FACT 007

SLEEPING IMPROVES MEMORY.      June 2007  Neurology   

We sleep on third of our lives. A waste of time?

More and more scientists are getting convinced it is not. During sleep our brain remains very active. A growing consensus emerges around the hypothesis that during sleep, our brain actively organises and efficiently stores the information gathered during the day. Sleep gives the brain time to analyse quietly without any new incoming sensations.  New evidence to support that was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A series of abstract patterns was shown to a test group and remembering those went significantly better if the test persons got the chance to sleep between the exercise and the evaluation.  Even without sleep, just waiting had a good influence. Twelve hours after the exercise the results where already better then after twenty minutes. One day later results improved even more, especially with a good night sleep included.

As the brain is in ‘rest’ it looks for connections in the gathered information and stores those in the long term memory. It is interesting to note that the test persons were not aware of the fact that they had stored more information.

Scientists become more convinced that the brain is controlled by internal processes, not supported by the body, especially when sleeping.

Question:

Is it of influence in learning to organise late night activities at conferences and meetings? Is is good to start conference activities very early?

If the goal, or at least one of the main goals at meetings and conferences is for the participants to learn, should we not organise them in such a way that participants get enough sleep?

Is it in the meeting hotel's interest to make sure guests get good sleep? Silence probably being the most important issue to monitor.
Meeting hotel building needs to pay extra attention to sound insulation, supporting the meeting planners learning goals in doing so.

FACT 006

Microphone feedback is 2nd most annoying sound    26 January 2007

International visitors to the BadVibes web site (www.sound101.org) — a research project from the University of Salford — listened to sounds such as a dentist's drill, fingernails scraping down a blackboard and aircraft flying past, before rating them in terms of their unpleasantness. Although fingernails scraping down a blackboard is said to be the worst sound by many people, the actual recording of this sound only came 16th out of 34 sounds auditioned. Microphone feedback came a close second in the 'horribleness ranking', with many babies crying coming joint third with a horrible scrapping sound.

Comment:

If microphone feedback is a close second in this rankin, it is safe to say that any microphone feedback at meetings has to be classified as unacceptable. Sound technicians that do their work seriously and have the right equipment are always able to avoid Microphone Feedback. Every sound installation at meetings must be equipped with at least one 32 channel equalizer. Cutting budget in sound material at that level is clearly not smart.

FACT 005
Digital natives have different brain     25 June 2006
The Digital native is anyone younger than 25 (in 2006) that was born in the digital age. The digital immigrants are the older generation that was not. Neuroscientists now say that there is a physical difference in the brains of these two categories.

Also: The Digital natives have CPA, Continues Partial Attention. Digital natives call, send text messages and pictures, play games, download music, and watch commercials all at the same time.  

Nick Hurrel MC Saattch Europe

Comment:

If there is really such a ting a CPA, how will we feed information to those participants at meetings and conferences? How will we keep their fragmented attention?

Will we have to do lots of different things mixed together. Combining voting, presenting, on line brainstorming, collaboration technology, combined with an electronic networking badge and simultaneous breakout sessions?

FACT 004

Virtual characters have real impact

Research from the US psychologist Blascovich shows that humans in virtual environments behave exactly the same towards virtual people as they do towards real people in the real world. Even if those computer animations do not look very realistic. It seems that the human mind has a built in mechanism to react in a social way. Writes Blascovitch It is nearly impossible, not to be fooled.

Comment:

Based on Blascovitch's findings, can we say that virtual meetings where everyone is replaced by virtual characters have to be taken seriously? Should we establish rules for real people selecting virtual characters other than their own electronic clones? At professional and serious virtual meetings, only virtual clones should be used not to fool other participants?

FACT 003

Building teams takes conflict

To become a close group, there are inevitable phases any group has to go through: The Orientation phase,  the Conflict phase, the Integration phase and the Execution phase.

Comment:

Do you want to build close groups, teams at your meetings or conferences? Be aware of these for phases. Make sure you prepare to manage at least a few conflicts. Do you want to avoid the conflict phase? Than don't put groups together for a long period of time like a few days. Be aware you will not build real integrated teams in that way.

FACT 002

Warm body keeps the head cool

Finnish research made a number of volunteers solve puzzles and tests at 10° Celsius during a few days. These volunteers did significantly worse that a control group at 25° Celsius. (20° Celsius is normal room temperature.) Conclusion, Cold has a negative impact on performance of the brain, because it distracts from the task at hand.

Comment:

Good temperature and good air conditioning are crucial for learning at conferences. People having to put on a sweater during the conference are distracted by that fact and miss some of the content of that meeting. Architects have an even more important role in the results of conferences. INvesting in a perfect heating cooling system is crucial for conference centers and conference hotels.

FACT 001

Electricity consumption of the brain

Our brain uses as much energy as a 20watt light bulb. With that, only 1% of our brain cells are active simultaneously. The other 99% is used too, only not at the same time. That would be impossible; our brain already uses 20% of the oxygen we breath in, and it would get overheated.

Comment:

When you have a meeting of   100 people, the total power consumption is 2000 watts. That is the maximum power you can connect to one power plug in the wall. Or as much as 10 LCD projectors. A meeting of 1.000 participants when put to work, imagine what you could do with 20.000 watts of electricity… The power of the brain, the  power of meetings.