Some of us when we go to conferences, workshops or trainings, we expect the Wow effect. – Something along the lines – yes that it! That is what I needed! It completely changes my view of things!

My previous ideas

I am (was?) such person when I go to conferences I want to see ideas collide, and participate in networking. I want to come back with as many great ideas as I can.
When I asked, „How to take most out of conferences?” I have shared answer by a Sergey [surname unkown]:

Think what are you going to do different tomorrow.

Until now I understood it as taking those ideas and trying to use them next they at work.

But here lies problem

Great ideas quite often are not simple to implement.
As I am going more and more to conferences, it getting rarer and rarer for me to see great ideas. Mostly because I have seen many of them already and I am getting jaded.

Solution: Mini Wow Effect!

But on Tapost This knowledge bomb was dropped on me:

At some point, you need to stop expecting to get wow effect on each conference, you should look for „mini wow effect”- a piece of an idea, a shard of knowledge, that you can find in each presentation.

Bart Szulc

It reminded me of my friend saying:

In every presentation, even for beginners, you can find something new.

Błażej Matuszewski

That small fragments are easier to use the next day. Agile is about incremental improvement. It is easier to make a small change and observe its effect than make a „great revolution”.

The New Answer

So for know my answer to the question – „How to take most out of conferences?” changes to „Collect micro ideas that you can use the next day to improve your work.”