Last Friday, I sat in on a conference call with Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need, and Free Agent Nation. The call–or “teleconversation,” as it was billed, was hosted by a started called Learn From My Life. (I plugged the event a few weeks ago.)

Participation required no special technology–I registered for the call on Learn From My Life’s website, and called in just as I would with a regular conference call. (Note that the call is not free, so be sure to call from a line with unlimited long distance or be prepared to pay for about a 60-minute call.) Things got up and running quickly, with a representative from Learn From My Life making introductions and then moving on to the conversation.

Participants’ phones are muted through most of the call, as the moderator asks questions that were posed on the web, through e-mail, or on Skype. A few times over the course of the hour, though, the lines were unmuted and individual participants were able to ask questions. I thought this would lead to much confusion, but it was actually quite orderly. This may have been my favorite feature of the service. It helped make the overall experience much more personal (it helps that Mr. Pink was excellent at remembering individuals’ names and addressing their questions almost like it was a one-on-one consultation).

As the hour came to a close, and it was apparent that there were many more questions than there was time to answer them, the moderator and Mr. Pink brainstormed ways to keep the conversation going. (This, in my opinion, is a key part of a live event such as this–use the event as a starting point, but give participants the tools to keep talking after their time together has come to an end.) The result this time is that Learn From My Life is going to collect additional questions and send the aggregation on to Mr. Pink for him to answer on his own blog. I think as everyone gets more comfortable with this method of talking, these tools will be part of the system.

This morning (the following Monday) I received a thank you e-mail from Learn From My Life, with a link to a feedback survey and the link to the audio archive. I highly recommend giving it a listen, especially if you’re interested in whole-brain thinking or need some career advice from a Japanese fairy.

Learn From My Life is a neat experience. I was talking with Don about it for a few minutes on Friday afternoon, and told him that, to me anyway, it was the next best thing to getting to attend a Ted Conference–it opens up access to “thought leaders” for those of us who can’t shell out the bucks to attend the big conferences. Participants don’t have to learn any new technology to attend–fill out a web form, dial a phone number, and you’re ready to go.

Neat stuff for your Monday morning!

Tags: conferencing, dan pink