If you’d like to answer to the next question and be featured on a post like this check out this link.

Here is the question:

What was the most outstanding event you attended? What did you enjoyed? What worked particularly well? What did the management do that you perceived as remarkable?

What’s in it for you, reader? The chance to get insights for your next event. I suggest you go through all the answers as they entail great feedback and inspiration.

The best answer (the first you’ll see below) was selected, as always, according to my own preference. You can use comments to vote yours.

A few considerations:

- Incredible to notice how plenty of people indicated events of more than 10 years ago. What is going on with current events? I guess it is becoming harder and harder to impress and exceed expectations. Looks like we all need to deal with this.

- A lot of people talked about their marriage of children birth. I didn’t leave that out as I think there is a lesson there. Those are the events where you are the protagonist. It would be difficult to get more involved than this. The lesson is: the more you involve and release control, the better the satisfaction.

And now the answers:

- Peter O’Connell - President / Voice Talent - audio’connell Voice Over Talent says:

Two really good events I participated in took place in Toronto and both involved social media.

One was Podcamp Toronto which was a two day conference on podcasting, blogging and everything social media. The other was a hastily planned Geek dinner in Toronto.

The experiences I took away from these two events had less to do with social media (though I learned a ton and developed wonderful contacts) as it did with how important it is to set expectations and goals for attendees at an event before it starts.

At both events, the networking (more exchange of ideas and best practices than business development though there was some of that too) was at the core of the event. Everybody knew it. Everybody came prepared to share, to talk to listen. There was very little arm crossing (that internationally recognized non verbal cue of stand-offishness)

That openness led to tremendous communication opportunities which built great relationships which in my opinion are at the core of every great event.

- Colleen Norris - Owner Loving Connections LLC says:

Last night I attending an amazing event.

It was the first night of a workshop entitled “Empowerment Dialogue & Gestalt Dreamwork” I learned so much in 4 hours, but what I really enjoyed was feeling welcomed by a bunch of strangers.

What worked so well was even though everyone was on different levels of understanding it was perfect for everyone. The facilitator was friendly and a joy to be around.

- Julia Marrocco - Executive Performance Coach says:

The most outstanding event was during a corporate awards trip to Bangkok for a week or so. There was the most amazing feast, outdoors, in gorgeous tropical weather, we accessed the venue by boat, and authentic Thai folkloric dancing kept us amazed and steeped us in the history and culture of the land. I will never forget it. Everything from start to finish was smooth and it seemed like the event happened by magic. I can only imagine what a tremendous amount of work it must have been but I never witnesses one frown, one hurried person, and everyone facilitating or helping at the event looked as if they had taken a happy smiley pill!

Outside of corporate events, (I have attended zillions…good and bad both)
I would have to say anything with Cirque du Soleil will always be a smashing hit. No one performs like them. If you had a bad event in every other way, and you ended by taking everyone to any Cirque performance (excluding Zumanity) you will have good reviews of the event. That is because when they see Cirque, everything else will leave their mind and they will so amazed that’s all they will think about for weeks to come. So end on a positive note.

- Glenn Curry - Partner, Efficient Technologies LLC says:

SIGGRAPH convention, Orlando ‘94. Disney closed their water park one night to guests only. Free food, wine, beer and bands. The whole park all night lots of happy drunk graphics people sliding down water slides all night!

OK, then there was the national sales meeting for Superscope/ Marantz ‘75. In LA, including a private party with live entertainment at the Playboy Mansion. Hugh was good friends with Joe Tushinski.

Almost forgot the Kenwood Electronics sales meeting ‘77, Stayed at the Royal Sonesta Hotel New Orleans, a grand hotel in the heart of the French Quarter on Bourbon Street.

In review, I have to apologize and wish to state without reservation that I attended a similar event 4 times in my life and each was tied for 1st place event.

I have four children and I was present at the event of each’s birth. No other event comes close.

- Joseph Bachana - President, DPCI says:

2 years ago i heard Jack Trout speak at the Microsoft annual Partner event. Nobody seemed to know this marketing legend, but his talk was so insightful. He pulled some concepts out of his book “Differentiate or Die”.

