Speaking Opportunities

So my new role gives me the opportunity to host our quarterly (well four times a year) Technology Advisory Committee meeting or TAC meeting for Region 11. To my understanding, this previously consisted of 50-60 people attending and get spoon fed information regarding state, regional, and local policy and change and then partaking in a lunch while listening to a vendor give their spill on their product or service. (Long sentence there)

Yeah that style might not play well with my personality so I decided to shake it up a little bit with my 50-60 attendees, get them active in the meeting, and even take it global. Piece of cake! So how did this work out? Well…

First off, my 50-60 attendees turned into 120! We had to open an additional adjoining room to fit everybody in the space. Largest attendance in a while from what I understand. I guess everybody wanted to size up the new guy. No problem we moved the wall and began presenting to an L-shaped audience. 

Second, let’s get them active. So what better way to do this than to have them participate in the famous “Marshmallow Challenge.” If you haven’t seen this, please check it out. It is fun and productive for large groups especially when your audience is a large group of technology administrators who are not accustomed to activity during the TAC meetings. Lots of smiles and laughter so I can’t complain there either.

Finally, how did we go global? Well when your meeting falls on Global Collaboration Day and your distance learning staff decides to broadcast your challenge and open it to schools across the world (Yes…we had Zambia, Australia, Canada and 3,200 other students from the US join us), it comes fairly easy actually. 

Without anymore detail, we were able to show off the capability of our Zoom distance learning tool, engage a somewhat traditional crowd and still provide the needed information for their districts. Throw in a fantastic lunch and a good night’s sleep. I think we might be able to do this.