Now That Is How You Do It…
 

Posted by Drew Kessler, Director-Elect
On the heels of the 2022 Rotary International Assembly being concluded I take a moment to reflect on the event and have to say, “That is how you do it!”.  Faced with a daunting challenge of moving from an in-person event to a virtual event in the matter of weeks President Elect Jennifer and her team of Rotary Senior Leaders and Rotary International staff hit it out of the park.  What I take away most from the event is the product that was provided to all those who attended and specifically the plenary sessions.  My hope is we all learn from what and how things were presented as we plan for both in person and virtual events going forward.
For me the biggest take away was each plenary session was between 30 and 55 minutes.  Each session had multiple speakers and accomplishing the biggest hurdle of any event, keeping the audience’s attention and engagement.  The key was that there was no long presentation, everything kept moving with most speakers not presenting for more than 10 minutes.  There were different styles of presentations that included interviews and back and forth conversations.  For someone like myself who has a limited attention span (unfortunately) I found I was engaged from start to finish.  Yes, there was top notch talent presenting but I found it was the format that outweighed the content which kept me from moving over to one of my other two monitors.
 
All who read this are in a position to embrace what was learned from the program at IA.  How many of us have been to Rotary events where the speaker loses the audience’s attention but continues to forge ahead for another 20 min?  I am a firm believer that whatever needs to be said can be said in under 10 minutes.  We can turn to the TED talk concept to have proof that short impactful presentations are the way to go, and our audience will appreciate that we not only provide great content, but we value their top resource and that is time.
 
I would be remiss if I do not give a shout out to all the Zone 28/32 representation throughout IA starting with our very own President Elect Jennifer whose vision and inspiration guided the event.  Vice President Valarie and her partner Mark gave amazing presentations on DEI.  Past Director and Current Trustee Dean who as always put her heart out there for us all to feel.  On the training side, I received many notes from attendees on how well, Sue Goldsen, Peter Schultz and Louis Turpin, our Zone’s three International Training Leaders, did in their sessions.  These seven individuals exceeded all expectations and knocked it out of the park.  Please join me in congratulating them when your Rotary paths cross.
 
How amazing are our two Zones?  We are so blessed to have amazing leaders throughout both Zones, and this was clearly evident during IA.  I took much from the sessions and hope you did as well.