When I started working with The Pioneer Network to amplify their annual conference using social media the first thing I asked for was stories from participants about why attending the conference matters. How does a conference help move culture change forward?
I’ve received many responses and I’m going to share those stories with you leading up to next week’s 13th Annual Pioneer Network Conference. While I’m there I will be livestream broadcasting two days of events August 13-14 and capturing even more stories about why conferences matter.
What really matters is that you join the conversation — what are your stories from attending major culture change events? Don’t be shy about plugging other conferences or trainings, just tell us why it matters.
Colleen Rees, Administrator
Sheridan Care CenterI think the most exciting thing that came out of my first conference experience was taking a nurse with me who was a non-believer in Culture Change, and watching her embrace ideas she learned at conference. She would always put up road blocks when we would try new things. The idea of having salt on the tables in the dining room was a constant battle, but when we got back from conference she worked with our Dietary Manager to make sure we had salt on the tables to give resident’s back some ability to choose.
There are a lot of inspirational stories at conference. I think the one that had the most impact on me was the home that established a pre-school and the stories about how the children impacted the lives of the elders who lived there and vice versa. Often times the ideas seem grandiose, but there is always some part of what I hear that I can take back to my smaller rural community and make change happen. The message at conference is definitely not that you have to go out and spend millions of dollars to affect change. You simply have to get started.
I enjoy that the sessions are geared toward any level. From the beginner to the seasoned Veteran, there is something for everyone. Even within my own company we are all at different places in the Culture Change journey. The great thing is that we can all go to different sessions and at the end of the day we can get together and share some of the key take home ideas. We can come back and try something and if it works we can help another community. If it doesn’t work, maybe someone picked up something else from another session that might help us figure out a way to make it work. It is all about tools and resources to help everyone be successful.
T says
October 11, 2013 at 4:30 pmHello, I’m an AGNG 200 student at the Erickson School of Aging and I found this post very intriguing. Not only are the Culture Change conferences helping to promote diversity and unity but it’s also getting older people involved. The fact that they’ve been able to implement their desire of having salt on dinner tables shows they’re getting a bit of their personal preferences back. In my AGNG class we’ve learned that when elderly people in nursing homes are able to choose what they’d like to eat (or in this case if they want salt) it helps them regain a bit of control over their lives again. It also surprised me (pleasantly) that children would interact and spend time with the different elders who lived at the homes. Knowing that this had a positive impact among the aging made me happy and I realized that if we all begin to appreciate and love on people knowing everyone’s time is short then our culture would definitely change for the better.