To Manage or To Create Expectation? That's my question...

This week I find myself fortunate enough to be located in London in the midst of action surrounding the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine (Kate) Middleton. Whereas I thought the US press was obsessed, you can't turn the corner in London this week without seeing a new breaking piece of news or a new "promotional product," - as we would call them at a company meeting, though I doubt William or Kate are benefiting from the "branding"- promoting the big day!

With little doubt the expectations are high. And then today, BizBash magazine emailed me a quote from an NBC Executive that the Royal Wedding represents "[O]ur biggest international technical build-out ever." Everyone has hope; this will be bigger than the 1981 spectacle of Will's parents, Prince Charles and Diana. But then again, I am wondering if that will be true...

The world is different than 1981. The Royal Family and Britian are a different place. America is different and the media has radically changed! But what are our expectations? In the United States, though Twitter is ablaze with "who cares" and royal wedding media coverage burnout, the truth is that this is a spectacle we want to see and to be a part of. Royalty is not part of the American culture; and so we have to live vicariously through the English Monarchy... They are the fairytale fantasy... We want a big wedding to wow us. We don't need opulence, but some small part of our culture would love to bask in it. And as an events industry, I believe there is a hope that this event will drive both trends and spending in social events on "our side" of the pond.

And yet, as I am talking with individuals involved in Royal Weddings of the past, there is a side of this affair which I haven't heard yet. The Royal Couple is "holding back" this time around and many royal traditions of weddings past are being bucked not (or not only) because this is a modern couple, but because (get this) of the economy. The economy is still in the midst of a recession abroad and William and Kate are leery to "show-off" too much.

So what will that mean come Friday? There are definite positives to this attitude: Social Media access to this event for folks worldwide (though lets see the reaction); a donation of 500,000 quid to 26 local charities in place of gifts; and a commitment to sustainability as the flowers in Westminster Abby will be live, including trees, rather than all cut - so that they can be replanted post wedding. But there will be no traditional towering showcase cake. Maybe the dress will end up being elegant, but underwhelming. Will we still be blown away with the fantasy of a wedding attended by an estimated million people live on the streets of London? Or will it under-deliver in the name of the people?

Well weddings are generally outside of my jurisdiction of work, this story raises an interesting question which is relevant for all events. What is our role as event professionals, as the event planners or the clients throwing events, in creating expectations for our guests/our audiences? What is our role in managing them? I am currently working on a project with a corporate client in just this situation. They threw an incredible, interactive, highly engaging brand launch in 2010. They have decided to do the event again, but not with the same budget. And the attendees are the same. How do you manage the established expectations from 2010 in 2011, or do we work to create a completely new project to create new expectations of the audience this time around?

For Events, which is it? Do we manage expectations? Or do we create them?

Stop Decorating, Start Designing.

Originally Published in Event Solutions Magazine in February 2011

Nine times out of ten, design articles and columns focus themselves on hot products, great ideas and the next best trend. Design writers want to share their latest event, a cool new product or the a crazy color combination. They obsess themselves with the things that we design with – linens and flowers and food and technology. That is to say most design articles focus themselves on the very practical, well received, easily digestible and highly desired content of decorations.

I think this is because decorations are tangible; therefore they are easy to understand. I can write a column all about what to do with ice (see last month) and you the reader will understand five interesting ways to use ice at their next event. But what does an ice sculpture - however cool - or, for that matter, a linen or a centerpiece idea have to do with design. Nothing. And everything.

The nothing part first. To Decorate. To Design. Both active verbs, but with different meanings and different outcomes. The term decorate is defined as the act of embellishing, of furnishing or adorning with something ornamental. When you decorate, you make something more attractive by adding ornament or color. By contrast the term design means thoughtful creation. Design implies a thoughtful intent to create something that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also functions. To decorate is to simply cover up for some purpose. To design is to reveal that purpose at its best and make it beautiful.

The designer knows why the design exists. The decorator doesn’t. Designing is making conscious decisions which are informed by your events purpose and which collaborate to communicate that purpose. Decorating also requires conscious decisions but void of intention, the décor exists often for its own sake because it is pleasing or beautiful. That is why a centerpiece, a buffet, or a linen on their own merit have nothing individually to do with the design of an event. They may be beautiful as individual elements or even in combination, but void of any correlation to the purpose of the event they are simply decoration.

This is not to say that there is anything wrong with decoration. I know and respect greatly a lot of people who decorate very well. And many times, our clients are only looking to us to be decorators – to make their events pretty or colorful or beautiful. And as decorators, we do this and all is well.

