Lynsay,

Making presentations to a specialist group as you describe has overtones of compulsion and 'team building' that some would run away from. I'm really trying to encourage a spirit of opting in, that is why my emphasis is on short, non-competitive and less formal rule-bound presentations.


I am also trying to get away from the 'must be new' or 'cutting edge' theme - that is well established in our existing event programmes. Personally I think there is a lot to be learnt from old techniques, we talk about 'lessons learnt' a lot but all too often that just means patching up what we did wrong this time. How about really learning from the past?


As an example I saw a 1930's film last week in which the eyes of a car driver were replaced by lamps and by turning them on and off it was possible to see on an external screen where a real driver should be able to see. Now that is an interesting reversal of reality, the light normally goes the other way! It reminded me of a computer game that I programmed back in the 'kilo-byte' days when characters only moved orthogonally in 2-D. Hidden rhinos were supposed to charge at the player if in line of sight but it was easier to reverse the logic, was there a rhino, hidden or not, in the four lines of sight of the player? These are both examples of literally looking at the problem with another point of view! Good modern management theory?


Linking these presentations to something like an AGM as you describe might be needed. Perhaps some sort of exhibition? A quick thought: Rather than your TPN members doing a talk, how about a display board each with the member on hand to answer questions?


Your idea of short videos or podcasts might be worth building on. My first thought was that it could be used for the 'new/cutting edge', (do we still have 'Electronic Letters' and the like, short papers?). But there is no reason why it can't be used to follow up my original idea. There would need to be some organisation though, a place to publish and a publisher. Certainly some guidance on 'how to' and maybe someone to 'top and tail' what has been submitted?


Actually, looking at 'the buttons' on this message form maybe these discussions could carry 'richer' content? At the very least though there would need to be a forum topic for this purpose, (more than one if we went the 'letters' route?).

Lynsay,

Making presentations to a specialist group as you describe has overtones of compulsion and 'team building' that some would run away from. I'm really trying to encourage a spirit of opting in, that is why my emphasis is on short, non-competitive and less formal rule-bound presentations.


I am also trying to get away from the 'must be new' or 'cutting edge' theme - that is well established in our existing event programmes. Personally I think there is a lot to be learnt from old techniques, we talk about 'lessons learnt' a lot but all too often that just means patching up what we did wrong this time. How about really learning from the past?


As an example I saw a 1930's film last week in which the eyes of a car driver were replaced by lamps and by turning them on and off it was possible to see on an external screen where a real driver should be able to see. Now that is an interesting reversal of reality, the light normally goes the other way! It reminded me of a computer game that I programmed back in the 'kilo-byte' days when characters only moved orthogonally in 2-D. Hidden rhinos were supposed to charge at the player if in line of sight but it was easier to reverse the logic, was there a rhino, hidden or not, in the four lines of sight of the player? These are both examples of literally looking at the problem with another point of view! Good modern management theory?


Linking these presentations to something like an AGM as you describe might be needed. Perhaps some sort of exhibition? A quick thought: Rather than your TPN members doing a talk, how about a display board each with the member on hand to answer questions?


Your idea of short videos or podcasts might be worth building on. My first thought was that it could be used for the 'new/cutting edge', (do we still have 'Electronic Letters' and the like, short papers?). But there is no reason why it can't be used to follow up my original idea. There would need to be some organisation though, a place to publish and a publisher. Certainly some guidance on 'how to' and maybe someone to 'top and tail' what has been submitted?


Actually, looking at 'the buttons' on this message form maybe these discussions could carry 'richer' content? At the very least though there would need to be a forum topic for this purpose, (more than one if we went the 'letters' route?).