by Kathie Niesen, CMP

​​Do we really need to develop faculty? Doesn’t that just happen naturally? The answer is yes if you are very lucky and if you are that lucky don’t you wonder how much better your education plan could be?
 
Your faculty development plan doesn’t have to be or complicated, you can start small and grow it over time. Start with a plan to help your current faculty improve their presentations. Tips on creating power points, how to give a exciting lecture, there are plenty of websites out there that can help you create a program to do just that.
 
Create a video and post it on your website so your speakers can access it at their leisure or put together a program for your annual conferences and meetings. Offer a boot-camp for those who want to develop their teaching skills. Take advantage of your current experienced faculty. Ask them to help you put your faculty development program together and teach it. If you organization’s educational program is successful then you already have faculty members who are great educators.
 
Next identify those young members who may want to become involved in your education program. Ask for volunteers to blog on your website or serve as ambassadors at your meeting. Identify those who want to become involved those members are going to be your best assets.
 
Do you have a call for abstracts? If you work for a medical, scientific, teaching or engineering association then chances are you do have one. And if you do, then you already have a pool of professionals who want to be involved. Identify some of them to help you build your program.
 
Your already have the resources to create a faculty development program and doing so will help ensure the educational success of your organization.
 
Kathie Niesen, CMP is the Owner of KMN Meetings and Events. She specialized in the planning of medical meetings, instructional design, working with volunteers and faculty development. You can contact her at [email protected]
 
Have something to say? Say it on The Chatter, SPiN members are invited to submit Blogs for publication in The Chatter. If you are interested send an email to [email protected]. Let us know what you want to blog about and we will contact you.

Wait a second - before we get started, take a moment to answer this question:

Do you like to have fun?

Though I’ve been told never to assume, I’m going to break the rules and guess that you confidently answered, “Yes!” to that question.

When you think about the conferences and meetings you plan, do images of smiling attendees, speakers, and exhibitors come to mind, or could your event use a bit of a fun-makeover? Allow me to introduce you to the best makeover your conference will ever have: Gamification.

Gamification allows your attendees to participate in enjoyable games and challenges, without manual raffles or cumbersome post-event point tallying. Just as planning your event is a process, planning to implement a game at your conference should also have thought behind it. Start by defining your objectives, and then distill the desired actions and behaviors to satisfy those objectives. By encouraging particular actions, you can focus the attendee’s attention on networking, sponsors/exhibitors, or key areas of your event:


Attendee Networking
If you need attendees to network more at your event, you can create a Networking Game that incentivizes participants to not only make connections - but step out of their comfort zone and create lasting relationships.


Sponsor/Exhibitor Booth Traffic
If you need to improve sponsor/exhibitor booth traffic, create a Check-In game with challenges that awards points for visiting booths. Create more specific challenges and give individual sponsors/exhibitors their own passcodes to reveal after a more in-depth discussion for even more points.

Create A Unique Experience
Create a Scavenger Hunt at your event and guide the participants through the optimal attendee experience by sending them to all the important places and important people. This improves their perceived value of the event while achieving your event goals.  

For more information on Gamification, please enjoy your complimentary copy of this exciting educational ebook, or email our team at [email protected].

Courtney kicked off her career as a corporate meeting planner and now puts that knowledge to use as a marketing & industry relations strategist for EventMobi, one of the most innovative, fast-paced event technology companies in the world. She continues to be very involved in the meetings industry, engaging in various international speaking opportunities and volunteering on multiple committees. Courtney is the recipient of the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) 2014 Chairman's Award and was selected as one of Connect Magazine's 40 under 40 this past year. She currently serves on the MPI Foundation Canadian Council and will begin her term on MPI's International Board of Directors in 2016. She can be reached at [email protected].