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Janet Sperstad
Janet Sperstad, CMP Fellow, is Faculty Emerita at Madison College in Madison, Wisconsin, where, in 2002, she founded the first associate’s degree in meeting and event management in the U.S. Sperstad was inducted into the Events Industry Council’s Hall of Leaders in 2017 and was a pioneer in another area: incorporating the principles of mindfulness and neuroscience into the curricula of her classes on event management and into keynotes and workshops she presented around the globe. Sperstad, who earned an executive master’s degree from the NeuroLeadership Institute, was the first guest on Convene’s podcast when it launched in 2016, where she talked about mindfulness and meetings. “When I think of mindfulness and bringing it into our world of events and meetings, it’s about really creating space in the brain for deeper thinking, for driving deeper moments of meaning, for connections, and creating some white space in the brain.”
When we asked Sperstad to recommend a book for event professionals, she shared four classics. Each, she said, “changed my world and opened up neuroscience for me.” They include:
Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness
This book by Rick Hanson, a psychologist and senior fellow at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, combines modern neuroscience principles with centuries-old contemplative practices and offers practical tools to help rewire your brain so you experience less stress and more peace.
Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long
Author David Rock is CEO and co-founder of the NeuroLeadership Institute, a cognitive- science consultancy that has worked with more than 60 percent of the Fortune 100, and which applies the findings of neuroscience to leadership, education, and training.
Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School
A developmental molecular biologist and director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific University, John Medina was the first to present to many people, including event professionals, such concepts as the brain best takes in information divided into 10-minute chunks and that emotional arousal helps people to learn.
Social: Why our Brains are Wired to Connect
UCLA psychology professor Matthew Lieberman, one of the founders of the field of social neuroscience, helped introduce the world to the fact that social pain registers in the same areas of the brain as physical pain. (Convene spoke with Lieberman — see “Social Connection: There’s an App for That.”)
Getting Emotional
Victoria Matey is a Seattle-based event planner turned consultant and speaker who specializes in applying behavioral science and psychology to events. Her book recommendation is How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of The Brain, by Lisa Feldman Barrett, a Canadian American psychologist and professor of psychology at Northeastern University.
“For event profs,” Matey wrote in an email, the book “is extremely valuable since it helps to understand what emotions are, what factors influence people’s emotional states, and what misconceptions we have about emotions. All of this is essential to creating better experiences, since emotions are at the core.”
Barbara Palmer is deputy editor of Convene.
On the Web
- Read previous Meetings and Your Brain columns in our archive.