Conference and meeting professionals like action when planning their events. They are accustomed to juggling multiple demands. They have long to-do lists that require their attention and often exceed their available time. So, they have the tendency to want to hurry up and check-off items on their to-do list–yesterday. Herein likes one of their challenges … [Read more…]
What’s your favorite room in your home? I have two: my front porch with its porch swing and my master suite that looks out into my backyard. I cross the thresholds of those spaces daily without much thought. We rarely think about thresholds. Yet, we spend a lot of time traversing them—both literally and figuratively. … [Read more…]
Nothing we do is inevitable. Our success as association professionals is not inevitable. Achieving a thriving conference and burgeoning membership is not inevitable. We are not guaranteed that our association will stay small or that it will grow big. Nor are there any assurances that if we do everything right, at the right time, with … [Read more…]
When do you stop pouring resources into things that have achieved their purpose? asked management guru Peter Drucker. It’s one of Drucker’s signature strategies: abandoning the past for tomorrow. He called it the concept of purposeful abandonment. Purposeful abandonment doesn’t sound very attractive. Few leaders brag about the product, service or idea that they abandoned. … [Read more…]
If there’s something strange in your conference-hood Who you gonna call? (paradigm busters) If there’s something weird And your event don’t look good Who you gonna call? (paradigm busters) I ain’t afraid of no paradigm I ain’t afraid of no paradigm (Adapted from songwriter Ray Parker Jr. Ghostbusters lyrics.) Who You Gonna Call? Paradigm Busters … [Read more…]
A strong driving force lies just beneath what you do on a daily basis. It is the unspoken, unrecognized, and unquestioned assumptions that steer your thinking, decisions and actions. These views developed over time and through education, experiences and interactions with others. These mental models are deeply embedded in our conference planning and management practices. … [Read more…]
How do we think? And just as important, how and what do we think about our conferences and events? How do we understand our conference planning processes, its underlying assumptions, and our customers, partners, exhibitors, and stakeholders? How do we create knowledge about our conferences that serve as our cognitive maps and meaning structures during … [Read more…]
To be successful in the 21st Century, we have to become comfortable with ambiguity and contradiction. We must learn to reframe our questions and rise above conventional mental models. We have to embrace experimentation and try new things. We have to adopt strategies that encourage us to abandon ingrained, comfortable ideas and employ new ones … [Read more…]
Most organizations pay for it without knowing it. What is it? Conference organizational debt. Your conference organizational debt includes the static roles, traditional structures, outdated models, long-established practices, antiquated procedures and legacy policies that prevent your organization from adapting to evolving markets, technology and society. Your conference pays the interest on this debt in the … [Read more…]
Conference organizers and their planning teams should understand, identify and quash organizational debt. Once they pinpoint and distinguish it, they need to refactor it. “Refactor it?” you say. “What does refactor mean?” Refactor is a technology concept that meeting professionals can use as a metaphor. Software programmers refactor their code once they develop a better … [Read more…]