I remember a few things about the presentation. First, he used Powerpoint, which surprised me since I usually hate Powerpoint presentations but he aced his. Second, he was going over some of the real clunker brand strategies out there and he had the audience dying of laughter. To this day when I’m in a marketing brainstorming meeting and one of us comes up with a nutty position statement, I remember Jack’s presentation.

The third thing i remember, which I’ll never forget ever probably, is that Jack was talking about projects that he himself took on to help worldwide brands with their positioning statements. I was just so in awe that this man has helped great brands with their messaging, all with very clear positioning statements as opposed to all the frilly technology-gyrating marketing tricks we all use today.

- Kenneth von Hopf - Tech Paramedics, a full service IT provider

Call to Action Live with Michael Bernoff and the Human Communications Institute.

- Lisa Stephen - Receptionist/Admin Asst/CSR/Event Planner says:

Back in 1986, I attended the Guterman Bar mitzvah party on the Queen Elizabeth II. It was amazing and left a solid, positive impression on me, even though I was only 14 at the time and only got invited because my mother worked for them, but I considered them family and I felt like I truly belonged. Little did I know that the event would plant the seed in the subconscious of my brain to one day start an event-planning business.

- Chris Catoggio - Independent Event Services Professional says:

The Rotary International Convention at the McCormick Center in Chicago in 2005. It is an incredible experience to participate with Rotarians from all over the world. It enlightens you to the global impact one organization has by providing humanitarian service and helping build goodwill and peace throughout the world.

From an event standpoint, it is remarkable how thousands of people are transported, seemingly effortlessly, throughout the city to attend the many events. The quality and scope of events made this an unforgettable experience.

- Carol White Llewellyn - Tourism Activist & Association Publisher, TravelHost of Rochester & the Finger Lakes says:

I attend events often and also used to do event planning for a trade association. The most remarkable events I’ve attended/planned were those that were a collaborative effort between two or more organizations, focused on a particular topic, and held outside of either organization’s home base. They also had exceptional programming or break-out work sessions, were planned collaboratively among the organizing parties involved so all partners were equal stakeholders, representing their members’ likes, dislikes and interests. They also offered great food and fun entertainment.

These events attracted a calibre of attendee interested in both networking and benefitting from the program. They also came to have a good time. When you attract a large group of attendees with these common goals and put them in an educational, yet fun atmosphere, you have the recipe for an outstanding event.

- June Mattiza - E Imagineer at The Media Collective says:

The best event, how about my top 3 events,

1. I traveled with a client i(as press management) who was playing at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, backstage and got to meet some of the greats in blues and contemporary music with the same client got to attend the Grammy awards when he received one for his latest release.

2. The first Webmaster World Conference that I ever attended in Las Vegas, I learned a lot but the big benefit was the friendships that began at that conference.

3. Luxury Travel Expo - Traveled with a client to industry trade show to attend industry round tables, marketing tracks and networking. Not only did this help with in market intel but that year while I was there, I got to meet a great in the Resort Hotel Development world unbeknown to me, I had coffee in the morning with Steve Winn shared a conversation about family, kids general banter, then we both had a meeting to go to,,, it was the same one and he was the keynote speaker.. Wow.

4. I2 Planet Conventions - Awesome event in which I helped with the media presentation, It was the best mix of education, variety of industries and after long days conference style they really did it right with their networking/party events.

- Walter Giacovelli - Knowledge Strategist says:

Best event i followed, according to me is always the next i have to follow, because i project on it my dreams, my ideas, my wish of making best reality around me, and make me feel like a child waiting for a long time best toy for present.

- Ron Coble - Owner, ImportExportHelp says:

They were about 30 years ago when I was somewhat naive but thankfully impressionable - Amway motivational meetings (no I left them about 28 years ago).

They had some very good motivational speakers and I have said many times that although I do not believe there are many people who ever succeed in that business model, the spark(s) that these motivational weekends provided me was what helped me to move forward into various other business ventures in the ensuing almost 30 years.

