What to do Post-Conference

We are all good at "going" to conferences. You have the travel, meetings, seminars, late nights, inspirational plenary sessions and so on. But we are usually very bad at the Pre-conference prep and the Post-conference debrief.

Generous Mind was just involved in helping with the 2012 Evangelical Press Association event in Colorado Springs (see all the tweets at #EPA2012). It was an excellent event with a wonderful mix of worship, learning, connecting and thinking.

But the greatest challenge for those who attended EPA last week and any of you who have recently been to a conference is how intentional you will be in your followup. Because it is in the followup that all the money, hard work and effort to attend the event will pay off.

So here are a few things to help make your Post-conference debrief more meaningful and your learning more long-term:

1. Write a blog or a report for your organization that outlines the 10-20 key ideas that you came away from the event with. Ask for questions and input from those you share it with.
2. Pick 5 ideas that you gathered from the event and write out how you will apply them over the next 4 weeks with very specific goals for what you want to achieve.
3. Commit to continue interacting with at least one person that you met via social media, phone or email.
4. Ask yourself how what you learned should impact the way you view your world. Take away at least 2 things that are of long-term significance.
5. Write down what you can do to better prepare for the same event next year so that you have a plan ready to implement as the next event nears.