| I've been presenting chiropractic seminars for | | | | "classroom style"). The speaker, positioned up |
| over 20 years. They seem to be a permanent | | | | front, with or without the obligatory PowerPoint |
| fixture of the chiropractic profession. My | | | | presentation, proceeds to yak. It may be |
| introduction to chiropractic occurred at a | | | | informative. It may even be entertaining. But it's |
| three-day chiropractic seminar back in 1981. | | | | rarely effective education. It's like going to a |
| Having been a guest speaker at practice | | | | seminar to learn how to ride a bicycle. But there |
| management seminars and chiropractic state | | | | are only pictures of bicycles, but no actual bicycle |
| association conventions, as well as conducting my | | | | riding involved. You'd be better off reading a book, |
| own seminar programs, here are some insider | | | | listening to a CD or watching a DVD. |
| observations you should know before attending | | | | Seminars rarely provide accountability. Attend |
| your next chiropractic seminar, or have the itch | | | | most seminars and you'll leave with a bunch of |
| to conduct your own. | | | | notes and a "To Do" list. The notes go on the |
| Seminars rarely make money. Before you start | | | | stack of notes taken and collected from |
| doing the math, multiplying the enrollment fee by | | | | previously attended seminars. And the list of |
| the number attendees, realize, if you're lucky, the | | | | action steps clutters your desk for a month or |
| registration fee merely covers the expense of | | | | so, producing a twinge of guilt every time you |
| the hotel meeting space. Over the years, hotels | | | | come across it until you toss it. Most people |
| and meeting venues have wised up, forcing | | | | already know what to do to improve their life or |
| meeting planners to incorporate food and | | | | practice. But they don't or won't do it. And |
| beverage as a condition for renting their space. | | | | without some form of accountability, ("I'll be calling |
| And if you're not willing to be responsible for a | | | | each one of you in 10 days to see how much of |
| sizable block of sleeping rooms, forget about it. | | | | this you've implemented...") seminars rarely |
| Increasingly, many who hold seminars feel like | | | | produce the needed incentive necessary to |
| they're in the filling sleeping room business, not the | | | | manifest significant, lasting change. |
| content delivery business! | | | | Seminars are so 1980. Today, with a wide variety |
| Seminars are often sales pitches. With registration | | | | of electronic media, teleclasses and webinar |
| fees generally usurped by expensive meeting | | | | technology, it seems a bit antiquated to force |
| room space, if the seminar organizer has any | | | | people to drop everything and show up at the |
| hope of turning a profit they two choices. Either | | | | same time and place to witness a live |
| charge a relatively high fee (upper three figures) | | | | presentation. True, like a comedy that seems |
| or attempt to sell you something to make it all | | | | funnier when hundreds in a packed theater all |
| worthwhile. That can be anything from gadgets | | | | burst out laughing in unison, there can be an |
| and widgets to more expensive programs. The | | | | energetic "field effect" created by seminar |
| easiest way to discover the intention of the | | | | attendees. Yet, few programs harness this |
| seminar is to ask if there will be any | | | | energy, so it's effect is wasted or has a half-life |
| "at-the-seminar" discounts. If so, get your shields | | | | of about a week following the seminar and |
| up, phazers on stun and be prepared for the pitch. | | | | attendees are looking for their next motivational |
| Seminars are outside-in. Most seminars, | | | | fix. |
| chiropractic or otherwise, are passive. The | | | | Does that new practice-building seminar still sound |
| attendees are either crammed into a small room | | | | interesting? Sure, seminars have a place for |
| in rows of chairs (called "theater style") or in row | | | | continuing education and the efficient dissemination |
| after row of linen-covered tables (referred to as | | | | of information. But at what price? |