Audience at a conferecne taking notes

Photo by The Climate Reality Project on Unsplash

After having spent three days of the 2019 Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness National Conference, I was reflecting on all of the new and emerging best practices in my field that were presented and how I will be incorporating these best practices in my own organization back home. There were so many great speakers who were presenting so much great research in the field of homelessness. Some of the research was cutting edge, some of the research validated many of our current practices and some were ideas that I would not have come across were it not for this conference. The best part of this conference is that I got a chance to speak to presenters and ask questions. I was able to, not only get links to the research documents but also to talk through how this research could inform our practice and be applied in the field.

One way that I may disseminate my research once it is completed is at a training, learning solutions or social services conference. In this way I will be able to present my research and findings to many individuals and groups who are interested in learning about new methods of workplace training and also give people an opportunity to engage in discussion about how this research can inform their own workplace training practices within their organizations.  What do you think?  What are your experiences with conferences, do you find conferences an effective way to disseminate research findings?