share your secret sauce: submit a successful conference ... · explainer videos. list at least four...

Share Your Secret Sauce: Submit a Successful Conference Speaking

ProposalChris King

Chief Technologist, TOC and National [email protected]

@cking6

mailto:[email protected]

What I said we’d cover:

• Review practical insights for writing winning proposals• Explain the proposal selection process• Describe the benefits of becoming a speaker and how to justify this as

a professional development activity to your management

Why are you here?

A. Practical insights into writing successful proposals

B. Better understanding of TOC’s own proposal selection process

C. The benefits of speaking at conferences

D. Ways to justify these kinds of professional development activities

E. Head start on my next proposal

Bond Fides

Presenter

Presentation Notes

20 professional presentations, starting in 2008 Small: TOC, Skillsoft Perspectives, SITE, in-house courses at SRA Medium: GMU hosted Innovations in eLearning in 2011/12 Large: ATD, eLearning Guild, Training Magazine, Elliot Masie’s Learning conference SIOP is an outlier, outside of the L&D space. Reminder to think outside of the box.

https://www.elearningguild.com/lscon/sessions/speaker-details.cfm?event=589&q=king&searchfield=speakers&fromselection=doc.5263&from=sessionslist&speaker=2758

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Still a thrill….

Secrets

Pick the right conference

A catchy title is the secret sauce

The proposal is NOT the presentation

Ask for forgiveness, not permission

The right conference?ATD• TechKnowledge• International Conference & Expo

eLearning Guild• Learning Solutions• DevLearn

Training Magazine• Training• Online Learning

Masie Center• Learning

• National meetings in your agency/discipline

• TLDC

Medium conferences

Small conferences/ symposiums

• TOC• Local Chapter (ATD-DC; SHRM; PMI; etc.)• xAPI Cohort Party

Catchy Titles Make or Break Your Proposal

• Training Metrics, Data Sourcing, Analytics, and Business and Stakeholder Reporting

• Integrating Innovative Informal Learning Techniques with Existing Learning Programs

• Project Management for Instructional Designers

• Converting Traditional ILT to the Virtual Classroom

• Learning Evaluators’ Role: How Effective Are You?

• Designing Social Learning: “Informal” Does Not Mean “Unplanned”

• Don't Learn These Five Project Lessons the Hard Way

• The Agony and the Ecstasy: Converting Traditional ILT to the Virtual Classroom

Which of these sessions would you rather attend?

Proposal, THEN Presentation

Due 8-10 months before event

Work with your ideas, not your

inventory

No more than 1,000-1,500 words

in total

Session Description is hands-down the

more important part

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

https://www.td.org/ice-speaker-informationhttps://www.elearningguild.com/content/175/call-for-speakers/

http://darkarchive.wordpress.com/tag/gantt-chart/

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

https://www.td.org/ice-speaker-information

https://www.elearningguild.com/content/175/call-for-speakers/

Proposal Section (Generally)

Session Description

Learning Objectives

Delivery Method

Categories, Flags, Topics, Etc.

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Session Description to succinctly describe your session and the problem it addresses. You may have anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 characters (about 250 words) for this part. Keep in mind here that you do not need to use them all. Your reviewers will be reading dozens to hundreds of proposals. Well-written, short-and-sweet descriptions that clearly lay out the problem-proposed solution will stand out. Reinforcing that point: your proposal Description is often what shows up in the Conference Guide. Make sure you communicate clearly here! Learning objectives or a free-form text on how this knowledge can be applied on the job. This is pretty self explanatory, and you could have as many as 1,000 characters per objective. Delivery Method, explaining how you will transfer knowledge to the attendees. How will you engage the audience? Will this be a conversation or a lecture? What additional equipment (aside from laptop, projector, and screen) will you need? You could have from 1,000 to 1,500 characters. Note this is another place where your proposal can stand out from the crowd. No one will attend a 60 minute Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off-style lecture on purpose. You’re looking to add buzz words like “interactive,” “collaborative,” and “conversation.” Additional categories, flags, topics or classifications help the conference organizers ensure they are covering all of their themes. This is another good reason to know the attendee audience. If you know there is a particular topic or theme is lightly represented, this is an opportunity to submit a proposal with fewer competitors.