I said at the beginning that a linen or a centerpiece may have everything to do with design. And they do, when they are a part of the conscious plan of event and are chosen not for their own sake, but to be active contributors to the experience being created. When these individual elements work to contribute to the telling of a story or communicate the values of a brand, then they have a role to play in the design of the event. Then they exceed their own merit and contribute aesthetically and purposefully to the project.

So in this new year, I would like to take a chance with this column to advocate for the designer. That individual who sees and is inspired, and truly creates – a risk taking behavior which means finding something new (at least to them) which meets their clients need and in the art of its making, the design acts to communicate a value, a purpose, or an idea. And to ask more clients to seek design for their events in 2011 – to create experiences rooted in purpose, with the intent to communicate a message.

The great thing about being a designer is that you are part of a process. It is collaborative, creative, and messy, but in its success, together with your client, you end up making something greater than the sum of its parts. And through that process, not only does the event meet its key objectives – and the audience shares an experience worth having – but you and your client learn because you tried and you become better at your job because you took part in a process that continues on the next event and the next one and the next.

What is Next in Special Events...

While I am spending this year absent in my published blog posts due to my position as the President of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Chapter of ISES, this post was too timely to hold until the end of my term.

For all of you event professionals who want to be on the pulse for what is coming...For the second year in a row, my good friend Lara McCulloch of Ready2Spark has brought together 9 innovative thinkers on the topic. We were proud to again be a part of this book sharing our thoughts on the future of Special Events and our need as an industry to focus in on giving a voice to our audiences.

Have a read of the e-book. It is worth your time.

View it through Slideshare
Download What’s Next in Events ebook

Garage Sale Anyone?

Event Peeps: the time has come. Get rid of the stuff. All that stuff on your shelves. The great pieces which go out every weekend. And those pieces which go out every once and a while. And the deal you got on those 40 whatchamawhosits which you have never used. It is time to get rid of the stuff, because for the events of tomorrow - the stuff doesn't matter.

Ok, so maybe you don't have to trash or sell your stuff to stay in the event business (though in the last two year, I am sure some professionals thought about it and other downsized at least a little). But I am not promoting a more economical version of your business. I am writing this note to promote your people, because for the events of tomorrow, people are what count.

As I have continued to create new projects for clients across the country, I have come into a strong appreciation for the value of trustworthy event partners. As a designer there is nothing better to have than a great lighting designer who supports your vision. As a producer, your technical director is invaluable. But people have known this for years and everyone knows relationships are how this business functions. But as the dust settles on the shake up we are emerging from, the importance of those relationships I think are going to become more and more important. The new normal for events require that we open our eyes and look up from our sketch pads to see who else is working-creating-producing-designing in the field. To do that well, means that we all must become better at building teams and discovering the people who can be true partners for the sake of the project. Clients want us to collaborate to create better projects than any one person or company can do on their own. And the companies that win are the companies learn to market and sell their best assets: their talented staff.

Let me try to explain this with an example - and I think audio visuals provide the perfect example. When I travel with a show, I want to have production crew who I know, who I trust, and who I know have the best interests of my client and our project front of mind. The typical model for hiring and working with an audio visual company is that you hire the talent, you book the stuff on their shelves. And if you are headed out of town, you will truck that stuff along with you. But here is the problem: almost always, that "stuff" is anywhere my client is headed. Why waste energy and dollars shipping equipment across country when that equipment already resides at your destination. But that trusted production crew is not at your destination. The stuff in the production companies truck has no value but the people have tremendous value.

I know this is counter to how most of these companies make money - but we live in a new world and those models are tired. I want the people - I don't need the stuff. And the companies who are able to figure out how to rent out their qualified staff with or without the stuff from the shelves are, in my opinion, the companies who will keep creating innovative events.

And if per chance, you are thinking about selling some stuff: try usedeventstuff.com. A very cool event recycling concept!

It is a whole new world.

The theme of my life in the last week has been busy.
(i.e. I still haven't learned how to keep up on blogging. Anyone who knows, please tweet me.)

The real theme of the last week of my life has been a very real realization just how much the world has changed. And how not everyone yet knows it. Despite the vast popularity of MadMen (and my love of it), that world is over. The general session is a dying model. (or should be). Meeting and event content can no longer be only projected on screen and stated on stage if you want anyone to CARE. It must be reinforced. It must be experienced. It must be made real. Because no longer can we advertise brands and communicate organizational messages by shouting at people. AND live/virtual/hybrid events are not the new billboard for that purpose. We have to invite a two-way dialogue, encourage participation allow for the building of trust and empower great ideas to be community-driven, bubbling-up from the crowd, not pushed out from the executive speech writer.

