This is the second post in a series to sum up the results of a survey about how conference attendees handle the information and materials they gather at events. You can read the first post here.
In this post, I’ll review the first two questions of the survey and their responses. The first question was to ascertain how many conferences each respondent attended within the past 12 months.
Here is the breakdown:
None: 2 respondents
1-2 conferences: 58 respondents
3-4 conferences: 18 respondents
5-6 conferences: 4 respondents
More than 6 conferences: 3 respondents
Question 2 of the survey asked respondents how they take notes at conferences. Respondents chose from the following (and were able to select as many options as they wanted):
- On my computer
- In a notebook
- On loose-leaf paper
- Audio recorder
- I just sit and listen
- Other (please specify)
Most (51 respondents) said they used a notebook, 22 said they used loose-leaf paper and 21 used a computer. Only one used an audio recorder and eight said they just sit and listen. Seventeen responded with “Other” and elaborated. Among these responses, four said they use a handheld device to take notes and still another said, “Sometimes I send myself or another staff member a message from my Blackberry right away during a session if there is a take-away idea that is immediately relevant/implement-able for our org.”
Several more said they prefer to take notes on the conference syllabus or other handouts. One respondent mentioned using Twitter to take notes and another said he either live-blogged or tweeted his notes. Only a couple said they used notepads supplied at conferences.
Stay tuned for the respondents’ answers about vendors and swag in my next post. Read more at the links below:
Bayside Blog 
I would take notes on the handouts. That way I wouldn’t lose the papers and I wouldn’t have to organize them later.
That seems to be the method a lot of conference attendees prefer, Ginger. Now we just need conference organizers to leave more room for this!
I seems more and more conferences are providing the syllabus on CD only. Kind of hard to take notes on it:)
[…] and materials they bring home with them. Please be sure to read Post 1 (Survey Results Overview), Post 2 (Questions 1 & 2/Attendance & Note-taking) and Post 3 (Questions 3 & 4/Vendors & Swag) for analysis of the results thus […]
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