[HN Gopher] How to run an event that doesn't suck ___________________________________________________________________ How to run an event that doesn't suck Author : smitty1e Score : 152 points Date : 2022-09-17 12:00 UTC (11 hours ago) (HTM) web link (karmanivero.us) (TXT) w3m dump (karmanivero.us) | oDot wrote: | While focusing on the technicalities of the event is important, | the major factor is always the people. | jimmySixDOF wrote: | Interesting bullet points but I keep clicking on these kind of | headlines waiting to hear someone come up with a good method for | how to balance an IRL audience with real time remote online | participants in a way that fosters interaction. It's not even | common to let remote attendees into Q&A etc so there is rarely | any benefit vs just watching the event vod on youtube. It's an | unnecessary blocker to a potentially much bigger audience and | reduces the overall value of assembling people with like minded | interests together in the first place. | jf wrote: | As someone who has organized many dozens of events, and attended | hundreds, my core thesis for running a good event is: "Make | events attendees want" | | The only good events are those made specifically to benefit the | attendees of the event, not for the sponsors, not for the | organizers. | | There are many different formats for having a good event, there | are lots of basic things that are important to get right. All of | those things can seem intimidating, for good reason. It takes a | special type of person to get all of the details of an event | right. | | That said, the events that I have enjoyed the most are the ones | that I know were built solely for the benefit of the attendees. | | This has been a tricky insight for me to get. Every event starts | out as one to benefit the attendees. The issue is that at some | point as an organizer, you need money: Finding a space to host | the event, providing food, providing infrastructure. All of these | things require money and once money is involved, you have to make | a compromise somewhere to get that money. | | The typical compromise that an event will make to get money is to | get sponsors. Sadly, the traditional model for sponsorship is one | that will insidiously shift the focus of the event from one that | is built to benefit the attendees, to one that is built to | benefit the sponsors. | | To run an event that doesn't suck, you have to make the event for | the benefit of the attendees. | zippergz wrote: | _Every event starts out as one to benefit the attendees_ | | Not so sure. Events like Dreamforce and other company-branded | and sponsored events seem to have started with the goal of | making more money/selling more stuff, and then had to go figure | out how to make it look appealing enough that people would | attend. (Though I still don't really know why anyone would | attend Dreamforce.) | atoav wrote: | I mean you could literally go and just consult Maslow's pyramid | and ensure the needs are somewhat sufficiently met in this | order: | | 1. Physological needs: warmth, water, food, rest, toilets, | hygiene, accessability, shelter | | 2. Safety needs: security, safety (both in the practical and | the psychological sense) | | 3. Belongingness & Love needs: while this is something we | cannot control, making space and time for actual contact | between people might be a good idea. Can be combined with the | things in point 1 | | 4. Esteem needs: Feeling of accomplishment (the actual content | of the event needs to give the audience something new and | valuable) | | 5. Self-actualization: Again something we cannot easily | control, but there might be ways of having the attendees | actually do something themselves in a creative and/or | productive sense. But my guess would be that if you rocked the | first 4 points, this one is a nice extra. | | Too many events focus mostly on point 4 and forget the | importance of the first 3. | rawgabbit wrote: | Here are my two cents about events, in-person and virtual. | | - Please, no fake influencers. If you give off the vibe that you | are selling something or promoting yourself, I have already | turned off or logged off. - Emphasize the message. No long | introductions. What is it you are telling me? I am here for the | earth shattering message you said you were going to tell me. Fill | in the details later. - Your monologue should be finished in 20 | minutes. The interesting part is the Q&A. Be prepared for the | Q&A. Yes, the audience will ask stupid questions because we | didn't get what you were telling us. Repeat your message ad | nauseum until we get the point. - Wrap up and give us an email so | we can contact you. | mgbmtl wrote: | I'm a big fan of Q&A, but I really hate conferences where Q&A | is where people go and promote themselves or their project (or | fake-influencers, as you say). | | "I work on X (usually with a 10 min intro) and would really | love hearing your thoughts on our project/product" | | Discouraging self-promotion goes a long way (besides saying "I | work at X") | celestialcheese wrote: | 100% agreed. It's noticeable and wonderful when there's | enforced "No Self Promotion" clauses with conferences or | talks. Improves the quality of questions and discussions | immensely by giving space for people with real questions. | teddyh wrote: | The primary component of an event must be to know what its | _purpose_ is. After the event, if everybody had fun and would go | again, but nobody learned anything new or met any new people, | would the event be considered a success? The referenced | "RINGKNOCKER" events would _not_ be, since they had other | explicit goals. The event must be designed to be fun to attend | _while maximizing the actual goal of the event_. | | Far too many people seem to believe that the goal of _any and | all_ events is simply "fun", and leave it at that. | switch007 wrote: | > I'm a software engineer by trade, and I won't pretend to | possess some arcane secret about running great events | | Then proceeds to write an article full of absolutes and SHOUTING | statements. | | From the title I was expecting someone who has run tens or | hundreds of successful high profile events. | asplake wrote: | For me, worth it for the SNL factoid. I'm not American and | maybe it's common knowledge there but I'm definitely using that | one | metadat wrote: | I was curious what SNL factoid you were referring to -- here | is the snippet from TFA in hopes others find it interesting | or at least convenient :) | | > Simply put, an event's format is a plan for the event, | expressed in units of time. For example, every episode of | Saturday Night Live follows this exact format. The format is | so consistent that, in 45 years of weekly run time, the show | deviated from its published format only nine times. | | https://snl.fandom.com/wiki/Saturday_Night_Live_Episode_Syno. | .. | resonanttoe wrote: | It also doesn't look good that they put a clip from said | virtual event where its clear they couldn't kick out of | Bluetooth headset mode and proceed to have all your attendees | listen to them in glorious 1990s PCM quality. | whatshisface wrote: | If you try to improve your human connections by grading them | according to audio quality you will go in the wrong | direction. | eropple wrote: | This is a sentiment that reads well but isn't really true. | Listening to bad audio is very fatiguing for people and it | asks much more of them than good audio does, if you desire | their attention. | | Video doesn't matter as much. It's very nice to have but | you can get by with poor video. People can mentally fill in | the blanks. But audio is not negotiable; audio quality is | directly representative of your respect for your audience. | realstacktrace wrote: | Totally agree, audio quality is super important. I'm an | audio engineer so of course I'm biased, but high quality | microphones, amplifiers, speakers and engineers | (operators) make such a big difference at any event. | Proper lighting is also very important. There's no need | for big bright lights. Dim all of the lights down, and | add a touch of color with room uplights. Make sure it's | not so dark that folks can't see the ground well | (tripping hazards) but make sure it's dim enough so that | it creates a relaxed atmosphere. | [deleted] | steve_john wrote: | The mission was to create connections between shipmates and | comrades-in-arms who couldn't get together physically due to the | COVID crisis. We hosted over 80 weekly Zoom calls that brought | together thousands of people who learned together how to activate | a powerful network they ALREADY had, but hadn't learned how to | leverage. | | Running RINGKNOCKER was an incredible experience, all the more so | because I was able to do it from my home on the island of Bali! | | Like all good things, RINGKNOCKER eventually ran its course: | attendance dropped as the COVID lockdowns came to an end, and we | decided to finish on a high note rather than run it into the | ground. While the RINGKNOCKER operation is firmly in the rear- | view mirror, the community and I continue to benefit from the | connections we made during that time. | | I'm a software engineer by trade, and I won't pretend to possess | some arcane secret about running great events. But if RINGKNOCKER | taught me ANY important lesson about hosting events, it's this | one: | | Brilliance is a nice-to-have. NOT SUCKING IS ESSENTIAL! | extragood wrote: | My teams' weekly syncs take a similar format to this. | | At a high level, the structure for the larger team (10, full | remote): | | * 3-5 minutes unstructured social banter * 5-10 minutes general | team update * 10 minutes individual updates * 5 minutes review | recent releases and new bugs | | We've followed that format for years, and I think one of the | greatest things I did is guarantee that I'm not talking at them | for the full 30 minutes. In fact, each person contributes for at | least a minute in their individual update. I'll often have | someone else talk about something they've been working on as the | general team update, and always have the person who identified a | bug talk us through it. As the host, I only need to come up with | a few minutes of content per week and keep the flow of the | meeting going. | | The one point from the article that I disagree with (at least in | the context of my meetings) is the necessity of strict timing. | Some meetings only need to be 20 minutes, and I'm not going to | artificially extend it if it isn't necessary. Others go over time | by a few minutes, and while some people may need to drop early, | the meeting is recorded and