This month’s ATD OC Chapter Event is more mixer, less learner.  And as we come together to celebrate our achievements as a community, we may find ourselves struggling to come up with something new to talk about.  After all, we’ve been all about networking and business throughout the year – it’s time to relax a bit.

We’ve done a little leg work for you – below are a variety of factoids that could serve as conversation starters during any number of holiday gatherings.  Commit a few of them to memory, or write them down on slips of paper that you hide in your pocket and – just like those contestants in “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?” – share one at an appropriate moment.

1. Every time you recall a memory or have a new thought, you are creating a new connection in your brain. 
   Memory is formed by associations, so if you want help remembering things, create associations for yourself.
   
   
2. Juggling has shown to change the brain in as little as seven days. The study indicates that learning new things helps the brain to change very quickly.
   
   
3. The average number of thoughts that humans are believed to experience each day is 70,000.
   
   
4. The most commonly used work in written English is “the.”  The most commonly used work in spoken English is “I.”
   
   
5. 90% of English text consists of just 1,000 words (while the Oxford English Dictionary adds roughly 1,000 words per year.
   
   
6. 18% of job seekers search for jobs from a restroom.  Thanks, mobile devices.
   38% of job seekers search for jobs during their commute (hopefully not while driving!).
   
   
7. Of those who take learning on their mobile devices:
   a.     52% take mLearning in bed after waking up
   b.     46% take mLearning in bed before they go to sleep.
   
   
8. Blue is supposed to be a calming and serene colour, but the blue light generated by LED screens and mobile devices has been proven to negatively impact sleep patterns.  Some optical companies are producing glasses that block that light.
   
   
9. It was the Greek philosopher Plato who discovered that you can mix two different paint colours together to produce a third colour.
   
   
10. The colour purple may boost creativity.  Purple uses both red and blue to provide a balance between stimulation and serenity that is supposed to encourage creativity.
    

So grab a paintbrush with us on Wednesday, December 14 and, armed with one or more of these factoids, see what new conversations you can spark in our community!