Offsetting The Curve of Forgetting
Here’s a strategy to help your attendees and members remember more of what they learned at your conferences, courses, webinars, meetings, and events so that they can implement what they learned and see more ROI!
Yesterday, I reviewed some notes from a pre-holiday course. I thought, “Thank goodness I took notes because I don’t remember much of this.” But…..
Often, I don’t review my notes. When I return from conferences, I put my notebook, packed with great ideas and want-to-dos that I just learned at the event, on top of the pile on the corner of my desk. By the end of the day, other stuff is on top of that pile, and with every addition, the urgency to dive back into my conference notes wanes.
Not only that, but I have begun to forget what I learned.
I’m not alone (thank goodness); there’s a name for this every day/every person phenomenon. “The Curve of Forgetting” was coined by Herman Ebbinghaus in a series of experiments he ran in the late 1800s (don’t worry; these experiments were replicated by scientists as recently as 2015.) Basically, in his experiments, he found that memory loss is exponential. You can see an illustration of information retention vs. time here. Based on the chart, one week after learning something new, someone is likely only to retain 20% of that knowledge.
So attendees go to conferences, meetings, events, and webinars and learn a TON of valuable material. But then they forget it; if they forget it, they don’t use it. If they don’t use it, they don’t see long-term value, and the ROI of the event decreases.
As a keynote speaker, I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Elevating Engagement is a big idea. Member organizations that use it can grow engagement, retention, and energy—but only if participants implement the ideas.
How can we offset the curve of forgetting?
Review essential concepts. There is a markeing-rule-of-thumb that says people need to see or hear something three to five before remembering it.
Make time for reflection. Passive listening only gets you so far. Create the space for people to actively reflect to help them write these new ideas into their memory banks.
Convert the big idea into something useful. You’ve taught your members the overarching strategy; now, let’s dive into tactics so your participants can see how this might work in real life.
Help them adapt the learning to their context. Ideas can be scaled up for big organizations and down for small ones. Often, session presenters are from big, well-resourced organizations, leaving attendees from small organizations saying, “We don’t have the money or staff to do what they do.” Take the time to help them figure out how each idea could apply to them.
I’m on a mission to offset The Curve of Forgetting, too, and I’ll do this in two ways.
First, did you know that 2025 is The Year of Engagement? Yep! It is! So, I plan to spend all year creating content for you to introduce important concepts, questions to help you reflect, strategies and tactics, ideas that scale large or small, and everything in between. You’ll see new videos, articles, research, and webinars coming your way.
Second, the Elevating Engagement keynote can now include quarterly virtual workshops, which help attendees transform from passive learners to active participants so they implement ideas throughout the year. Implemented ideas will lead to big wins, which equals lots of ROI.
Let The Year of Engagement Begin! Are you with me? 😄
