Event Education: How to Provide the Best Breakouts, Workshops, and More!

Why IS education an important element in event design?

Education is often the top reason why planners attend RCMA’s annual conference. From previous positions as a planner and observation and researcher, I can say that most organizations consider education, training, and leadership development to be of utmost importance. When we consider that many faith-based events occur annually (or less often), it’s really paramount to put new ideas, content, and direction in front of attendees. I’ve found that in-person event education is one of the most effective ways to accomplish this.

Additionally, many faith-based events have a steady influx of new attendees, and people in leadership positions that need to catch up on content. This is certainly true of RCMA’s attendees. It just makes sense to seize the opportunity to convey relevant information, best practices, and cutting-edge initiatives and technology to those in front of us.

What purpose and value does education have in RCMA events?

It’s a part of RCMA’s DNA to help educate our attendees. From a supplier perspective, it’s vital that we help this base grasp the unique qualities of our market segment. Many new suppliers enter the sales force in the faith-based market with little knowledge of the distinctives of our segment. By providing relevant content geared to suppliers at our events, we help suppliers better understand planner needs and processes.

Many suppliers also attend our planner educational sessions. This helps them understand not only the needs planners have, but also what planners are learning. Educated suppliers are invaluable. When suppliers and planners learn together, they are stronger together.

We also place a lot of importance on providing planner educational opportunities at a variety of experience levels. As I mentioned, a significant percentage of our planners are first-time attendees each year. While they may not be new to planning, they are new to us! We take this as an opportunity to provide entry-level, grass-roots content. It’s important that we help all of our planner members to be on a consistent education level. There’s a body of knowledge that most would consider vital for success in our roles. Our goal is to teach that body of knowledge on an ongoing basis.

One of the ways we keep veteran planners engaged is to utilize them in teaching roles and in panel discussions. This allows our seasoned members to convey their hard-earned experience to eager learners. When it comes to ever-changing content–technology, legal subjects, best practices, current trends, and future casting, we utilize a vast collection of professionals to convey what is most current. Not only is it important to be educated, but it’s also vital that the information is up-to-date, relevant, cutting-edge, and meets perceived needs.

How does RCMA approach planning for event education?

I approach each event with a blank slate. First, I map out how many education sessions we would like to provide, usually determined by potential attendance and available space. Then, I begin to segment the numbers of sessions according to planner vs. supplier, new planners vs. veteran planners, practical vs. philosophical, technology, legal, best practices, etc.

Many of our educational topics come from members' requests in our post-event evaluations. We carefully read and consider these evaluations when planning our next events. As our team attends and observes other industry events, we also discern current topics that transfer to our audience. Our goals are to be relevant, current, and meeting needs. I keep running lists of potential speakers and topics on my phone. Anything that sparks a thought–reading, a conversation, sometimes even a dream–I jot down the idea.

When possible, I seek out our own members to share their experiences, processes and best practices. I often encounter speakers in other industries whose content transfers to our audience. I call this ‘borrowing brilliance’. All education doesn’t have to be a 100% match in order to be helpful. I rarely place a speaker in front of an audience (breakout or keynote) that I haven’t heard personally or that comes highly recommended by someone in whom I have great trust.

What challenges HAVE you faced?

Along with my list of ideas and subject matter comes some very specific topics that I wish to be addressed. It is often a challenge to find people to present these very specific topics– as they originated in my head and not theirs! I’m lenient when working with speakers. As long as the main ideas are covered, I allow the speaker the opportunity to customize their presentation and make it their own.

Everyone is not a speaker! There are a lot of great, experienced professionals in our industry – but they may not be great at conveying their experiences in a public setting. I try to incorporate a variety of educational settings – lecture, panel, discussion, round tables, etc. This allows for different forms of participation– in front of big audiences and more intimate settings.

On-site technology can be challenging. It’s important to discern the ‘tech skills’ of a presenter, before they arrive in a breakout room, 5 minutes before start time. If you can afford a technician to be present in your breakout rooms, it will ease a lot of worry to know that last-minute connections will be cared for by someone in-the-know.

What role do you see technology playing in event education?

I’ll probably always believe that face-to-face, live education is best. We’ve all lived through pandemic and adapted to on-line education. There’s a gamut of feelings about its success. The value of public schools utilizing the Zoom platform to 5 year olds is probably debatable. Perhaps it’s more effective with adults, and it does allow for connecting with distant audiences. The cost savings are obvious. The ability to capture, edit and save educational content has never been easier. Organizations can easily create a library of content to provide to their members and supporters.

Education can be accessed in most any location, on most any device and most any time. After two years of online education, there’s no doubt that much has been learned. The primary challenge with digital event education relates to the reliability of bandwidth, streaming connection, and the viewing device.

Some organizations became ‘experts’ at streaming content when they were forced to cancel live events. Others are struggling to learn, and in turn, produced a less-than-desirable product. It would be wise to learn during the ‘off-season’ of your events, how to utilize technology for these needs, or whether it makes more sense to partner with a provider that can help bridge the gap to make your success accessible via technology.

What are some up-and-coming trends?

We’ve proven that events can happen – no matter what happens in the world. The paradigm shifts to virtual vs. hybrid vs. live will continue and most likely, we’ll continue to be faced with challenging decisions regarding how we connect with our audiences.

As technology continues to advance, so does the ability of our audiences to navigate their options. We’ve all been ‘forced’ to learn new ideas and recent months have continued that momentum. This opens new doors for organizations to utilize multiple platforms, times and locations in connecting with their membership.

I think we’ll continue to see event numbers ramp up over the coming months, and attendees will want access to content, on-demand, at their own pace, to review or share with colleagues. Capturing content is most cost-effective and easily done during its original (live) presentation.

Reconnecting attendees with similar interests, after an event, for follow-up, post-event discussions, or to add additional content in peer-to-peer learning will be an important next step for organizations.

What are some tips for implementing education aT eventS?

Know your audience. You won’t know what your audience needs unless you know your audience. Don’t spend time trying to meet a need that doesn’t exist. Ask a lot of questions, connect with your audience and fine-tune content to address those questions.

Utilize a keynote speaker for a breakout session. A 30-minute presentation piques interest for an opportunity to dive-deeper into that topic.

Be creative! Learning doesn’t have to only be done sitting in rows staring at a Powerpoint presentation. Education can take place in a lot of settings. Our model for faith-based education is typically replicated based on our worship experience – sitting in a seat, while someone speaks to us. I’m not proposing that this isn’t effective – but rather, it’s not the only way learning occurs.

Consider small group projects, where attendees work hand-in-hand completing a task or sharing ideas. Put affinity groups together for sharing best practices. Strategically place multiple generations together for better understanding of differences and likenesses.

Seek out unique spaces – outdoors, off-site venue, stand-up meeting, public space (these are great for observing human behavior).

Consider various learning styles – lecture, tactile learning, group discussion, expert panels, impact of audio and visual stimuli, etc.