Why Attend an ICF Global Conference?  

As a smart business person, some of the questions you might ask yourself when considering whether to attend a conference or meeting is: Why should I attend? What is the value for me and my business? The theme of the last day of the conference, which was called the Unconference, provides a framework for answering these questions.

The Unconference had two Acts:

Act 1 - You + Me: Hot Seat

Act 2 - We: The Future of Coaching

Any conference that you attend is about Me. What can I learn? Who can I meet? What kind of experience will I have? It is also about You (all the other Me(s) that we meet).

You + Me - During ICF Converge, I met colleagues from New Jersey that I didn't know. I shared the experience with colleagues that I consider friends, and I reconnected with colleagues that I haven't seen in a while who have a special place in my heart. We talked about life and coaching and what we were learning. We met as a group in the morning for breakfast and invited colleagues from other areas of the world to join us. We went to dinner each night and shared good food, conversation and laughs. This is a powerful part of a coaching conference and shouldn't be underestimated.

You + Me - Then there is the learning. Many of the breakout sessions provided nuggets of wisdom and ideas and actions that you can start using in your coaching practice and business right away.

In Resilience Coaching: Rebuilding Resilience When It's a Crash and Not a Wobble, presenter Carole Pemberton had us do an exercise about writing down our emotions and feelings about something that was bothering us at that moment. She explained that writing about emotional events puts it "out there" for you so that you can have a different perspective. The coach I debriefed the exercise with said that when she has something stuck inside her she writes a poem about it and she finds it extremely helpful.

 

In The Dance Between Authenticity, Transparency and Vulnerability in Coaching, presenter Beth Buelow discussed when it is appropriate to share our own stories with our clients. Here are some words of wisdom she shared about deciding when it serves our client.

Act 2: We - The Future of Coaching gave us the opportunity to have broad, wide-ranging discussions about coaching as a profession, a business and a passion. At the Prism Award dinner on Friday night, we heard about five organizations who had transformational experiences through a coaching program. One story that was told was used to demonstrate to one of the organizations the value of coaching and why to make it available to more within the organization.

The story was about coaching two groups in Scotland. One was a group of youth from a rough neighborhood in Glasgow. The other was a group of high-level executives. Each learned about coaching and how to do it separately. Then the groups were brought together in a weekend retreat and the executives coached the youth and the youth coached the executives. One of the youth asked an executive a very direct and not so elegant coaching question about his situation. In answering the question, the executive got an answer to his dilemma. It is stories like these that remind us of the impact of coaching in the world.

During the Unconference on the last day, coaches selected a topic they wanted to have a discussion on and met with other coaches in a small group. It was another opportunity to learn from each other and think about where coaching as a profession is heading. I attended discussions on technology and human interaction and coaching the future leaders of the world.

The bottom line for me is that I came home with a list of action items, thoughtful questions to answer for myself, new thought leaders to follow, and most important a connection to a global community of colleagues who have many gifts to offer the world through coaching. That was well worth the price of the conference.