I really believe that had I not gone to those weekends I would have never gotten into these various business ventures and probably would still be working in a job for someone else rather than in my own business.

- Richard Tabor Greene - Professor of Knowledge and Creativity Management at Kwansei Gakuin University says:

Siemens’ Invent Events, 15 years ago–a series of 200 person 4 day mass workshop events wherein 200 people from a dozen companies/functions invented 100 things and patented them. Included every 3 hour wandering comedy and minstrel groups that punctuated everyone’s sitting and meeting mindsets, and morning breakfasts of all 200 reporting prior day results and present day needs to everyone else (using comic formats), and mid-day “fill in questionnaires or answer questions from other workshop groups” lunch sessions deliberately helping other workshop groups. 100 patents were reliably written up and submitted by end of each 4 day session.

- Silvia Malesardi - Events management Assistant at Trentino Tourist Board says:

Within the last Years Vienna has become one of the most wanted travel locations in Europe to celebrate the New Year.

New Year Eve in Vienna 2006 (Silvesterpfad)was an amazing experience full of spirit of Vienna between history and innovation. The celebration for the international Mozart Year 2006 were the main theme.

The entire city was an extraordinary open-air party inclusive last minute waltz course all over Vienna’s first district, escape three-four time at various clubs (i.e. WUK, Passage, Flex,…) or celebrate in one of the many pubs at the ‘Gürtel’ (B72, rhiz, Chelsea,…) or at Bermuda triangle (i.e. krah krah, Bermudabräu, Brennerei,…).

Before midnight we can watch the official fireworks, illuminate the city!

There was also start the year’s ball season with a banger, famous ‘Kaiserball’. At the magnificent halls of the ‘Hofburg’ you first enjoy a splendid dinner and then mark the beginning of the new year in three-four time.

At midnight we hear the famous Pummerin (St. Stephen’s Cathedral) strike.
It mustn’t miss famous ‘Neujahrskonzert’ the day after which is performed by the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra.

The management of all the events was building by a perfect network of the City government, the Stadt Wien marketing und prater service (the events agency of the city) and the Vienna Tourist Board.

All of this celebration including the really spirit of Mozart genius!
Wonderful!

- Anuroopa Banerjee Gupta - Marketing Communications expert says:

The best event ever attended by me was this GRAND Wedding in Rajasthan, Jaipur. The venue was a palace decorated with jasmine and orchids. ornate silver furniture. Beautiful drapes and lights all around; glorifying the venue even more.

Then came the Groom with a Royal Procession seated in an elephant- with well decorated horses 15 in nos, 10 camels, 10 vintage carriages and many vinatge cars and of couse men with torches and over 500 guests following the procession. The groom and guests were all given the most Royal welcome possible.

The bride followed in an exotic palanquin amidst folk performers singing and beating drums. The Groom and Bride exchanged garlands on top of a crane and were then brought to the ground and drove around the palace on a vintage carriage.

All guests were served food on silverware and the fireworks and folk performances throughout the evening were enchanting. What an event!! Well, it cost a fortune- more than 7 millions; so I overheard!!! Truly A BIG FAT INDIAN WEDDING.

- Dan Pepper - Sales & Marketing Executive for Tech Startups says:

Easily Fall Internet World in 1996 at the Javits. Alan Meckler had just moved the event from Boston to NYC to meet overflow demand. The companies and ideas that sprang forth from that show generated billions of dollars in wealth creation before the bubble burst in 2000. The excitement on the show floor and sessions was palpable.

*Sometimes an idea is all you need for a great event!* This was tech’s answer to the “Thrilla in Manila.”

- Shawn Carter - Senior Financial Analyst at Blackhawk Network says:

As far as business, an all-hands at a company I worked at. They had coreographed with many famous football players how they did that year and what our new brand would be about. It was over the top in cool, fun and on target. The CEO did a very slick presentation with the slides answering his questions. All in all very fun.

- Frank Feather - Webpreneur, Author says:

The most seminal event in my professional life was “The 1st Global Conference on the Future” (Toronto, 1980) under the theme “Thinking Globally, Acting Locally.”

