I really agree with this assessment, and that the closing part was a bit weak and used in some cases just to stand up and make a generalization rather than engage with the topic. Good insight.

As I said, I have no significant criticisms at all – I think you guys did an absolutely brilliant job.

The issue with the tech sessions was that there was too much knowledge in the audience (to be expected) which may have taken away from the authority of the teachers. I am not proposing a rigid model by any means, but I do think it is a different game when you are trying to teach, versus share or discuss. With that in mind, I’d suggest that the teaching sessions be a bit more scripted.

As far as the closing session, I didn’t think it was a bad session by any means – it just disappointed me that we didn’t have a clear path of action, and again, as I said in my post, I just don’t think it was possible in that large a group.

On the second one, one of our primary guidelines was to respect the “wisdom of crowds” I guess. After a long, full day it just seemed like most people didn’t want to recap with hard to-dos, but rather with their emotional reactions to the day.

That being said, that’s a really interesting idea to try to regroup in smaller groups before trying to have a closing session that is actually actionable or productive. You’re probably right that that’s the only way to be able to get focus out of such a large group.