Bringing the Conference Experience Back Home

By: Sarah Gilbert In: 2012 Fall Conference

11 Sep 2012

One of my core identities is "learner." In fact, three of my top five strengths (according the Gallup StrengthsFinder tool) have to do with collecting, savoring, and sharing information. I love the Fall Conference for all its different ways to experience learning. But there is a flip side to every strength, and it is easy to become so wrapped up in new ideas that it is hard to get back home, sort through it all, and start taking action on the most promising ideas.

Monday’s session on community indicator reports offered some wisdom for those of us who are starting to feel overwhelmed about now. Mary L. Thomas of the Spartanburg County Foundation described the role of her community foundation in the indicator partnership as the "knowledge source." The community foundation uses its convening power to bring the important actors together, but the foundation itself does not take on every action item that comes out of those meetings.

This concept takes some of the pressure off the conference-goer who is inspired yet incapable of doing it all. When my colleagues and I return to the Omaha Community Foundation, we debrief with other staff about our conference experiences. I tend to think of my report in three categories:

Information that resonates with our current activities and can help enrich them
Information that will help us as we pursue some specific strategic goals in the near future
Cool stuff we are not in a position to use now, if ever, but it is inspiring just to know about it

How do you sort through your conference takeaways, on your own or with colleagues, to move as quickly as possible to action?

Sarah Gilbert is director of philanthropic services for the Omaha Community Foundation.

2 Responses to Bringing the Conference Experience Back Home

Janet Shing

September 14th, 2012 at 2:24 pm

Great blog post Sarah, thank you. This is always an important question -how to channel all the ideas, resources and energy back at the office. For me, it’s about balance and matching effort with priorities. We can’t do it all at once. What I most appreciate about the conference are the stories of impact and the time to reflect.

Bringing the Conference Experience Back Home

2 Responses to Bringing the Conference Experience Back Home

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