Career Momentum - Critical Steps to Develop a Successful Career in Experiential Education - Tim Arnold

Participants will learn how to position themselves within the EE field and learn ways to maximize their EE effectiveness.  This will be done through an application of strength-management research, a summary of thoughts from experts in the EE field, and group discussions that highlight best practices in career development.

Goals Setting and Realization - Mike Caldwell

Personal Fitness - Danielle Cardinal

Danielle will be presenting one of three possible topics: "Three Key Pillars to Attainable Health and Fitness(Flexibility, Fun & Focus)" or "Exploring 'physiquality'" or "Fitness Personality Profiling".

The Psychology and Sociology of Judgment in Outdoor Leadership - Peggy Foster

Peggy will be presenting the latest research on the Psychology and Sociology of Judgment by Dr Kent Clement; as presented by Dr Clement at the Wilderness Risk Management Conference in Burlington, Vermont in October 2006.  This engaging presentation will highlight several new theories of brain research and how it affects current day approaches in outdoor leadership practices, in addition to reviewing historic concepts in the area of cognitive and social psychology.

This is cutting edge research, examining our capacity to make sound judgments based on age and other factors, which should be of interest to all in the front and back country.

Interviewing Techniques to Recruit Outdoor Educators and Camp Staff - Steven Gottlieb

This session will outline ways to glean information about an applicant to make a decent estimation about character and suitability for a job position in the outdoor arena.  The techniques are based on a principle that past success is the best indicator of future success.  These techniques also help the interviewer go beyond some common pitfalls to conducting an interview.

These include:
    - assessing an applicant's ability to do a job interview as opposed to the job itself
    - interviewer bias
    - succumbing to rhetoric

This session is highly experiential in nature and promises to be fun and thought provoking.

Belay Still On? An Exploration of the Dynamics of the Challenge Course Belay System - Brian Lisson

Gain a better understanding for how a belay system works on a challenge course.  This workshop will examine the performance characteristics of various shear reduction and belay devices when used with different types of rope.  Basic physics principles related to belay systems will be explored.  The presenter investigated the holding ability of more than 20 different descent control/belay devices with rope of various diameters and types of elongation.  Additionally, the presenter examined the friction created by 11 different bend radius (shear reduction) devices.  Significant differences among devices and rope types suggest instructors consider several variables when selecting devices.

The Anatomy of an EE Activity - Aaron Sheedy

This is a session on activity deconstruction and construction.  This facilitated workshop will navigate how to develop or modify activities to meet your group’s needs.  Bring your activity needs, your experience and your creativity and we will build, as a group ,a brand new activity through this workshop.

Aaron's famous Juggle Jam will also be returning! Enjoy the basics of juggling and a light discussion about how Juggling can be used in EE.  But mostly, it is to play!

A Dramatic Exploration of Situational Leadership - Andrew Welch

A dramatic method for teaching the Situational Leadership model - based on a theatrical rehearsal process!  This leadership model is well-known in business circles, and describes how a leader's style must constantly change and adapt for each follower and each situation.  Participants in this session will live the the model firsthand, in this guided recreation of a real-life scene rehearsal, complete with scripts and improvisation.  This is typically a two-hour program component, but we'll try to compress it down for the symposium.

I would like to gain new ideas for summer day programs. - Environmental Educator/Summer Camp Director
 

As an outdoor adventure leadership student at Laurentian University, I am very interested in experiential education.  I am hoping to learn more from those who have experience in the industry. - Student
 

I hope to meet many valuable contacts in the field of Experiential Education and build on my ideas and creativity. - Programme Co-ordinator
 

We represent the national program development cell of our organization for youth 12-18 years of age.  Our responsibility is to develop a program that guides them into adulthood, focused on building five main competencies; emotional and physical well-being, social competence, cognitive competence, proactive citizenship, and understanding of the Canadian Forces.

Our current project is a 5 year long complete re-write of our program, with a focus on age appropriate learning and increasing the experiential aspects of the program.  To that end, we want to broaden our knowledge base and think about new ways to integrate experiential learning / education into our program and on age-appropriate learning. - Four Captains, Cadets Canada
 

I am excited about the addition of higher-calibre industry experts this year.  I have been to every CEEPS so far, and every one has been truly valuable.  But this year may just top them all! - Corporate facilitator
 

I would like to learn some new backpocket games/activities to use with kids of various age levels. - Student
 

What I am hoping for/needing from this conference is good networking, and maybe finding new places to get paid for this kind of thing... - Contract facilitator