How to make the most out of attending a seminar

You are at a research seminar, one of those weekly seminars in your department that you are expected to attend. You listen to the speaker and the introduction sounds interesting. You are full of hope to stay alert through the whole presentation. But five minutes into the talk you find yourself loosing focus and thinking that such boring speakers should not be allowed to give public talks. You start to mentally beat yourself up for not staying in your office. You think that instead of coming here you could have got a move on with that overdue paperwork …

The remaining 35 minutes of the talk you spend day dreaming or in a mental battle with your colleague or supplier. You have nothing to contribute to the question time and get out of the audience quickly, feeling you have wasted another hour of your day. Next week you go through the same experience again, with minor variations, perhaps the speaker was more interesting but the subject more difficult.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have this trend turned around somehow? There is a simple mind game you can play that will help you feel that the time spent each week at the seminar can be actually useful!

Imagine the following: pretend you are in a microsymposium session of an international conference and you happened to be the chair of this session. This simple trick played with your mind will force you into listening to the speaker with more attention, making notes and thinking of a possible question or two to ask at the end of the session. At a conference, the chairperson is usually expected to ask a question to “save the situation” if at the end of a talk there are no questions from the audience. Now in this game, you are this chairperson listening carefully and thinking of a question to ask the speaker.

In my scientific life, I have organised and chaired two microsymposia for international conferences. In both instances I found myself paying great attention to the talks even if the subject was unfamiliar or seemingly uninteresting. During the talks I would actually write the potential questions down in my note book. And when needed, I could always use them to liven up the question time at the end of every talk.

At the beginning of this year’s semester, I started to attend the weekly seminars in my department. After listening to a talk I often felt “I have just wasted another hour.” Then I decided to try this “game.” This simple mind trick made me very alert to the subject of the talk and by the end of the talk I usually had 2-3 questions or comments. I even found myself becoming one of those people that ask questions after EVERY talk 🙂

This simple approach is a part of a bigger concept of bringing your energy to any event you are going to. When getting ready to attend a seminar, a workshop, or a meeting with colleagues, think of bringing your own energy to the event instead of just wondering whether this event or the speaker will be any good.

This is a powerful and far reaching concept that can be applied to any situation in our life. We can choose to bring our own energy into creating our day instead of saying “What kind of hell this day is going to bring me?…”

In the former scenario we are the creators of our destiny, in the latter – the victims of our lives. Anywhere you go, you bring the light, the energy, and whatever else is needed to that situation. With this you bring in your own awareness and clarity as well as being engaged in the event.

So next time you attend a seminar imagine you are a chairperson! And see how many questions you can come up with to ask. And please share below how your latest seminar experience turns out to be!

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