The conference of my dreams

It’s been two or three weeks since the NZATD conference.

This year’s conference was really fun, and I had a great time. I definitely learned things, particularly at Miranda Verswijvelen’s session.

I am wondering what made Miranda‘s session so outstanding?

I think it was two things: Miranda had done a really significant amount of research. She wasn’t bringing us a model she’d read about and sharing her journey. She has just finished a PhD on her topic and it showed. And she wasn’t sharing information about something I already have a good grip on. Miranda’s sources of information and recommendations for readings were well outside my usual professional reading areas. Video game storytelling has a huge amount for me to learn from as a learning designer, and it is new to me.

Two years ago, the Science Communicators of Aotearoa New Zealand (SCANZ) invited me to their annual conference to form part of a panel talking about using technology to capture people’s hearts and minds, and to run a session on goal setting. I had great feedback on both sessions, from people who said that what I shared with them was really novel and exciting. My co-panelists were a data scientist and an animator. (Another thing at SCANZ that I liked was having an unconference section in their conference, helping people to gather and co-create understanding.)

I think that one of the missed opportunities for many professional conferences is the chance to bring in people from related fields to share their insights. Learning and development has some truly exciting related fields: evaluation, behavioural science, animation, videography, teaching, advertising, sales — the list goes on.

I really enjoyed this year’s conference, but I hope next time we do a bit less preaching to the choir and look further afield for speakers.