The first "Powered by MindManager" event was BlawgThink 2005 (go here to download the MindManager Viewer you will need to navigate the BlawgThink map). The event, hosted by Matt Homann and Dennis Kennedy, was held in Chicago and presented as a "conference, reimagined." Dennis and Matt’s idea was to stage an event for people interested in blogging for the legal profession (hence the "b-law-g" moniker). When we heard what they wanted to do, we knew we wanted to be part of it.
Their plan? Simple: "No PowerPoint. No Agenda. No Kidding…attendees work in small groups to explore the key issues that interest them most. LexThink! facilitators would use collaborative brainstorming techniques [ahem!] to stimulate small group participation while keeping discussions anchored to a central theme."
One way to make any event more interactive might be to have guest speakers arrive with their heads not completely filled with answers. What if, instead, the mark of a good presentation was one that included a few well-considered questions to pose to the audience?
Of course, this format wouldn’t work as well if the speaker was using one-way tools like slide presentations. If they presented using MindManager, however, the speaker could go through their prepared presentation map, then open up the map to the questions. They would then immediately start engaging the audience is a dialog –the essence of which could be captured and later shared in the presentation map itself. Sounds like fun to me!