Back in the 1990’s I taught my 2-day workshop under several names: Mind Mapping Course, Mind Matters Workshop, Mind Mapping Seminar, Radiant Learning Class, Mind Mapping Workshop, Think, Learn and Create Course, Mind Mapping Training, and probably a few others that have since slipped my mind. Finally the title Mind Mapping Seminar evolved into Idea Mapping: A Learning Workshop, so that the title gave a broader description of the contents of the learning experience.

I think that the term Workshop best describes this kind of training because it is a highly interactive, fun, enjoyable, crazy, experiential way to teach skills to others that will make them more successful. See just a few of these crazy workshop photos below from thousands I’ve taken over the past 17 years:

juggling-baseline

mrs-potato-head

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When I hear the word Seminar I think: business attire, boring, listening to lectures, PowerPoint slides, rows of chairs with no tables to write on, little involvement, and certainly without fun and toys. I’m exaggerating a bit, but that’s why I think that “Mind Mapping Seminar” of past and now today’s “Idea Mapping: A Learning Workshop” is a better title.

Training feels like an old term to me. I picture leading a step by step set of directions similar to software training. Although participants are technically being trained, I don’t think the term belongs in the title.

Course is an interesting word. It reminds me of high school and college, and again less interactive. But I’ve found that it is also a culturally preferred word in some areas of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and other parts of the world.

Because I’ve had a couple people lovingly challenge me on terminology, I thought I’d throw the question out to you. Any thoughts?

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