Why I Love Public Lectures?
I got the seminar bug growing
up in Bahrain. I attended four full day training programs by speakers like
Robin Sharma, Ron Kauffman, Bob Ulrich, Wes Brown during high school. They were
world class professional speakers and I learned a lot attending these events. I
also attended a week long stock market investing workshop in my last year of
high school.
When I shifted to Mumbai to
do my undergraduate course I started looking for workshops, seminars and
conferences that I could attend in and around Mumbai. I found plenty. There was
some event or the other happening in some corner of the city almost every week
of the day. On the weekends I would have to choose between events.
Most of them were open to the
public and free of cost. Some had minimal charges. I would then register for as
many of them as possible. At many of the events, I attended I was not familiar
with the content being discussed. But I just wanted to learn and be open to as
many fields as possible. I knew that every new thing I got to learn about,
created a new neural network in my mind. This helped me further develop my
thinking and connect unrelated fields.
But students have college in the morning and many of
us have jobs. Do you suggest giving these up and taking days off to attend such
events?
No, That is not what anybody
should do. Many of these events are organized in the afternoons or in the
evenings. You can plan your days and attend them as such.
- There was one day when I had college in the morning from 8 am to 12 pm.
- Then from 12 pm to 2 pm I attended a workshop by two Indian Musicians about music, chakras and its healing effect.
- From 2 pm to 4 pm, I spent some time at a bookstore near the business chamber.
- Then from 4:30 pm to 6:30pm, there was another talk on Mutual Funds and investing in them at the same business chamber.
- Then from 7 pm to 9 30 pm, I had a weekly philosophy class that was part of a larger 15 week philosophy course I was attending. We would discuss philosophical insights late into the evening and have some snacks at the end of the session.
I would then take the one
hour train ride to my house in the suburbs late in the evening, reach home and
go to sleep very tired after a long day. I would then get up and go back to
college again the next day.
I would not share my schedule
with anybody, because I knew it would be hard to make them understand what I
was trying to do and why I attended so many of these events.
But I knew deep within that
each of these events had a very important role in shaping my philosophy and
thinking in life.
Why attend such events?
The most important reason you
attend such events is because you get to learn about something from the top
minds in the subject.
Many of them have spent years
gathering the information they share with you. You also get to expand your
network and develop professional relationships with artists, writers, business
people and more.
What are the different kinds of events you can attend?
1)
Seminars
2)
Conferences
3)
Workshops
4)
Festivals
5)
Panel Discussions
6)
Book Launches
7)
Book Readings
8)
College Lecture
Series
What if you stay in a place that does not have so many
events happening?
That is a good question
because many of the event organizers at these events take videos of the
festivals and put them up on a website or video channel online.
One example is the TED
Conference in California. It is one of the top conferences in the world and
some of the most influential people in the world, share their ideas in eighteen
minute talks. Only the speakers and some invited guests are allowed to attend
these events. But the organizers put up all the talks at the conference on
their video channel on You Tube and on the TED Website. There are 1500 TED
Talks and over 30,000 TEDx Talks on this website.
Why is this important to the passionate learner?
The implication of this
arrangement is profound. If you actually put in the effort you can learn more
than a person who attends the conference. As Malcolm Gladwell famously
said, “I may not be able to outspent you, but I will be able to outwork you.”
How do you do this?
While watching the TED Talk,
you can simultaneously read the biography, personal website and blog of the
person. You can also read articles about that person’s work online.
You can pause, rewind and
fast forward the video while the participants at the TED Conference cannot do
the same to a live performance. You can also pause the current video and watch
another video lecture of the person available online.
You do not have to spend time
on travel and hotel stay as well. And why just listen to thirty-forty TED
Talks. Why not listen to all 1500 TED Talks put up on the website and learn
from the best minds of the subject there.
Let us Learn Together
Tweet @AbhishekShetty_
Sat-chit-ananda
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