First Real World Parents Seminar

This is a bit late...but here is what I posted on the Real World Presenters forum. (If you have NO IDEA) what I'm talking about, surf around at www.realworldparents.com or read this).

I presented May 3 at Southcliff Baptist Church in Ft. Worth. I think 60+ registered and 50ish attended (not bad considering it was the prime swine flu time down here in Texas). I had a great time and felt really good about how things went. I presented it pretty straight-forward except for a few changes to session 3. Stuzilla and I agreed that ending the seminar with the Skit Guys' "Dad and Son" video really hit the goal home, sort-of a, "Here's one goal we all have, a hope that when our kids are adults they can have a perspective like this, will remember our wisdom, etc." Apparently it was a hit among attendees and provided future discussion. I also greatly edited the "7 Marks" slides to have more elements similar to the workbook, which I think also helped. But what may have helped me most of all is that Stu and I met together twice to essentially give each other our "mock-up seminar", critique, offer suggestion, etc. That was huge...and I think absolutely made me a better presenter on game day...

Now, some lessons I will take with me to remember before I do another RWP:

*** I will try my best to order resources for sale MUCH earlier, and seek for mailing confirmation. I waited as long as I thought I could (6 days prior to seminar) so I would have a better idea about numbers attending, etc., and the stuff never came. After some phone calls post-seminar, we figured out there was some sort-of payment question, BUT it would have been nice to know that immediately (I never got any emails, calls, etc. letting me know like some online purchases do when there is a question) so I could have remedied it pre-seminar. The cool thing is that YS did give me free next-day shipping due to the snafu and I was able to just take "orders" for materials, sell them at a discount since I did not have resources in hand, and deliver them to Southcliff...

*** I am going to try and find a way to better present the "Isolation/Regulating/Accepting" section of session two. I don't think I did the best job there...essentially, I in the future need to probably still acknowledge that there are still times that we need to isolate or regulate, but what RWP is talking about refers more to parents who "live in those worlds" of isolation/regulation/accepting. There was one comment made to me that apparently I presented it all as if you ever did any of those things, then it was wrong. You and I know that's not true...just when it becomes all-encompassing. So just maybe something to think about...make a disclaimer about, etc.

*** It was REALLY tough for me (and Stu Cocanougher when he presented at our church) to finish in 3 hrs. Sure, we need to start on time (a late-arriving crowd made me have to delay the start about 15 min). Sure, I need to make sure breaks that are meant to be 5-7 min long don't become 10 min like they are prone to (I do think having a "countdown" slide here helped, though...). But by session three, I had to rush just to get done somewhat close to the advertised time (because 3 hrs having kids in the nursery=chaos about to ensue!). We just finished a bit late but wow I feel like session 3 was a blur. But where to cut? Some of the stats in session one? Less personal examples? I realize some of it is just being timely...but sometimes it is hard to control that (like, when a large portion of the group is not present...do you just begin?).

But overall, I LOVED IT! Summer will be tough to schedule any, but I will certainly look at Fall 09/Spring 10 to get some more presentations lined up...