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&lt;p&gt;At the recently concluded Charities@Work conference, JP Morgan Chase&#39;s VP and National Director for Employee Engagement and Financial Education Michael Carren challenged the attendees to return next year with a colleague.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What he said isn&#39;t atypical for a conference. For organizers, these forums&amp;mdash;especially annual ones&amp;mdash;mean new business opportunities and a bigger, better event the following year.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And when one of the organizers says this, the reaction is usually one of ambivalence: Sure, of course you want to increase your attendance.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But for once I agree.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float: left;&quot; src=&quot;http://www.vault.com/VCM/blogs/Conference_on_CSR_and_sustainability.png&quot; alt=&quot;Conferences on CSR and sustainability&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As I go from conference to conference this year (Count stands at 11 so far including two that we&#39;ve organized), alternatively presenting, speaking on a panel or simply attending, I&#39;ve realized that, no matter how good the events are, they&#39;re all suffering from the same problem.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That is: We are preaching to the same crowd.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We&#39;re talking about CSR, business ethics, social responsibility, life skills, business skills, leadership skills and so much more...we&#39;re learning from each other&#39;s experiments and sharing our challenges.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But are we extending the dialogue to our colleagues when we return to our desks?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After all, we are returning to a bulk load of work and an endless cycle of deadlines and deliverables.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We are not sharing what we learned with our colleagues, and we are certainly not using the key takeaways to crowd-source solutions within our organizations. Even if a small percentage of us is taking the time to spread the wealth, are we doing it effectively?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are we delivering the message across departments? Across management hierarchies? Are we making it make sense?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Because if we were, the attendance demographics would change every year: Networking breaks would have newer faces, fresher perspectives, evolving challenges. Every lunch/dinner break would mean meeting people with diverse backgrounds and experiences.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But that isn&#39;t happening.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I know. Most of us don&#39;t have the time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;&quot;We&#39;re Not Sitting At the Same Table&quot;&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the Business Civic Leadership Center&#39;s (BCLC) annual conference earlier this week, I happened to share a table at lunch with Microsoft&#39;s Senior Director of Global Community Affairs Akhtar Badshah and Ann Cramer who is the director of IBM&#39;s corporate community relations. They shared similar sentiments: Why this continued disconnect? Why do the marketing, legal, compliance, community relations, and HR teams remain so misaligned on what CSR means for their roles, and their impact?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Referring to my recent workshop with the students at the University of Minnesota on CSR and job hunting, I asked Cramer what could help reduce this disconnect. Her answer resonated: We&#39;re not talking enough, we&#39;re not educating ourselves enough, we&#39;re not sitting at the same table, she said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Never Too Late for a New Year&#39;s Resolution&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;So why not share some of the wealth and use next year&#39;s budget to send someone else from your company to some of these conferences, especially the ones that have become permanent dots on your annual calendar?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even if just a handful of new attendees get the message and are able to contextualize it to their daily job, that&#39;s a win in my book&amp;mdash;and I&#39;d wager in your company&#39;s long term growth as well.&lt;/p&gt;

Aman Singh Das

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The Conference Junkie: Are You Preaching to the Converted?

At the recently concluded Charities@Work conference, JP Morgan Chase's VP and National Director for Employee Engagement and Financial Education Michael Carren challenged the attendees to return next year with a colleague.What he said isn't atypical for a conference. For organizers, these forums—especially annual ones—mean new business opportunities and a bigger, better event the following year.And when one of the organizers says this, the reaction is usually one of ambivalence: Sure, of course you want to increase your attendance.But for once I agree.As I go from conference to conference this year (Count stands at 11 so far including two that we've organized), alternatively presenting, speaking on a panel or simply attending, I've realized that, no matter how good the events are, they're all suffering from the same problem.That is: We are preaching to the same crowd.We're talking about CSR, business ethics, social responsibility, life skills, business skills, leadership skills and so much more.

The Conference Junkie: Are You Preaching to the Converted? | Career Advice - Vault

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The Conference Junkie: Are You Preaching to the Converted?

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