After planning successful biennial conferences for 20 years, why would our association change the content-development process?

Exponent Philanthropy’s National Conference brings together 900 people for more than 65 sessions and workshops. Historically, we designed the sessions in-house to uphold quality, relying on staff experienced in our field, while paying close attention to audience needs, adult learning theory, and data from past evaluations.

We developed a set of design principles that call for each session to have

• a clear focus
• well-defined learning objectives
• opportunities for participants to absorb and apply the content to their work
• multiple learning modalities such as coaching, storytelling, and individual reflection
• sensitivity to pacing and energy.

Session evaluations had consistently averaged “very good” to “excellent.” Our members came to expect practical and relevant content, new ideas and inspiration, and the opportunity to learn from peers.

Revisiting Our Session Design Process

In 2017, we stepped back to look at our session design process, which was requiring considerable staff time. We had two opportunities: First, our members increasingly expressed interest in engaging a broader range of experienced practitioners and thought leaders in the planning. How could we involve them? Second, our senior program staff had a combined 40 years of session design experience. How could we leverage their expertise?

In fall 2017, we hosted our first-ever call for sessions, meaning people beyond our staff would design two-thirds of our conference program. To train and support 40 external session designers and maintain quality, we inaugurated a session design coaching program. We gave designers a written Session Design Guide, which documented effective principles and practices, and we asked them to sign an agreement committing to a series of tasks and deadlines over eight months. A webinar kicked off the training.

The core of the program was coaching with our two senior program staff. Our staff coaches put into practice training we developed for members on peer coaching, emphasizing skills of active listening, making observations, and asking follow-up questions. The coaches’ role was to help the session designers be as successful as possible with our audience. Each designer was asked to schedule two 30- to 60-minute phone calls with a staff coach.

The coaches’ role was to help the session designers be as successful as possible with our audience.

Coaching External Session Designers

The goals of the first coaching session were:

1. Clarify the focus. Coaches asked the designer, “What is this session about?” and also, “What is the session not about?” Some of the most useful conversations helped the designer narrow the session’s scope and focus on specific goals that could be accomplished in a 75-minute session.
2. Make the topic universal. Some designers’ topics were too focused on one organization or project. Coaching helped them identify the mindsets, practices, or tools in their work or experience that other participants might use.
3. Design for our audience. During the conversations, we made references to our members’ unique needs, opportunities, and challenges. Almost half the designers had not focused on our audience before.

Careful listening and clarifying questions by our staff coaches made a difference. As a solid foundation was built for each session, with specific takeaways for participants, the designer could complete the rest of the planning with greater clarity and ease.

The goals of the second coaching session were:

1. Engage the audience. The coach and designer brainstormed ways to invite the audience to participate actively; for example, through discussions in pairs or trios, case examples, role plays, or interviews. We drew on our Session Design Guide, which features more than 40 audience-engagement strategies.
2. Craft discussion questions. When session participants are asked to pair up or talk in small groups, they often aren’t given enough purpose and focus to have useful, satisfying conversations. We coached designers to create specific discussion questions that support the learning objectives.
3. Shape the agenda. To create an effective balance and flow for each session, we worked with designers to develop timing for the session’s various segments and activities.

More than 20 designers voluntarily checked back with their session coach a third or fourth time to review developing plans.

The result? Sessions were rated just as high as those of our previous conferences, and we received positive feedback about the process. A couple session designers who were experienced conference presenters told us that our guidance and coaching helped them up their game as well. More importantly, we learned we could engage more people and more voices in our conference—if we invested in providing individual, personalized support along the way.