Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that you can learn more from any
Speaker 1: experience when you plan to present what you've learned later.
Speaker 1: On my other podcast Best of Both Worlds, a listener
Speaker 1: wrote in asking for tips on how to do conference
Speaker 1: as well. I know that a lot of people go
Speaker 1: to conferences, get fired up, and then come home and
Speaker 1: forget everything a day later. People don't even reach out
Speaker 1: to useful connections or read the books they picked up.
Speaker 1: And really that is too bad, because if you are
Speaker 1: going to take several days out of your life and
Speaker 1: travel somewhere and often pay hefty conference crisis, you might
Speaker 1: hope that you would get some mileage out of the experience.
Speaker 1: There are lots of ways to get a better return
Speaker 1: on investment. Please do reach out to the people you
Speaker 1: bothered to connect with, but beyond that, one of my
Speaker 1: favorite practices is to set up a situation where you
Speaker 1: present what you learned. The most obvious way to do
Speaker 1: this is to schedule a lunch and learn type gathering
Speaker 1: with colleagues who didn't attend the conference. You could do
Speaker 1: this a few days after you return, you tell people
Speaker 1: what was covered at the conference and any useful information
Speaker 1: you learned. You share names that people should know and
Speaker 1: tips for folks who might go next year. Now, your
Speaker 1: colleagues may or may not find your presentation particularly useful,
Speaker 1: but it will reinforce all the knowledge that you took
Speaker 1: away from the conference as you think about how to
Speaker 1: turn it into something that won't bore people to tears.
Speaker 1: To make this lunch and learn even better, make sure
Speaker 1: you schedule it before you go to the conference. That way,
Speaker 1: you will be going into all conference sessions knowing that
Speaker 1: you will need to present something useful later. You will
Speaker 1: be far more mindful of writing down important points and
Speaker 1: organizing your notes for later access. You might ask questions
Speaker 1: that you know your colleagues will be interested in and
Speaker 1: be sure to get responses. Planning to present what you've
Speaker 1: learned changes what you learn. This technique can be useful
Speaker 1: for things beyond conferences. When you are reading a book,
Speaker 1: think about how you would describe the main points to
Speaker 1: a friend. Then do it. You will probably retain more
Speaker 1: information from the book. If you are taking a trip,
Speaker 1: think about how you would write a short guide for
Speaker 1: a friend who is considering the same trip. You'll pay
Speaker 1: more attention to what's interesting and what's worth visiting and
Speaker 1: the things that you learn there. Planning to present what
Speaker 1: you learn makes you a more active consumer of whatever
Speaker 1: you are learning. To put it simply, you pay more attention.
Speaker 1: And since it is easy to sleep walk through much
Speaker 1: of life, that little nudge toward mindfulness can go a
Speaker 1: long way toward making any experience more useful. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tip, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the number
Speaker 1: four then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot
Speaker 1: me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at i heeart
Speaker 1: media dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out with
Speaker 1: all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to
Speaker 1: staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.