What was remarkable was the sheer size of the event: 6,400 delegates from 60 countries, with 1,000+ speakers over 5 days, in some 26 main topic themes or tracks. The vast smorgasbord of ideas spawned excited conversation well into each night, and resulted in numerous global/local initiatives, as well as thousands of personal network connections and friendships.

In turn, that event launched my career as a futurist, and also took me to China where I met my Chinese wife.

Needless to say, there has never been a second such conference. I also am somewhat biased, because I led the team which planned the event, and I was honored to serve as its Chairman. But it was truly remarkable, as any attendee will attest even today.

On a personal level, the two most remarkable events were when my wife and I went to China to adopt our two daughters. Every moment of those two meetings is forever etched in my mind and my heart

- Mary Lascelles - CONCIERGE RELOCATION SERVICES says:

Three years ago our company put on the “Paddywack” for our agents. It’s up there with the best of events in all of my years working anywhere.

This was an intimate black tie event held at the beautiful Cascade Theatre in Redding, CA…a recently renovated 1930’s theatre that was impressively done. Drinks to start out and then awards were given to the top agents in our office for the previous year. We had a magician who was incredible and John Bearden, President of our franchise, joined in. There was so much to feast the senses that night. The venue was perfect.

The next day we brought in motivational speakers…starting with John Bearden who is always so engaging and interesting.

The concept was to say thanks for a good year and celebrate the success while spurring everyone for another good year.

Our company has always been “out of the box” which makes it a somewhat unique place to work. The event is still remembered!!

- Amy Vercruysse - Owner, Combo Platter: Event Marketing & Management says:

The events I attend are more consumer vs. business-oriented such as trade shows, and then to narrow it further they are more entertainment related.

For sheer sensory overload and an overabundance of things to do, I have to say South by Southwest wins hands down. The Natural Products Trade Show West in Anaheim did a nice job the 2 times I attended for a trade show that also had some consumer element to it (a nice mix of b-to-b and b-to-c).

For pure musical pleasure, the Ponderosa Stomp in NOLA (next week) is my favorite music event simply because there’s nothing else like it anywhere for true music purists and connoisseurs.

- Muhammad Ali - Marketing Consultant says:

I live in Dubai…No Outstanding events take place here…I play music and I have never seen any concert organized properly in Dubai…Even the events I have played at are not managed properly by the events management team.

- Illona Cowen - Information Technology and Services Professional, Technical Writer, Business Analyst says:

Two events come to mind. One hosted by Microsoft. They thought of everything!

The other event was hosted by Verisign. They had live music, live entertainment (Blues Bros.) and had pictures taken immediately with them, fireworks, great location. Excellent food.

- Melissa Deputy - Conference Planner, Public Speaker says:

The most outstanding event I attended was Tupperware’s 50th “Gold” Anniversary with approximately 7,000 in attendance in Orlando in August 1996. The awards and education and free product give aways were unrivaled by any other events prior. Of course, it was special to me because I was recognized as 29 in the nation of those in attendance.

- Allen Stevens - Event Manager at Legacy Marketing Partners says:

1999 Camel Bartenders Ball, NYC. Annual “thank-you” event for all the bar staff in the area whose venues participated in the Camel Club Program. We had 4000 people at the Hammerstein Ballroom, with Grandmaster Flash DJing and Lenny Kravitz as the headliner. Free admission (though our free tickets were getting scalped on eBay for hundreds of dollars) with open bar and hors d’ourves for all.

It was a grueling 22-hour day, but it was an epic party.

- Brenda Christensen - Sr. Account Supervisor at The David James Agency says:

The Nintendo party at CES 1989. It was spectacular in every sense of the word…not a dime was spared. Live Hollywood Squares style game show, luminaries, celebrity impersonators, live Kenny Loggins concert…it was over the top over the top.

- Ravi Kikan - Sales and Marketing professional says:

My Marriage !!!

