Dear AACORNers,
I've been a quite silent member so far, but I'm grateful that David Barry invited me to join
the AACORN network in its very initial stage - I've been amazed to
see it grow so fast with all you resourceful and committed people (it's almost reached a
point, where I don't feel worthy of being a member...) and I have followed many of the conversations with
great interest.
Well, to the point: Having flirted with research activities for
quite some years, I've finally started my Ph.d. at Learning Lab
In short, the purpose
of the research project is to explore conferences as a learning space.
Conferences tend to be dull and boring with way to many powerpoints and
monologues - and if the point of attending a conference is to acquire new
knowledge and gain new insights, then most conferences fail (I know this is a
bit harsh, but I’m quite amazed by the general acceptance of wasting time
at conferences, be it in a professional or academic setting). I therefore
believe there is a need for creating more effective ways of learning in a large
audience setting.
I should probably add here that I’m talking about those
types of conferences, where many people meet a day or
more to listen to “experts”, share knowledge and network, e.g.
professional conferences, academic conferences and association meetings. This
rule out sales conferences, “internal” organisational conferences
(teambuilding, kick-off, value-implementation etc.) and innovation conferences
where there is an explicit purpose of developing new knowledge - for example
new ways of creating jobs in rural areas or how to promote the health condition
of the general public. These type of conferences tend to be more carefully
planned, so I’m talking about improving worst case scenario…
The research design
implies that I participate in the planning of X number of conferences, from the
very first organising committee meeting till the conference is held, and
evaluate the participants’ experience of the conferences. I’ve been
thinking about a guiding principle for the development of new conference
formats, and since I consider a lack of attention to be the principal problem
for most conference goers, I’ve decided to use dramaturgy – or
dramapedagogy to be more precise, since the link to learning is important - as
a field of reference.
The ambition of implementing dramaturgy in a conference setting should
not be interpreted as increasing performance on stage and consequently keep the
participants in a passive audience mode or to make the participants perform in
various role plays. The intention is to explore dramaturgical models (and the
various concepts inherent in these models) as a
template for designing a conference sequence that takes the question
of attention and learning into consideration.
I'm writing to you all because I have serious troubles finding
research articles, stories, cases etc. within this particular field. (I am of
course aware of the Open Space tradition and as mentioned, I’ve found
many examples of good and productive innovation conferences, but apart from
that, searching for information and literature has been like yelling in the
forest - the only thing that comes back is my own echo.)
So, if you know of ANY
research articles or other resources that deal with the following topics, I
would be grateful:
-
the learning dimension of conferences
-
non-traditional conferences (whatever that is – of course I’m
thinking of conferences that draw on dramaturgy, but other creative means of
structuring a conference program, stimulating conversation, creating networks
etc. would be interesting too)
-
conference culture and history (be it in an academic or professional
setting, tracing norms, values and traditions.)
I guess that creative
ways of doing research communication all together also would be interesting, as
many conferences (at least in DK) tend to be an act of communicating research.
Any
response or feedback is welcomed. I
will be happy to compile all your input in a digest format for everyone to use.
As I have been too
lazy to update my profile on the AACORN web (shame on me!), you can turn to my
profile at the LLD website to find out more about me and the project: http://www.dpu.dk/about/njp
Thanks in advance for
your attention ;-)
Nicoline
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Doctoral School of Organisational Learning (DOCSOL)
LEARNING LAB
The
Emdrupvej 101
2400
email: [log in to unmask]
phone: (+45) 8888 9983
mobile: (+45) 606 505 44
web LLD: www.lld.dk
web DPU: www.dpu.dk
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