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I have been presenting chiropractic seminars for over 20 years. They seem to be a permanent fixture of the chiropractic profession. My introduction to chiropractic occurred at a three-day chiropractic seminar back in 1981.
Having been a guest speaker at practice management seminars and chiropractic state association conventions, as well as conducting my own seminar programs, here are some insider observations you should know before attending your next chiropractic seminar, or have the itch to conduct your own.
Seminars rarely make money. Before you start doing the math, multiplying the enrollment fee by the number attendees, realize, if you are lucky, the registration fee merely covers the expense of the hotel meeting space. Over the years, hotels and meeting venues have wised up, forcing meeting planners to incorporate food and beverage as a condition for renting their space. And if you are not willing to be responsible for a sizable block of sleeping rooms, forget about it. Increasingly, many who hold seminars feel like they are in the filling sleeping room business, not the content delivery business!
Seminars are often sales pitches. With registration fees generally usurped by expensive meeting room space, if the seminar organizer has any hope of turning a profit they two choices. Either charge a relatively high fee (upper three figures) or attempt to sell you something to make it all worthwhile. That can be anything from gadgets and widgets to more expensive programs. The easiest way to discover the intention of the seminar is to ask if there will be any "at-the-seminar" discounts. If so, get your shields up, phazers on stun and be prepared for the pitch.
Seminars are outside-in. Most seminars, chiropractic or otherwise, are passive. The attendees are either crammed into a small room in rows of chairs (called "theater style") or in row after row of linen-covered tables (referred to as "classroom style"). The speaker, positioned up front, with or without the obligatory PowerPoint presentation, proceeds to yak. It may be informative. It may even be entertaining. But it is rarely effective education. It is like going to a seminar to learn how to ride a bicycle. But there are only pictures of bicycles, but no actual bicycle riding involved. You had be better off reading a book, listening to a CD or watching a DVD.
Seminars rarely provide accountability. Attend most seminars and you'll leave with a bunch of notes and a "To Do" list. The notes go on the stack of notes taken and collected from previously attended seminars. And the list of action steps clutters your desk for a month or so, producing a twinge of guilt every time you come across it until you toss it. Most people already know what to do to improve their life or practice. However they don't or will not do it. And without some type of accountability, ("I will be phoning every one of you in 10 days to observe how much of this you have implemented...") seminars rarely generate the required inducement essential to reveal considerable, sustained change.
Seminars are really 1980. Nowadays, with a wide variety of digital advertising, teleclasses and webinar technology, it appears a tad old to drive individuals to drop every thing and appear at the same period and spot to experience a live presentation. Correct, like a humor that appears funnier when lots in a loaded theatre all burst out laughing in unison, there might be a lively "field effect" developed by seminar attendees. However, few programs utilize this power, so it is result is squandered or includes a half-life of about a week following the seminar and attendees are searching for their next motivational repair. For more info on this subject visit this page!
