Are you wondering about what the ingredients of building an event are? I asked my friend, industry renowned journalist and thought leader Michael Hart on the art/science mix on starting a conference. Here’s what he had to say:
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The answer to the above question is “yes.” Yes, it is an art; yes, it is a science.
That truth has never been more evident to me than over the last six months as I have worked to prepare a conference program. I started with a blank slate and the task to develop the content for a conference and recruit its speakers – all for an event focused on a topic I knew virtually nothing about. In other words, building something from scratch.
As is the case with any artist, there have been moments of great satisfaction (when, for instance, I nailed a commitment for a keynoter I at one time had no confidence I’d land), great frustration (when I went days without engaging a single potential speaker) and even great embarrassment (when my ability to wrap my arms around a subject I didn’t know much about did not keep pace with my need to speak intelligently to people well versed in it).
What kept me from jumping off the metaphorical cliff was the scientist in me, who knows that simply making a to-do list and steadily working your way through it will keep you out of a lot of jams. On top of this, building an event is exhilarating!
Finding the right balance, knowing when to employ the artist in yourself and when to rely on the scientist, requires a fine touch.
At the very beginning, the investigative scientist in me knew where to look for information that would quickly acquaint me with the subject. The artist helped me determine which sources to take seriously and which were a waste of my time, who could give me good advice and who couldn’t.
The artistic part of my brain helped me calculate what the audience this conference will serve would be talking about, not now, but when the conference takes place nearly a year in the future. The scientist employed the trial-and-error process to compile a list of potential conference session topics as I shared my ideas with an advisory committee that could tell me when I had hit my mark and when I was off track.
The scientist in me knew at that point where to go for suggestions about who might make good speakers for the session topics I had finally come up with. The scientific side of my brain kept me going through the often tedious process of connecting with people I didn’t know, explaining my goals and inviting them to participate.
The artist in me learned how to draw information out of potential speakers as I spoke with them, discern whether they would indeed be correct fits for the conference I had come to visualize and, in some cases, whether they even knew what they were talking about. The artist in me realized through some of these discussions that the person I was talking to might be the right speaker for a topic that had never even occurred to me before but would likely be a good draw for the conference.
The scientist in me understood the need to make deadlines on a schedule, knowing that certain elements of the program had to be filled by certain dates – no matter what. The artist in me anguished when those deadlines drew near and I did not yet have the quality speakers I wanted.
With still nearly six months to go, the scientist in me has just put 90 percent of a conference program onto a spread sheet and passed it on to my marketing colleague who will now use it to entice potential attendees to register for the event. The artist in me is pleased with what I have created, but also sees the gaps still to be filled.
If I’m successful, I’ll know exactly how much attention I must pay to the art of organizing a conference program, and exactly how much time to spend on the science. That hypothetical “success” will be elusive and is always hard to come by but, in the end, I expect to achieve it.
Michael Hart is a business consultant and writer who focuses on the events industry. He can be reached at michaelhart@michaelgenehart.com.