Rating Criteria (TOCAI)

Online proposal application is submitted on time

Online proposal application is complete—all boxes and items filled with data

Proposal clearly relates to one or more of the Institute themes

Proposal clearly aligns with one or more of the Federal ECQ’s and related competencies

Proposal written using correct spelling and punctuation

Proposal features a catchy, intriguing title but clearly aligns with themes and ECQ’s

Proposal has clear objectives and speaker’s objectives are achievable in session

Description is inviting; raises curiosity; makes you want more

Rating Criteria (TOCAI)

Description is customized to our event--NOT cut & paste from other event submissions

Presentation appears to be interactive

Presentation features case studies from federal agencies; success & failure stories

Proposal features a brand new or very timely topic

Proposal uses new technologies (or technologies in new ways)

Proposal features fresh perspective on familiar topic

Presenter is subject matter expert for the topic

Presenter has previously presented other topics at TOCAI with high evaluation marks

Forgiveness Over Permission

“Boss, I need to go to ATD-ICE 2019 this coming May here in DC. I’ve been accepted to deliver a concurrent session on Topic AB, which I know the DAC

was asking about recently. So let’s plan to re-use my conference presentation for a brown bag session with the agency components.

By the way, as a speaker I have a complimentary registration, so the cost of the conference is covered. I just need you to approve the travel for this

professional development opportunity which I wrote into my Annual Review. Did you know that 15% of the attendees are Federal employees, and two other components will be there too? Do you want me to conduct market

research on that RFP you’ve been working on while I am there?”

Here are the steps for submitting

Read the proposal, know the audience

Mark deadlines on your calendar

Write the draft

Let it bake

Revise the draft

Don’t forget to QA proposal

Submit it

Case Study #1

Presenter

Presentation Notes

While this description technically answers the questions, it does so with very little detail. Because the description is so vague, it’s tough to know what exactly the speaker will be covering on this topic. It also repeats content in the answers to the last two questions, providing even less detail than initially apparent. It’s important that your description share more specific details about what you’re going to be talking about in your session. Those details help people see the value in your content. They also help show what’s special about your take on the material—a particularly helpful piece of information if several people propose to speak on the same topic. Having a unique angle can help your proposal stick out from the crowd. (Source: Devlearn 2018 Proposal Writing Tips, https://www.elearningguild.com/showFile.cfm?id=6062)

Case Study #2

What is the suggested title for your session? How We Made Our Compliance Training Come Alive

Describe in no more than 70 words the issue or problem that this session addresses: Every spring, XYZ Bank asked employees to complete a task they dreaded: compliance training. Anti-money-laundering, industry-specific customer service, and branch safety courses were at best seen as a necessary evil and at worst as a waste of time. And while this training was meeting the letter of banking law, it actually wasn’t changing the behavior of employees. We needed a new approach—and one that we could build in-house.

Describe in no more than 100 words how this session will address this issue or problem: In this session, you’ll find out how XYZ Bank revitalized its compliance training by leveraging an unexpected technique: storytelling. This case study will tell you how we used real-world stories from the banking world and attention-grabbing writing to draw our employees’ attention, show how them how this content mattered to their branch work, and help them remember it long afterward. You’ll learn how we found the content for our stories, what our development process for writing them was like, and how we reworked our existing courses to focus them around these new story examples.

List at least four things the attendees will gain by attending this session. Complete the sentence “In this session, you will learn…”:• What sources we found in our company for great example stories• What kinds of stories worked best for our content• How we ensured this story-based approach still met banking legal standards• What data we used to prove to our SMEs that this approach helped improve

our branches

Presenter

Presentation Notes

This description very clearly tells the story of what this company did to address its compliance training problems. However, it doesn’t articulate what attendees will get out of the session. Right now, this feels very niche to the banking industry, but rethinking how this story is told can make it applicable to a substantially wider audience. When writing a case study proposal, it’s very important to make it clear how people not in your exact situation will still benefit from hearing your story. If an attendee can’t see that benefit in the description, they’ll likely choose not to attend your session. (Source: Devlearn 2018 Proposal Writing Tips, https://www.elearningguild.com/showFile.cfm?id=6062)

Case Study #3

What is the suggested title for your session?How CaptiLine Can Help You Create Animated Explainer Videos

Describe in no more than 70 words the issue or problem that this session addresses: Many people find themselves needing to explain complicated concepts in their courses. Pages of text technically get the job done, but they’re tedious to write and even more tedious to learn from. Plus, this approach just isn’t that effective, with many people forgetting the content almost immediately after reading it. But what if there were another option for sharing your content in a way that’s easier to understand and remember?

