Conference Time!

So I missed Catalyst this year...What a bummer.  However I was at a different leadership conference of sorts this weekend.  I was at SWACUHO.  A conference designated for Resident Assistants from Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

We go to conferences to learn things.  I'm sure that if I had gone to Catalyst I would have learned some pretty phenomenal things.  I know I learned some pretty great things pertaining to my job by attending SWACUHO..

However, with many conferences we attend, listen, and then forget.  To this I say, what's the point?  Granted I will forget things about the conference that I just attended.  But, I do have ideas for pretty much every door dec I'm going to have to do from now until December, written down, and ready to be made, which is pretty great.

So why then would we attend a conference and then forget everything we learned?

I think it has something to do with the culture we live in today.  When we feel like we can access the knowledge that we learned at a conference at any time, online, we are less likely to remember it.

But there are also things that require real life application.  I believe we are unwilling to apply these new ideas because we don't want to have to work any harder than we already do.  We live in a culture that is all about what makes you comfortable which spells failure for new ideas typically.

We want to change but then when we get to the point to where change needs to happen, we decide to do something that is "more fun" instead of changing.

I believe we need to change our mindset in order to gain ultimate knowledge from a conference.  I will try to expound on this thought later this week.