- Michael Hamblett - Investment Management Professional says:

The 1999 Ryder Cup Event at The Country Club in Massachusetts, when the U.S. took back the cup from the Europeans with a victory late Sunday afternoon, when Justin Leonard sank a long putt.

- James Hayes - Independent Online Media Professional says:

generously help Bob the saint run the world for one day, and I still have the badge to prove it.

- Javier Irastorza - Strategy & Global Industrial Development at EADS-CASA says:

In March 2005 I attended the “International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security” organised by Clud de Madrid in commemoration of the terrorist attacks on the city of Madrid the year before.

The Club of Madrid is an independent organization dedicated to strengthening democracy around the world by drawing on the unique experience and resources of its Members – 70 democratic former heads of state and government.

More than 1.200 people participated in that gathering, amongst them 200 experts, 17 Heads of State and Government, the Secretary General of the United Nations and many other leaders from international organizations and delegations from more than 70 countries.

I could attend this event thanks to a parallel event organised by the students association AEGEE.

The venue, tuition and logistics worked just perfectly. The conference itself was terrific. The power of this organisation (Club de Madrid) to bring top speakers and experts was impressive.

Several conferences and plenaries very interesting. Just a pity to have missed many since some were running in parallel.

Seeing dozens of world decision-makers was a shocking experience (e.g. noticing in the escalator that the lady before me was… Madeleine Albright).

- Suzanne Levison - Owner, SLS Creative and Staffing and Recruiting Consultant says:

One that I was involved with production. A major sports gathering including headline entertainment, high profile sponsors, political personalities such as Jesse Jackson..The fact that 24 hours prior to the event we were notified that, in addition, another political figure would arrive, we would be meeting with the secret service agents prior to redesign the room and general areas for security reasons. What I enjoyed was the challenge. What worked well was our team, who sprung into action with no sleep, and rose to the challenge so that the entire evening flowed perfectly.

- Joseph Templin - Head Geek, Unique Minds Consulting Group, LLC says:

The birth of my children.

- Machelle Lovin - Successful leader, partner and follower says:

I was young….I’m guessing about 8 years old. My parents worked for the first multi-level international cosmetic company. (look up Glenn Turner and read all about it) It was at a convention in Orlando. After a day of various events full of experts in cosmetics and the fashion industry, seminars, and incredible motivational moments, they packed a hotel suite full of select people that were attending the convention. Most of these people were from small towns and had big dreams.

The President of the company spoke and introduced a few other people who also spoke. Each with more vigor and excitement. Then the main guy (salesman) spoke to the attendees. In very powerful and elegant words he told them they had what it took to be successful. That their company was the one for them and the product they offered was all they needed. He pumped them up…spiritually, emotionally, physically, cheering….E.O.G.O…..E.O.G.O……some people were jumping up and down as others clapped and chanted…E.O.G.O….Every One Get One.

Now, I don’t know if it was the product that everyone was getting one of or if it was every one get one person under you (pyramid marketing). But what I do know is that at such a young age, I learned how people need to belong and be accepted. I learned how they need to feel empowered and just need some attention. I learned that one person can have such a presence that the whole world will follow them. (the world as it was as an 8 year old girl in that hotel room) But wow, how that lesson has proven true as I’ve gotten older and experienced life.

- Tamara Dunst - Senior Manager, Events at Nobel Biocare

I’d have to say that with all the events I have managed and attended throughout my career, by far the best are the Disney events I have attended as a consumer. Disney often holds “merchandising” events at their parks where attendees actually pay to come and buy stuff. Only Disney can do this. However, you hardly realize that you are dropping a couple of hundred dollars on artwork and memorabilia when you are surrounded by such amazing “theme-ing.” Most of these events are held in one of their hotel’s large ballrooms and usually center around a park ride or Disney movie.

It seems that they spare no expense in awing their customers with dramatic lighting, realistic props, and interactive activities. You get favors that seem like they cost a fortune and the food is quite excellent. Music, performances and speakers round out these memorable evenings, which, remember, are just there for you to buy merchandise. Disney really knows how to create a complete experience – tantalizing all the senses, tying in to them seamlessly and giving customers the craving for more.

