Spoiler: The good ones leave nothing to chance
I’ve sat through many conferences and, if I’m honest, most of them blur into a sea of sameness. But every now and then I get one that hits different. There’s magic.
Delegates skip the coffee queue to carry on talking or get to the lunch late because they feel immersed. There’s a hum…an energy. People are connected and connecting. And, months later, they’re still talking about the event.
What are those events getting right?
After enough of them, you begin to see it. Someone – a brilliant conference organiser or event professional – has sat down and thought hard about the whole event: who speaks, who entertains, who manages the day in which order, how the sessions connect and what happens before anyone arrives.
And behind all of it, the real questions are: What ultimate message or feeling is this meant to deliver? When the lights go down, what’s the essence that’s left? What impact is made, and what lasts long after?
There’s a fancy word for all of this: curation. And it’s the difference between an event you remember and one you can’t wait to leave or forget about by that night.
It’s an ecosystem, not a line-up
At a curated event, every act on the bill is pulling the same golden thread: one clear message, one purpose, one thing you want people to carry home. The speakers, the MC, the entertainers, everyone’s serving up the same reason for being there.
Compare that to the event where every artist or speaker turns up in their own little world, does their 40-minute stint, and leaves. Each act on its own might be excellent, but nobody’s joining the dots, and that’s a missed opportunity.
Micro-manage the running order
The best conference organisers think about how the day feels from a seat in the audience. If you were the one sitting in that chair, what would excite you? What would make you want to stay? And what would leave a meaningful impact?
Ask yourself where the pressure points are. What are the real problems that need addressing and how do you address them in a way that makes a difference?
There’s a simple formula for it and it looks like a hamburger:
- A big opening to get the energy up
- A strong close so people leave on a high
- And, in between, your key experts and the heavier, data-driven stuff, broken up with activations, so the room never goes flat
Energy = attention = memory = a win! The running order is a decision.
And, long before the doors open…
Before: Ensure that your talent is properly briefed, their material is shaped around your people and what’s actually going on in the business, and your audience arrives knowing why they’re there.
After: Ensure that the core ideas do their work. The right talent gets people talking they’ve left the room: sharing clips, quoting a line or bringing it up back at the office. (Remember my lift-versus-shift thing? This is what makes the shift stick.)
This is how a good day turns into something that changes how people work, instead of a nice memory and a swag bag.
Get a few things straight upfront…
…before you round up some names for your next event.
- What is the walk-away or take-home?
- What are people left thinking, feeling, knowing or doing?
- What KPI or ROI was reached?
- What needs to be or was done to match that outcome?
Got a conference on the horizon? Shaping the day, flow, speakers, MCs, entertainment, facilitators, training or special celebs, the before and after – the whole lot, is our jam. Chat to us; we’ll help you build something people don’t forget.
We do it properly. And we do it with heart.
P.S. Speakers and talent, this one’s for you too. Those who get booked again and again think past their own 40 minutes. They ask: What’s going to make the biggest difference and the widest impact? They pick up threads from earlier in the day and hand something meaningful to whoever’s next. They make the whole event better. That’s what turns a booking into a relationship.