agenda/notes are published so they | can be easily referenced as necessary. | joelrunyon wrote: | This reminds me of how my friend Nick Gray throws parties. If | you're in Austin - you've probably been to one of them. | | He's got a pretty good overview on different types of events to | host (sometimes personally the details feel overkill to me but | it's like an SOP for your social life and it works | (https://party.pro/happyhour/)). | | If you're trying to upgrade your social life & build more | connections - his book is easily worth it several times over | (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1544530072). | whatshisface wrote: | It is pretty impressive that one person has had at least | 482,936 party guests. | Applejinx wrote: | This article doesn't suck. I've been on event staff quite a bit, | seen 'em take all sorts of forms, and from my experience the | author here is right on the money. Worth reading and believing. | | The poorer events I've been to were generally marred by attempts | to bring some special extra goodie of some sort, while failing at | the things the author emphasizes: deliver competently and in a | timely manner the salient things YOUR EVENT is about, while | caring for the attendees. | | It's really that simple. Your event is the purpose. If there's | meaning to it, you're the one who has to bring that meaning. In | doing that, you serve the attendees your message, your purpose, | with a due respect for not so much THEIR purpose but the fact | that you're proposing to replace whatever else they might be | doing with your thing. | | End result is not about whether they went away bribed with | goodies, but whether going along with your purpose ends up | seeming to them like time well spent. Ideally, they're so into | sharing the experience with you and others, that they end up | counting it a great, treasured experience. | ElCheapo wrote: | Here's what's actually needed for an event to not suck: | | - Plenty of free water | | - Plenty of food, preferably free | | - Plenty of seating space | | - Plenty of bathrooms | | - Clear indications as to where all of those things are placed | | I'll attend almost any event if I can sit down with a drink, some | food and make small talk with people and maybe even network! And | even if your presentation is empty and boring (as most of them | are) I will still remember your event as a decent one because I | was able to enjoy it my way and get something out of it. | GordonS wrote: | Lack of seating (outwith the conference rooms, I mean) is the | absolute worst! Actually, I don't think I've _ever_ attended a | conference where there were enough seating and tables, which is | super annoying at lunch time. | BiteCode_dev wrote: | And a wifi that works and scales with the number of | participants if you are at a conference. | dividedbyzero wrote: | If offering food intended to serve as a meal, organizers should | ask for food allergies and make sure those people are covered, | including proper labelling of the food that's offered. This | usually affects other attendees too, since it just sucks to | know a colleague will have to go hungry until he can get | McDonald's at 11pm because no one knows what may or may not | contain nuts (or worse, gets wrong info and ends up having an | anaphylactic shock) | | Same with mobility impairments. Organizers should make sure | every important space is accessible if they have attendants in | wheelchairs etc., including toilets. | sgtnoodle wrote: | When I'm involved in running an event, my number one priority | is an abundance of decent food and a variety of beverages. You | don't want your guests feeling anxious about whether they'll be | able to snag a bag of goldfish crackers before they run out. | Also, even if you're trying to throw a healthy event, it's good | to have at least some of the provided food and drink be | decadent. For example, buy several cartons of sparkling water, | but at least one carton of coke. Once a few people start | walking around with a coke, other people will see it and | suddenly feel thirsty, even if they have the impulse control to | grab a water instead. | mhb wrote: | And not just diet Coke. | aarondf wrote: | But definitely not diet Pepsi | Jiro wrote: | And stop blocking off exits for crowd control when the effect | is that everyone's maps, which never list the blocked off | exits, are useless. | jrootabega wrote: | And hot coffee all day long, not just breakfast! | LightG wrote: | - goody bag (preferably including a decent bottle of booze). | chrisseaton wrote: | Please no goody bag. Hand me a drink and a goody bag and now | I've got no free hands. Carrying around tat not a way to have | a good time. | ljf wrote: | Went to a great Google event where you got a bag only as | you left. In fact I wasn't even aware there was a bag until | I was leaving and one was nicely passed to me. Had some | nice bits to share around the office, and also some things | I still have to hand. And a Google home mini - a chunk of | the people who came with me moved to the Google home | devices after that event, after being amazon people before. | LightG wrote: | 100%. Only on leaving. | CyberDildonics wrote: | Not sure if english is your first language but you can say | 'no thank you' or shake your head for no. | michaelt wrote: | Ah, but