But that is a big way of saying what I think is so brilliantly summed up in a European Microsoft Commercial. While the commercial specifically addresses advertising, remember, events require the same new set of rules for our whole new world. Enjoy.

ReClaiming (and ReDefining) my job as a Designer

I hate the response:

"What do you do"
"I'm an event designer"
"Oh, so you make parties pretty."

No. I am a Designer. I am not a decorator. Yes, I do create, design and provide decor for events, but that is only one small component of the responsibilities our clients task and trust us with as the designer of their meeting or event.

And yet as an industry and community, we do not necessarily celebrate the role or work of the designer the way we celebrate the decor at an event. So many times we offer awards and print in magazines beautiful pictures of stunning events without ever thinking about or asking how that event came to be; without examining the design process which did (or did not) make that beautiful event successful. And yet it is in the process of the art of design, not in the product of that design that the reality of our contributions lives.

Now note! In NO WAY is this a value judgment about the role of a designer or the work of event decorators. There is not a value judgment to be made. Both are required, but one is much better understood (and exposed) and the other is not. So I am making it my job to change that.

I have been reading the fine blog, The Business of Being Creative by @seanlow for the last eight months and his graceful words have motivated me to put a stake in the ground. Sean discusses the art of the creative business as being something each artist must define for themselves and stick to, as their art is their contribution, their art is their value. And how true. The gift we bring is an understanding of the process of creating an event. We understand the role of strategy and the important need for everyone to conceptualize the purpose of their projects, identify their audience and articulate the message of their brand or organization or of the individual celebrating. Only after this significant thoughtful energy has been spent can one really create a successful event which actually functions to serve a purpose.

It is these purpose-driven events which by design grow brands, change behavior, commemorate the past, the present or the future and create cause for celebration through the articulation of a defined set of values shared in a live, virtual or hybrid experience. It is not that these events are not "pretty" - but they are first purposeful. They are beautiful creations because they know why they exist, not because we put a bunch of beautiful things together. They are events which tell great stories - because that is our art, as true storytellers on the stage of the lived experience.

There will always be pretty events. But we don't make these. Because we are designers. And it is through our design that we make events matter.

You bet crowdsourcing has a place at your next event.

Social media is all about community building. But what do you do when you have a problem and want to get input from that community? Well, you crowdsource!

Crowdsource! What is that? Crowdsourcing is taking a problem which you would normally solve within your company or your team and pushing it out, or outsourcing it, to a large community of unknown or known people seeking their solutions and contributions to accomplish the task or solve the problem.

What does this have to do with events? Well maybe everything. Many of the daily tasks or challenges - Say "Where are we going to have this year's conference?" can be outsourced to a knowledgeable community of event professionals or destinations who can offer input and provide solutions.

But I like crowdsourcing for another reason: it offers the possibility of empowering your attendees to help define and design their experience at your event. Imagine it: you can crowd source various elements of the event to your attendees and let them vote or have input or even make suggestions for what they want to experience. What entertainment do you want to see? Ask the audience. What food will you serve for the gala's main course? Ask the audience. Do you want to take a boat tour or head to a karaoke bar? Ask the audience.

All of these suggestions and a hundred others which might be asked or polled amongst an audience of attendees put the event planner in a unique position. By soliciting input from your guests you excite them, energize them prior to the event. You enable the opportunity to open dialogue prior to the event and at the event ABOUT THE EVENT which is becoming increasingly critical as brands and organizations compete for valuable time of their guests. Giving up ownerships increases the likelihood of success because you have gotten direct, measurable input for those who matter most, the attendees.

But lets take it one step further. For the embattled incentive trip, crowdsourcing solutions that allow the audience to help choose the destination and define the experience creates a whole new motivator for sales teams. If they are able to define the experience of their dreams which they will receive upon the successful completion of goals or sales would only increase their drive to meet those goals. Crowdsourcing could be your corporation's best incentive in driving success, motivating behavioral change and redefining the incentive rewards program to help meet your business objectives.

I am going to kill the General Session!

BeEvents was selected by @ready2spark expert Lara McCulloch-Carter to participate in an e-book featuring seven Social Media experts sharing their thoughts on how Social Media will effect the future of meetings and events.

Included here is an expert from our chapter. The book is available for free from Ready2Spark's website.

I am on a mission to single-handedly destroy the ‘General Session’.

