Seminar Success Tips - 5 Strategies to Leverage Your Post-Event Learning

By Jaime Romero

job, jobs, career

Some of what you learn and gain at a seminar will be lost unless you have a plan for locking it in and pursuing it. A seminar takes time out of our busy schedules. You will usually need to catch up on things that were left undone while you were gone. It's not the best time to add to those demands by taking the time to cinch in the learning and training you've just received, but it's the right time. It's wise to have a plan ahead of time for maximizing the advantage you gained by attending the seminar.

1. Review All Materials Immediately - Training tends to have a short shelf life. Besides, at a seminar you have crammed a lot of learning into a short time, and remembering and implementing it is more likely to happen right away. Make certain you are situated where you won't have distractions while you're reviewing everything and will yourself to internalize them.
2. Put New Processes into Place Right Away - Hopefully, part of your learning had to do with new ways to do the things you do all the time. Now is the time to implement those new approaches. The longer you put it off, the less likely you are to take advantage of them. Seize the day! Do it now!
3. Make a Plan for Regularly Revisiting the New Learning - Schedule an appointment on your calendar with yourself on a regular basis to review the materials and think about them again. This is a good time to evaluate how well the new processes are being implemented into your work plan. You will probably want to adjust those processes to make them work better now that you have experience with them.
4. Teach what you Learned! - It's an old truism but a reliable one that the teacher learns more than the student! Either work with an employee one-on-one and pass on the things you've learned or schedule a regular time with your own staff or department to teach them the principles you brought back with you from the seminar. Not only will you benefit from this, the value of the seminar is multiplied.
5. Invite One of the Experts from the Seminar to Visit your Department - If this expert was helpful and made you more effective, he or she could probably do the same for your department. The company may or may not be willing to cover this cost, but if you benefited from the seminar, you can make a good case for bringing the training in-house. Making your entire department more productive will affect the bottom line-a good rationale for spending money for reliable consultation and training.

Seminars are costly not only in terms of the money it takes to send employees, but also in terms of work time lost. It's important that you capitalize as much as possible on the training that came from that expenditure. If you and your department are able to impact the bottom line because of what you learned, the seminar will more than pay for itself.