you don't know if the bag of tat contains vital | information (event schedule, car park code...) until | you've already left the registration desk. | CyberDildonics wrote: | That doesn't sound like a "goody bag". Also wouldn't | having nothing be the same? | bckr wrote: | This is a great article. I love the bit about The Legend. Will | return to this. | nickgray wrote: | Great article. I have hosted hundreds of happy hours, dinner | parties, cocktail parties etc. Here are a few things I'd add: | | - Name tags. Please, please use name tags. They might seem | "formal" or "corporate" but they're also inclusive (no cliques!). | I'd rather feel awkward asking someone to wear a name tag than | feel awkward forgetting their name. | | - Consider hosting on what I call "non red-level days," aka days | that are NOT socially competitive. Socially competitive days or | "red-level days" in America tend to be Thurs, Fri, and Sat | nights. Also holidays and long weekends. People schedule big | stuff on these nights. Make your party easy to attend: host it on | a Monday, Tues, or Wed night. | | - Set a start AND an end time, and mention both when you collect | RSVPs and send reminder messages. End times help get people to | show up on time. They also give people an easy out to leave. | | - 2 hours is the best length of time for an event like this. I | like 6-8P or 7-9P. | | - Get a group photo! You'll be proud of your event. And you can | use the photo when you invite people to your next party. | | - Don't forget to send reminder messages to everyone who RSVP'd | leading up to your event. I like sending my reminder messages 1 | week prior, 4 days before, and then on the morning of. | | Good luck!! I think more people should host parties and happy | hours. It changed my life and helped me build a network and | relationships to launch my last company, Museum Hack (sold 2019). | | I recently self-published a book of every little tip and trick | from hosting events to teach you how to host your first party. | The book is called 'The 2-Hour Cocktail Party: How to Build Big | Relationships with Small Gatherings' and it has 230+ reviews on | Amazon and Audible here-- https://amzn.to/39rfb2V Happy to give a | satisfaction guarantee for any HN readers. You can Venmo request | me @nickgray and email your receipt to nick@party.pro if you | don't think my book is filled with actionable, tactical, | extremely practical advice for hosting events. You can read the | first few chapters on my site here https://party.pro/book- | readnow/ | | OK good luck!! You should host a party!! Your event will be | awesome!! We could all use some new friends these days. | proto_lambda wrote: | > - Don't forget to send reminder messages to everyone who | RSVP'd leading up to your event. I like sending my reminder | messages 1 week prior, 4 days before, and then on the morning | of. | | I'd perceive that as too many. Leave out the one 4 days before | and it'd be fine IMO. | joshdance wrote: | I think it is a fine number. In my experience people need a | ton of reminders. More than you think. I would contact people | multiple times and always someone would forget. If you are | not top of their memory stack, they don't remember. | nickgray wrote: | with all due respect: no I disagree and here's why. | | The number 1 fear of a new or first-time event host is that | nobody will show up to their party. People are TERRIFIED to | host, they often DO NOT host, because of this. Or, worse, | they worry that only 3 or 4 people will show up, and their | event or party will be awkward. | | What I've found is that the best way to get people to | ACTUALLY show up (besides obviously throwing a great event | with great people) is to remain top of mind. Does that feel a | little spammy? Maybe. But each of the reminder messages helps | to show that you take your event seriously. It shows that | you're going to put on a thoughtful event. | | I also include little "Guest Bios" in this message 4 days | before. Guest Bios are like my Secret Weapon to getting great | attendance. I wrote about them here: | https://party.pro/guestbios/ | | I've hosted hundreds of events and sent thousands of reminder | messages. I have never once been told, "You spammed me with | too many reminder messages for a free party!" Instead I've | seen around a 95% attendance rate, from the number of RSVPs | to the actual number of attendees at the event. | | Often times the advice about hosting a party seems obvious or | counter-intuitive. And I think your response of "That's too | many!" is, like, I think a lot of people feel that way? But I | believe keeping an event top of mind is important if you're | serious about having good attendance. Hope this didn't come | across as an attack! I just want people to have a great | event- and a lot of that simply boils down to good | attendance. Open to pushback if you still feel strongly | against it. | CharlesW wrote: | > _- Name tags. Please, please use name tags._ | | A great resource12 for designing an attendee-focused event | badges (including holder and lanyard guidance): | | 1 https://badge.reviews/ 2 https://badge.reviews/10-rules-for- | a-better-conference-name-... | nickgray wrote: | This is really well-done, kudos!! A great resource. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-09-17 23:00 UTC)