People & Processes By Dave Lutz, CMP

Take Away

Session Descriptions That Whet theAppetite

Meeting professionals devote countless hours to room setup, F&B, hotel negotiations, speaker selection, audiovisual, and other logistics. Yet, little time is spent on crafting the best session titles, descriptions, and learner objectives.

A lot rests on conference session descriptions. Howwell youconveywhat—andhow—content will be available to attendeesmay be the deciding factor in whether they even register. Increase the chances they willbyfollowing four simple practices.

1.Comeupwithanintriguingsessiontitle. It’s the first and perhaps only impression you’llmakeona potential attendee.The primary purpose of a title is to get the attendee to readthe first sentence of the description.Which of the following two session titlesmakes youwant to readmore? Plenary Ses- sion—The State of the [fill in the blank] Industry or What Everyone Ought to Know About the Macro Trends Affecting the [fill in the blank] Industry. The second title does a better job of piquing the reader’s interest.

attending. To move attendees up the pyramid of cognitive skills, Bloom’sTaxonomy(http://tinyurl. com/6h43uu) should be factored into session development and description. Strong LOs have three distinguishingcharacteristics:Theyareobserv- able, measurable (you can evaluate them), and decided by the participant. Whichof thesetwoLOsdoyou think is better?

After the session, participants will be able to: Increase their sales skills by 50 percent and maintain critical partnerships. Identify seven ways to improve their sales and maintain critical partnerships. The firstLOhas sexappeal, but it is misleading

andnot measurable.Have you ever walkedout of a conference session and automatically improved your skills by 50 percent?Of course not.The sec-

Strong learner objectives have three distinguishing characteristics.

2.Livenupyoursessiondescription.Most confer- ence sessiondescriptions are dull, leading attendees to believe that the presentation will be the same.A session description should get the reader to say, “Hmm, that sounds interesting. What do the learner objectives [LOs] look like?” Focus on the reader. Make a promise and

address theWIIFM(What’s In It For Me?) benefits of the presentation. The word limit imposed on most session descriptions is not the challenge. It’s choosing the rightwords to accurately describe the session, pull readers in, and get them to commit.

3.Craftstronglearnerobjectives.These statements that follow the session description detail what outcomes the participantmay expect as a result of

ondmeets all threeLOcharacteristics. Include two or threeLOswith session descrip-

tions to help participants choose the presentation that’s right for them.

4. Spell out who should attend. This is a critical component to include in marketing materials. Many attendees have walked out of a session and said, “That wasn’t for me. I wish the session description had been more specific.” Event professionals should label the appropriate

audience for each session in terms of experience level—novice, intermediate, or veteran—andniche area, as well as other categories specific toeachindus- try.This simpleadditionwon’t takemuchspaceand can reap great attendee benefits.

ON_THE_WEB: Learn more about writing solid learner objectives from the American Association of Law Libraries at www.aallnet.org/prodev/outcomes.asp.

28 pcma convene March 2010 ILLUSTRATION BY BRAD YEO

Dave Lutz, CMP, is managing director of Velvet Chainsaw Consulting,www .velvetchainsaw.com, a business-improvement consultant specializing in the meeting and event industry. His company assists organizations in realizing top- and bottom-line growth by delivering customer- focused solutions in business development, best practice and process improvement, strategic planning, and training.

Compelling Copy The primary purpose of a session title is to get the reader toread the first sentence of the session descrip- tion. The primary purpose of the first sentence is toget the reader to the second sentence, and so on, through to the learner objectives. By the time the

attendee has read the title, description, and learner objectives, the goal is to have con- vinced the reader to attend that session. Ultimately, the goal of the conference organizer is for the session titles, descrip- tions, and learner objectives to accu- rately match the presentation that is delivered.