Ok, ok so I will not exactly be able to eradicate General Sessions from meetings all on my own. And, yes, General Session will still go on at meetings for years and decades to come. Just as breakout sessions and auxiliary events will continue to happen, because regardless of the immense growth and wealth of resources technology continues to churn out to help us meet better, accomplish more (or at least be busier), human beings are fundamentally social creatures and will always seek out opportunities to get together. The “live” event will never die. It is just going to change.

At BeEvents, we believe whole-heartedly in the notion that the purpose of event design is to facilitate the conversation. The growth in our industry is a reversal of the planning the process from task-driven planning to strategy-driven planning. It is not about finding the right color linen, booking the right entertainment, or figuring out the perfect way to process registrations and distribute gifts. And at the same time is it exactly about picking the right color linen, great entertainment and facilitating a smooth registration process. But the difference lies in knowing and understanding why you are doing it.

Far to often the planning process is thought of as:

Step 1: We’re Having a Meeting
Step 2: Need to pick a Location and Theme
Step 3: Complete all the to-do lists, checklists, master task sheets, forms, contracts,
vendors, obligations, negotiations, arbitrations, and many other …tions, until we collapse
post event with a stack of evaluations that really tell us nothing, hopefully a cold meal
which was left in the warmer, maybe a pat on the back from our boss or the corporate
executive and tomorrow we get up and do it all again.

But how often is Step 1 preempted with the question of “Why are we meeting in the first place?“ It is a question of great functional importance as budgets and staff have been cut and new technologies and virtual solutions present themselves as “cost-saving” measures. We need to question why in order to best understand what it is we are trying to accomplish (and, by default, what it is we are therefore seeking to measure to evaluate the event, its success and ROI). It is not that the logistical duties of effectively planning and producing a meeting and event are not relevant – they are critical. But first we must understand what the purpose of the project is in order to do those tasks effectively.

This is why strategy matters. The ability of an organization or an event team to effectively articulate its value proposition alongside it brand and goals and objectives, with without doubt simply produce better meetings and events. It is this organization that understands how to mix the virtual experience with the live experience in order to create learning and behavioral change (is that not the function of the meeting or incentive program, to educate and change behavior). It is this group who understands that the best spend of an event budget is on the items that most directly will create the experience necessary to meet the learning objectives. This group knows that the color of the carpet or the linens does not matter in and of itself because it is pretty or because it is ugly. They matter instead because they are contributors to effect-iveness of the audience’s experience.

The meaning is in the message and the message is communicated in the experience. The lesson of Social Media is that it creates offers environment in which communities of people can engage in conversation. Meetings and events are intended to do the same, with a bit of shaping, of course. And when all the elements are working together, the ability of the audience to engage in dialogue and create thoughts, ideas, and learnings multiplies. In this environment you tap into the natural expertise of everyone in the room – their experiences and their networks - expertise and ideas that hopefully track back to the office post event. That is why we have to get rid of the expert speaker and get rid of the stage and start the conversation among those in the room.

Calling all Attendees: You Choose how you want to Learn.

It seems clear. The future of events is in the direction of facilitated attendees experience. As a myriad of Social Media tools in hand with explosions in cell phone technology allows for engagement among attendees at any meeting and conference, I have been struck by a curious idea. Will we reach a point when attendees will be free to choose their own experience for a given learning objective? That is to say, will organizations be willing to create a portfolio of events all with the same objective?

For example: Lets say your organization wants employees to learn about Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethical Business Practices. Based on that learning objective, the event team create a series of learning modules for attendees to choose from. An experiential learner: head to China for a week to visit the factor where widgets are made. A tech-learner: a Web 2.0 environment lets attendees engage in an experience with colleagues from around the globe. A thought leader: Attend the executive summit over the weekend where small group interactive learning is the rule of thumb.

As a side note, there would appear to be value in this idea for cross-organizational learning opportunities. Consider it: the top organizations in the world create learning modules which attendees can pay to attend for continuing education. As an employer, dollars are dedicated for key talent development and those can be spent for a week at Google Camp or as a flavor creator for Ben and Jerry's. For the sponsors of the such learning programs, return is reaped from increased brand affinity and fresh ideas from outside the organization. For the individual learner, the are able to take a Liberal Arts approach to their life-long development choosing the experiences which are best suited to their development needs. Yes, this may be the Disney-ification of education - but for experience based learners is that a bad thing?

Thanks to @jaysmet for engaging with me on this converstation.