- Dave Weinberg - Manager, Marketing & Client Relations says:

A few years ago, while working at Sony Pictures, I attended a Movie Premiere for “Big Fish”. After the red carpet and movie the whole lot moved to the after party at Hammerstein in Manhattan. The crew was able to recreate the town form the movie and the circus inside the theater. Food was served by old time dinner staff on red picknick tables while acrobats performed high above. It was incredible.

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I am hearing things that should have not happened are indeed happening.

I heard of people going to BarCamps and complaining about 15 minute spamming sessions. I’ve heard of unattentive organizers preferring the pitch of a product, a software or a blog over discussion and creation.

This is what unconferences should not be. By pitching you are controlling, control belongs to traditional conferences.

A pitch could be a way to start a conversation about some interesting topics, not the focus of a session.

We recently runned ecoCamp, a user generated conference/BarCamp where lack of control was the success.

If you attend a BarCamp speak out loud when you feel someone is trying to control, because that is not the place to do so.

I will be at BarCamp London 4 on the 30th of May, come there and I’ll be happy to meet you.

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I’ve worked for more than 5 years with entertainment and being more specific with discos and clubs. I became what was and still is called a “PR”, a person that gives away “invites” to cool friends to populate the night. I earned a small percentage on every invite turned in with my name on it. In one year time I started to invest my money in club nights and quicker got more control over the event management.

Soon I was in charge of making the list (of people not paying to get in) and selecting people that got admitted into the event. That gave me a tremendous amount of power. I was soon able to ask the doormen to avoid certain people getting in.

For a pretty long period of time excluding others meant being at the top.

As Jedi Master of Marketing Seth Godin states:

“Credit card companies have made billions by selling a card that others can’t get.

Politicians stand up and talk about their (exclusive) religion, or pit one special interest group against another.

And of course, the best nightclubs have the biggest velvet ropes and the pickiest doormen.”

I had to think again

The Social Psychology of Inclusion and Exclusion, By Abrams, Hogg and Marques talks about the anger generated by exclusion. Violent reactions and discontent.

Soon few question popped up into my mind. How many people do we usually exclude from our events? How much discontent do we generate? Are there good reasons to exclude people?

At a club it’s up to the selector personal taste. Sometimes it is about the price. Few other times it is the content that excludes people.

Does inclusion mean populism?

What if the basis of events would be inclusion? BarCamp and unconferences are based on including people, but are not populist.

We tend to think that limited resources automatically mean exclusion.

The smart event planner thinks of ways to include those people e.g. who cannot make it that day, who cannot afford the price of the ticket, who are not familiar with the content.

Just think that:

- Online conferencing is a solution for those who cannot make it.

- Scholarships are a good method to make students attend an important conference and sponsors are willing to fund them.

- Opening an online forum and a blog about your event could help a lot of potential attendees to understand more about your content.

I am sure you can come up with more ideas and I invite you to do it.

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It is one of the most adopted and therefore definitely worth a review and interview with its Director of Marketing, Jack Mardack.

How does it work?

Few things that I love about the service:

- There is no standard price. They earn a percentage based on your ticket price.
- It’s customizable. You can pretty much input as many details as you prefer. The event page is greatly adaptable and here are few examples.

Alumni Meeting

Fundraising Event

Social Meeting

- Online secure payment. If you don’t work regularly with events this might be a bit of an hassle to set up. Great tool.
- Affiliate Program. A brand new program where you can promote events and earn up to 35% commission (If you blog about events and have ads you might want to consider this instead of random text ads)
- Tagging, personalized URL, RSS. Welcome to Web 2.0, finally some fresh air.
- Promotion. Eventbrite immediately indexes the event with major search engines. This usually takes forever if you don’t have an updated platform up and running.
- Survey, etc. There are few more you can check them out here

I decided to ask a few questions to Jack Mardack, who was very kind and answered as follows:

What is the idea behind Eventbrite?

Eventbrite is a self-service event registration and online ticketing platform. The idea behind Eventbrite is to empower individuals, companies and organizations of all sizes with the tools they need to successfully promote and sell-out their events on the Web.

