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More ASAE Annual Thoughts

One of my yearly comments on the ASAE Annual post-meeting survey has been about the sessions. There are just too many offered at the same time. I was sitting down planning my sessions and found many I wanted to go to, but were in the same time slot. For example, on Sunday from 1:30-2:45 there are 25 Learning Labs. Doesn't that seem like a lot for one time slot?

I understand more choice is better and there are lots of different types of attendees, but I would rather have more, shorter sessions. Break those up into groups of 12 and make them 45 minutes. Force presenters to skip the fluff. Or, have them offered twice during the convention.

Just some thoughts. Hopefully this isn't viewed as a complaint. Really it is a compliment. The sessions and speakers are great. There is just too much I want to do and not enough of me.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I like the suggestion of shorter sessions. Besides allowing us to attend more sessions (and forcing speakers to be more efficient with their time), it would also enable us to move around more - it would be physically beneficial and lead to more networking.
August 12, 2008 at 5:53 PM
Anonymous said…
Really? To be honest, I've found this to be the most anemic workshop schedule of any ASAE meeting yet, and I've been to a lot of them. I was able to find one workshop per session I wanted to attend, but that's it. That's all I needed to justify my attendance in my own head, but still, I miss the days when I had a hard time choosing.
August 12, 2008 at 10:44 PM
Anonymous said…
Kevin, maybe you've been to too many meetings. I was overwhelmed with the choices when I first went - perhaps it was the novelty of the sessions.

As the years went on, the choices seemed fewer. But I don't attend every year so there's often something fresh to look forward to.

The real problem is several interesting sessions in one time slot and none in the next. More choices would be better.
August 13, 2008 at 3:48 PM
Jeffrey Cufaude said…
Matt, 25 sessions aren't a lot considering there are thousands of people at the meeting with very diverse learning needs. The session length also allows for interactive formats to be used as opposed to presenters just talking at participants.

That being said, it might be interesting to have a round or two of shorter sessions that could use different formats.
August 14, 2008 at 6:08 PM
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