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eventsEvents
Designing a Subject Centre Event
Ben Knights
Many of the events and workshops to be found in the Subject Centre programme are jointly sponsored. We welcome and always take very seriously suggestions from colleagues for such joint events. Practical information about setting up one or two day events can be found on our information sheet 'How we can help'.
But the ESC team thinks it might also be helpful to spell out some of the thinking that underlies planning an event. We are prepared to take this risk of sounding patronising because we strongly believe that any event with which a subject centre is associated (be it conference, workshop, symposium, round table, or departmental development seminar) should in itself model sound pedagogic principles. In other words, those designing an event should deliberately think about how they expect participants to learn as well as what they hope they will learn. We have learnt from experience that under pressure academics sometimes fall into a default position – to put out a call (or ask their friends) for papers. There is a place for giving papers, though one might note that the relentless barrage of wall-to-wall 15 / 20 minute papers in the contemporary research conference has become something of an ordeal for presenter and audience alike. As a ritual, it probably has more to do with the sociology of the profession than with generating Deep Thought about the subject matter. At all events, ‘giving papers’ should not be the first choice of the organiser of an event on learning and teaching.
Shape, Flow and Rhythm
Participants in workshops are themselves to some temporary degree in the same position as students on modules. Part of the value of a development event is to enable them to reflect upon that experience of ‘being on the receiving end’. Even in the best-organised event they may sometimes feel cross, frustrated, or bored. Equally, they may feel excited or even elated. Obviously what you are trying to do is minimise the former and stimulate the latter.
To this end you need to think about the shape, flow and rhythm of the occasion. Some kind of input (short presentations, brief case studies) is generally though not universally a good idea. But input should be focused and contribute to the overall design. It is there to stimulate rather than to impart information. Partly of course presentations vary the pace and nature of activities. A crisp and focused presentation makes participants feel as though they have been given something (see below). But people need time to absorb and think through what they’ve been presented with, and one of the besetting sins of conference and event organisers – it may actually be the besetting sin - is trying to cram too much into their event. Yes to richness and density: all for that. Realistically though, in a one day event you have got from say 10.30 till 4.30 at the most. A blow-by-blow day a) risks leaving participants bored and frustrated; b) almost invariably leads to the breakdown of time boundaries. An overrun of 15 minutes by 11.30 will probably be an overrun of 30 minutes by 12.45, leading you to have to take an ad hoc decision to cut down the lunch break, or even cancel the final session.
Timing
Structure can be deadening, obsessive, mechanical. (Group chorus of ‘bring out number, weight and measure in a year of dearth.’) But implicit in the previous paragraph is a belief that a well-designed structure is actually enabling. As well as varying the elements, organisers need to think realistically about how much time to allot to each element of the day.
Presentations and discussion almost always take longer than you think, and it’s unsatisfactory for everyone to end up with off cuts of time too short for any sensible use. Allow adequate time for breaks – there will be a queue for the coffee urn, the coffee is hot, people get talking (it’s what they’ve come for). If you are using small groups, think about how they report back to each other or to the plenary – that too takes time. As it is also potentially repetitive, you might want to think about other methods (e.g. posters, OH slides) than serial report backs.
Above all, think about what you or your co-convenors can manage on the day. Occasional participants may thrive on chaos, but generally speaking people like to know where they are, and that the organisers know what they are doing. They don’t want to be wondering whether the lunch break (promised for 12.45 and it’s already 1.10 and climbing, and no one seems to be able to stop that voluble man over there) will ever come. If you have done as the Subject Centre advises and circulated a plan for the day, stick to it unless there are very good reasons to change.
To summarise briefly:
- Think carefully about who and what your proposed event is for. A clear – though not prescriptive - view of objectives is a good starting place for thinking through how you want to do it.
- Vary activities. Participants can get as irritated by being incessantly divided into small groups as they can by being incessantly talked at.
- Plan enough digestion and making up time into the day. As host you don’t want to spend the day looking at your watch and making impromptu decisions to cut down or cancel sessions.
- Participants are going to give up time and make an effort to come to this event. What will vindicate their decision to attend? What will they take away? Sometimes organisers need to ‘give presents’: some special input, some useful materials or handouts. The opportunity to network and talk to colleagues within an enabling structure is often gift enough – but as organiser you need to weigh up whether to include some ‘special’ elements. (For example presentations by colleagues who are known experts in a particular area, or who have a particular expertise to show off.)
- You’ll never pre-empt all the unpredictables that happen on the day, but do as much preparation as possible first. For example, capture and brief those who are going to chair sessions or lead small groups. Or if you are using rooms which you are not used to, visit them first. Is it up to you to move furniture, or can you arrange for caretakers to do it? (Getting sweaty and miserable dragging tables while greeting early arrivals is a bad start to your day.) If presenters are expecting to be able to use Powerpoint, are laptop and data projector available? Is the room networked? Better to find out the truth before the day itself.
- Put yourself in the shoes of those who are going to attend. What are likely to be their material or mental needs during the event? Academia has its share of heroic bladders, but most people need to go the loo from time to time, and also look forward to breaks where they can talk to colleagues – preferably with some simple treat in terms of drink or food.
- This is among other things a social occasion. How are you going to effect introductions? Just by letting people mingle? By a round of names and ‘why I am here’? No prescriptions: just an appeal for ‘fitness for purpose’ in the matter of introductions.
- A lot of factoids about attention span travel around the middle earth of L&T. But that doesn’t mean you should not think seriously about how long you can reasonably expect people to concentrate.
- Don’t turn it into a marathon: it isn’t the best way of ending to have people tensely checking their watches, fumbling with train timetables, or trying to tiptoe out without being seen. If your topic is very rich and complex, perhaps you should consider an event over two days.