Shameless Self Promotion in Press

I like to write. And fortunately, for me, editors like my thoughts! :o)

So in a self identified act of shameless RT of my past work, and in an attempt to drive more traffic here to this blog, and because today, I cannot think of anything more to say, and because I like to have all of this in one place and I don't know HTML to code it into my own site, for anyone who finds themselves board or interested, a list of some "good" reading:

Special Events Magazine
Bridging the Gap - November 2006
The Trouble with ROI - June 2008 ISES Pages
Event Tents Serve as Sacred Spaces, Party Places (Cover) - December 2008
Event Pros Turn to Online Social Networking - December 2008
Cutting Edge Looks in Special Events - January 2009
Event Pros Deliver on Tight Budgets - February 2009
So You Wanna Win an Award - March 2009 ISES Pages



Event Solutions Magazine
The X Factor - April 2007
Gen Y Time - February 2008
It Report - May 2008
Open for Business - June 2009

Musings of an Event Designer...

All right, you have an event coming up. You have your bases covered: Venue (check). Food and beverage (check). The invitations will hit the printer (or the inbox) next week. The phone calls to entertainment are in. Production companies are responding to the RFP. All that is left to do is figure out the details of design: the flowers, linens, and those crazy centerpieces your budget has you doing yourself. But what are you going to do? Pick a theme? Arabian Nights? Tropical Island? VEGAS (baby!)? Something generic but colorful? That trendy lounge furniture you saw in the industry magazine spread or at the last industry association event?

STOP! You have already gone too far, too fast and are about to cross the line near dangerous ground of bad event design.

Now I don’t mean bad design in that it will look bad or not work out or that the theme you choose won’t leave your guests with a general good feeling. But this column is about event design, and while I have the ability to voice my opinion out loud, I feel an obligation to share my vivid passion about the transformative power of great events that are the result of thoughtful and strategic decisions.

Great event design is not pricey, but purposeful. It is planned. It is strategized from the very beginning. It is not about picking this theme or that or jumping on the latest trend be it LED or lounge – both of which are established and old news.

How does one strategize event design? By asking the relevant and important questions necessary for successful event production. The movement of marketing is to the message and events must follow suit, coming to understand the significance of purpose, of place and audience. Design is the articulation of purpose; it is, at its best, a cohesive experience of each element of the event working in tandem and performing in harmony. Great event design requires the designer to understand the function of the event and expectations of its guests. It incorporates the message of the event to communicate with event guests. It understands its purpose and uses that guideline to create and innovate, to surprise and delight.

Event ROI -> Whats the Return?

Event ROI is fictitious.

Whoa! Back up. Before anyone shouts back, let me explain. My theory is based on the following premises I have observed:

1. Special Events are essentially facilitated human interaction.
2. The problem with people is that you cannot control all the variables.
3. (Excluding sales-based projects and annual meetings), many events are one-offs. With no prior baseline to measure against, how do you concretely document the return.
4. Great Events prove that often 2+2=5 (that is the result of all the pieces (value of the experience) is greater than the individual pieces (price) themselves).
5. Events are ultimately chasing an intangible: memory retention of the experience.

Now some readers of this will want to argue that every meeting and event is sales driving for any organization and we can argue that. Others will articulate that every good event is rooted in brand strategy, business objectives and/or messaging which I agree with, but we are not talking about a Return on Objective, we are discussing Return on Investment. And its NOT just semantics. If you hit the APEX dictionary, the definition for Event ROI is a tradeshow one: Value (most likely financial) returned for an investment made. Events for the most part, represent costs not returns to organizations.

So can we give up the ROI debate? Absolutely not. The question it seems comes down to how we define that word 'value'. As event professionals, it is critical that we create strategies which design meetings & events for a return; and those energies should be split between creating value for the company and for all event attendees. We must frame up the experience at the event to facilitate the conversations we want to happen and allow room for attendees to create their own dialogues. Before we try to measure our events, we need to define what return we are trying to provide and then create both our strategies and measurements tools to document the value we just defined. Which means that there is no one equation for measuring the ROI of an event, but a multitude of possibilities.

And finally we have to be OK with what we hear back through our measurement models. As much as events are facilitated human interactions, they evolve as the audience becomes more refined and the product experience more defined. We must accept criticism which states that we missed the mark, and address it the same way we accept the positive feedback. As a good friend and colleague, Cheryl Kranz of CEK Events, recently shared with me, our focus should not be on moving the "good" evaluation folks up to "great" but creating value opportunities so all respondents respond to a great experience - even if that experience is wholly unique to every individual attendee. And that event will have a perfect ROI.