At the STC 2009 Summit, I participated in the Management Progression. For those who aren’t familiar with a progression, it’s a bit like speed-dating, with a somewhat smaller chance of rejection. You have a large room with several big round tables. At each table is a presenter with a sign for his or her topic (My topic was Employee Performance Evaluation, a real barn-burner!). Attendees choose a table and join a conversation. After about 20 minutes, the moderator blows a virtual whistle and everyone except the presenters chooses a new table. You continue until you run out of time (our session was 90 minutes, so we got several rounds in).
That’s about it; it’s simple, but seems to work pretty well. The presenters typically do a little preparation, but mostly go with whatever the people at their table are interested in discussing. For my topic, I prepared a checklist for the performance evaluation process. I thought it turned out pretty well, so I’ve posted the checklist in PDF form. Feel free to use it as you wish for non-commercial purposes and please post any comments you have.
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