Jo Cook shares the thinking behind the TJ 60th Anniversary Conference and why reflection and action planning are central to its design. Drawing on expert insights and her own experiences, Jo explains how making space for thought can transform a good event into one that drives real change and learning.
“Reflection is essential for professional competence development in every profession”, stated Alberto A. P. Cattaneo, and from the very first imaginings of a TJ conference I wanted to ensure that reflection and action planning were strongly embedded into the design.
I attend, speak at, and get involved in many conferences and events. They’re usually very good, in different ways: some challenging, some practical, some best for listening, others more involving. But what often happens at the end of a day (or more) of conference attending is the physical and mental fatigue that leaves it all a bit mixed up.
Is the pen mightier without action?
In an eye-opening article for TJ, Ed Bernacki made a great point about a lot of conference-goers: we often make notes, and just as often never look at them again. What are we losing by ignoring the notes we’ve made? What is our organisation missing out on? How much better could things be if we remembered, and more importantly, acted upon, the nuggets of learning or shifts in thinking we took from the events we attend?
It’s for exactly this reason I made two important decisions when planning TJ’s 60th Anniversary Conference:
- To allocate time not to more speaker sessions, but to reflection and action planning
- To ensure that everyone had access to a variety of different approaches, including different facilitators
This meant some agonising decisions about which speakers and topics to select. Of course, I wanted all my favourite L&D experts to have time to shine, to share their wisdom and upskill us. But I didn’t have weeks, just a day. So focus, focus, and more focus it was.
Variety is the spice of this conference
Bringing more people into the reflection space would deepen the thinking, enrich the planning and improve the experience for everyone. If you look at the conference page, you’ll see that the fabulous AMC Newton and Amelia Wakeford have been collaborating with me on these elements.
Thanks to Ed Bernacki’s book, linked in his article above, this now looks like a keynote session with time immediately afterwards for thought, discussion and planning next steps. After lunch AMC and Amelia will lead a more personal and creative look at the learning to that point. At the end of the day, they’ll be working with me to help everyone make sense of the key themes, and turn them into decisions and next actions.
So, if a conference that offers great topics, sensational speakers and protected time for reflection and action planning sounds like a good investment of your time, the TJ 60th Anniversary Conference is for you. You won’t just leave inspired, you’ll leave knowing what you’ll do next.
Jo Cook is Editor of Training Journal and L&D specialist at her company Lightbulb Moment
