in every facet of event planning and is regularly recognized as one of the most influential people in the industry. Take advantage of her passion for our industry and life-long learning. Bookmark this page today.

Tag >> Speakers

Speakers - trainers - presenters - faciliators - all needed at meetings.  Organizations fret about the questions asked on evaluation forms, and those who present in any form frequently fret about how they are judged, er, ah, evaluated.

How do we know if a session went well? What tells us if people in the session learned from the session because of the content, the delivery, the room set or


THIS is what I fear we are going to hear more and more.  With the number of airlines that folded in the last few days, with the planes that were out of service for safety checks (something I see now as ongoing) and with capacity cut on all airlines (see this about USAirways http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2008/04/07/daily1.html?b=1207540800^1616337&ana=e_abd) and gas prices


After listening to Senator Barack Obama's speech about race in America and reading and listening to the many commentaries on it, I wondered: how often do we, at meetings, challenge our audiences.

We bring in learning facilitators who help people learn new skills. We bring in 'motivational speakers' who move people to tears or fill them with exhuberance.

When do we challenge an audience's thinking? Their view of the world and of the issues with which they deal? How often do we challenge our audiences?

Are you doing something in your organization? Tell us about it.