Describe in no more than 100 words how this session will address this issue or problem: In this session, you’ll learn how CaptiLine can help you create animated explainer videos—perfect for making your content feel more engaging. You’ll explore what makes CaptiLine better than the competition for creating quick and easy explainer videos. You’ll then take a tour of the CaptiLine features that make creating this content so easy, including the image library, pre-rendered animations, and audio recording functions. You’ll leave this session knowing how to use CaptiLine in an entirely new way to create stunning and effective explainer videos.

List at least four things the attendees will gain by attending this session. Complete the sentence “In this session, you will learn…”: • What features make CaptiLine best for creating animated explainer videos• How to leverage CaptiLine’s new image library to get started on your video• What animations are available in CaptiLine to illustrate your content• How to record and integrate voice-over and background music into your

CaptiLine file

Presenter

Presentation Notes

This description reads much more like a commercial for a tool than a session about explainer videos. While it’s absolutely OK to propose sessions that talk about how to use a specific tool, it’s important to walk the fine line between sharing how the tool works and sounding like you’re selling the product to attendees. If the session is more about building awareness of product features than sharing how to solve a specific challenge, then it can often come across more like a pitch. Another thing that can make a session sound like a pitch is if you work for the company that makes the tool or service. A session on a specific tool led by an employee of the tool vendor itself is often viewed with a bit more skepticism. Writing a proposal that sticks to solving a specific challenge can be helpful. Even better, proposing a topic that covers techniques that can be used with multiple tools, not just yours, can also help. For instance, this session could be reworked to talk about general techniques for creating explainer videos, with examples of how it can be done in CaptiLine. (Source: Devlearn 2018 Proposal Writing Tips, https://www.elearningguild.com/showFile.cfm?id=6062)

Case Study #4

What is the suggested title for your session?Using Storytelling to Make Compliance Training Stick

Describe in no more than 70 words the issue or problem that this session addresses: It’s that yearly task that everyone dreads: compliance training. For many, it’s an unavoidable chore made even worse by the often boring and tedious way this content is presented. At XYZ Bank, compliance training was meeting the letter of the law, but the bank found that its training actually wasn’t changing the behavior of its employees. The team needed a new approach—and one that they could build in-house.

Describe in no more than 100 words how this session will address this issue or problem: In this case study session, find out how XYZ Bank revitalized its compliance training by leveraging an unexpected technique: storytelling. You’ll explore how the team used real stories to draw people’s attention, show how the content mattered to their work, and help them remember it long afterward. You’ll learn how to identify what content is best suited to a story format, how to find real examples to share, how to craft a fictional scenario that feels grounded in reality, how to make a story stick with a reader, and even how to measure the difference this technique can make in the way people retain information.

List at least four things the attendees will gain by attending this session. Complete the sentence “In this session, you will learn…”:• Why storytelling is so effective for making dry content more engaging and

memorable• Where to start looking for real-world stories related to your content• What makes a strong story—particularly for sharing information• What data is most useful for proving a story-based approach is working

Presenter

Presentation Notes

The title directly describes the topic and will help attendees know what to expect from the session. The first part of the description clearly outlines the problem this session addresses. Because it’s a case study, this description does describe a specific situation, but it’s also written so that people in similar situations will be able to see how the content can relate to their work as well. The second part points out how this session addresses the problem. Once again, because it’s a case study, it touches not only on how the speaker solved his or her own challenge, but also on what someone in a different situation can learn from this. The third part highlights the key takeaways for attendees. Even though this is a case study, this section stays focused on what information from this session will be most useful for attendees in their own work, not the simple facts of the case study. (Source: Devlearn 2018 Proposal Writing Tips, https://www.elearningguild.com/showFile.cfm?id=6062)

Issues (Fix These!)

Not targeted at the

AudienceIt’s a pitch

It’s all about you

Not enough information

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Among the best resources for learning how to write a strong proposal are the session descriptions from past conferences. These descriptions are essentially edited versions of the content from the session proposal form, and they can be a great place to look for inspiration on what content to include in your proposal and how to approach your angle on a topic.

Thank [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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