Remembering past teachings
Director of Conference Focus, Max Turpin is sharing his insights on a range of topics with a regular column in BEN. Topics include new generation events and making events effective and valuable.
I ENJOY reading industry articles and learning new things – especially about the design and content side of meetings and ways to enhance and improve the effectiveness of events. However, I find it’s just as important now and then to look back over past teachings, since the key messages and lessons they provide still hold true over time. Here are a few….
From the Event ROI Institute:
“Meetings and events create value to stakeholders by influencing the behaviour of participants. This is the only way. If an event doesn’t make participants do something they would otherwise not have done, there is no value. Never. It is not possible. Thinking and feeling does not count, only physical behaviour.”
From the book “Meeting Architecture” by Maarten Vanneste:
Reading this book changed the way I view and think about events. It contains so many insightful and salient points but perhaps its key message is this…
“Designing a meeting (meeting design) is about timing, format, tools, techniques, methodology and technology based on objectives. It is about finding the right components and building blocks to execute a meeting. The design phase is the tactical phase where we develop the tactics and select the operational elements to support the strategy and desired outcomes.”
From the book “Into the Heart of Meetings” (Basic principles of Meeting Design) by Mike van der Vijver and Eric de Groot:
Along with “Meeting Architecture”, this book was highly influential on me and helped shape the way I think about events. Once again, it contains so many noteworthy insights it’s hard to single out just one, however, I’ll go with this…
“Focus on goals, objectives and what you want to achieve. And focus on your attendees and what they need to do – the tools and take-home points you need to give them to achieve your goals. Ultimately, that’s the most important thing and will bring value and ROI to your meeting.”
The wise say you should never stop learning. Learning new things increases our knowledge and enhances our development. Whilst that’s true, it’s sometimes just as important to remember sage old teachings and constantly remind yourself of their significance.