Taking home information from Training, Seminars or Conferences

[susan silva]

Hopefully everyone has had some type of external training.   What was the last  class/seminar/conference you attended and what are some actual action items you have put into place after returning from a training session or conference?

[Cathy S]

I attended the AUA Conference in April this year.  It was lovely to have a few days visiting another University and seeing how things work there.

The main things I brought back were the inspirational ideas of colleagues working the way I like to (ie WITH my academics rather than FOR them) and some practical warm up exercises (ice breakers) from some of the workshops - I have used one of them recently outwith work.  Sometimes it is the small details that come home rather than the grand plans!

[gee4]

Given that most of the training courses I have attended have been IT related, what I have put in place has helped me achieve MOS Master Certification.

I have attended a few one-day seminars relating to the role of a PA, as well as the annual Admin Professional Day seminar which I have attended twice.

I would say key points I have learnt are in relation to working faster smarter and more efficiently, most of which I did anyway -

eg.  the 3 D's - Do, Delegate or Dump

1) Do something with information eg. file it
2) Delegate the task to someone else
3) Dump it eg. bin it if it's not of any use

eg. Green, Amber, Red

Three folders on your desk all with coloured stickers -

1)  Green - current projects
2)  Amber - up and coming projects
3)  Red - projects that are closed out and need filed

And the last one I love.  

Some of us use the brought forward system where reminders are "brought f/wd" for a future date.  How many times have you dug out a piece of paper, only to score out the date and bring it foward for another date?  Next time you do this, put a red dot on the page.  Every time you bring it out of your brought f/wd, put another dot on the page.  If you have 3 red dots or more on this page, Do something with it.

[Pringa]

I always take home the littlest things but at the same time those are the ones that save the most time. My favorite was how to pull the corner in excel and fill in anything, months, weeks, numbers.  I was like wow...!!!