We don't know enough about how people who attend meetings, conferences, conventions and other gatherings learn.  More, we seem to plan these events without care to different learning styles and learning motivators.

Today, at the MSAE (Michigan Society of Association Executives) CMP Summit, "Beyond the Designation", we are delving into issues that are .. well, beyond the designation and moving the group to some higher ground. In so doing, we continued into a conversation about why meetings are the same -- as they've always been. (Oh . . . I've mentioned this before? Uh huh -- and I will again and again until we can make meetings smarter.)

 VARK is one of the inventories we used today to discover the more about the CMPs gathered.  Like the percentages of the general population, the majority of those participating are kinesthetic learners.  As I do always in training and facilitation, I brought creative stuff for people to use to engage them as they learned.

At lunch, a number of people who said that normally, in sessions, they get antsy because they fear that a speaker will "call them out" for fiddling with stuff or doodling but without doing so, they don't pay attention, did!  They said that by my giving permission to relax and play -- and by understanding their learning styles -- they learned better.

In each audience, there is a percentage of Visual, Aural, Read-Write, and Kinesthetic learners.  By learning about those styles, by briefing learning facilitators (aka "speakers"), by paying more attention to room sets, content and delivery of content, we will show great ROI to our audiences.

Will you?