What’s in it for event managers?

If you are someone who is already tasked with managing events and selling tickets, Eventbrite can make your life a lot easier and make you more successful. We give the event manager control over the entire process, from pre-event marketing, to registration, to ticket sales, and even give them powerful customer relationship management tools they can use to market future events or promote other products and services.

What’s in it for Average Joe?

What’s in it for the Average Joe is the ability to go from being an Average Joe to being a successful event manager in about 5 minutes. See previous answer. We’ve worked hard to make our tools as easy to use as they are powerful. The result is that everyday people, from all walks of life, are using Eventbrite to promote and sell-out events of every conceivable type and size.

What’s in Eventbrite’s future?

We’re committed to continuing to enrich our features and to making Eventbrite even more powerful. The future is we will remain focused on providing event managers with everything they need to succeed, and on making it as easy as possible for anyone to make their event a success. What we see for the industry is that many more individuals and organizations are going to become event organizers. This is going to produce an incredible number and diversity of events, many of which are going to try to find their audiences on the Web. It’s going to be a really long tail, and Eventbrite will be there for all of them.

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Ricardo Semler has sparked a revolution for the theory of business management. He has actually put in practice what tons of authors have just theorized. He walked the walk and showed the world that horizontal management is indeed more effective than any other approach.

Events are about people. Pressure, limited time and resources push us to perform at 100% with no chance to fail. While reading Semler’s inspiring book ‘Maverick‘, I noted down few concepts which I am sure will question the way you tackle team management.

“In the lobby of our headquarters there is a reception desk, but no receptionist [...]. Everyone at Semco, even top managers, fetches guests, stand over photocopiers, send faxes, types letters, and dials the phone. We don’t believe in cluttering the payroll with ungratifying, dead end jobs.”

Most of the requests I receive through this blog are of people asking for how to get involved into events. The nature of the business requires hiring lots of temporary staff and that might be a good way to start getting involved.

Now, talking to managers, I ask you, do you hire to exploit and ‘clutter the payroll’ or do you hire to transfer knowledge?

Too many times I’ve seen and been treated as a “disposable” and “photocopier” employee. I think that hiring temps for events should have both a monetary and knowledge reward. The event manager along the way should share tips, inspire, suggest and help young and willing workers, full stop.

“I always smile when executives boast about how participative they are. ‘I want everyone to feel involved’ the say. ‘So I call everybody in, hear what’s on their minds, and only then decide’. What people call participative management is usually just consultative management”

I believe that the most manipulative, mind controlling technique to motivate people is to tell them how you care for their opinion. I’ve heard that statement multiple times but when I came up with my opinion it was completely ignored, not taken account of, plus I quickly figured out it was a way to keep me under control.

True empowerment and responsibility, on the other hand, made me feel like a thinking individual and actually deliver the best financial and non-financial results.

Therefore, if you do care about my opinion, I’d love to put that in practice.

“We don’t want to be a happy family. We want to be a successful business. We’re only concerned with our employees performance on their job, not their personal lives.”

The second most manipulative approach to managing people is to tell them that ‘we are members of the same family’. No thanks. I do have a family and I’d like to keep it out of the business environment.

I find invasive just the thought of a boss telling me that.

Not only should the manager be attentive in not embarking in such approach, but he/she should also guarantee that such behaviour does not occur horizontally among employees. Performance is indeed the most important factor, human touch and understanding is plausible but not a motivator or a business approach.

“At Semco we have stripped away the unnecessary perks and privileges, such as executive dining rooms and fancy office furniture, that feed the ego but hurt the balance sheet and distract everyone form the crucial corporate task of making, selling, billing and collecting.”

We all need to work a bit more on our egos, I’ll leave the rest of it for you to comment.

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Most of my afficionados know that I’ve worked in the past two months at ecoCamp, a BarCamp about the environment, ecology, sustainability and energy. The event took place yesterday 29th of March 2008 in Conversano - Italy. This post sums up what happened before, during and after the event, from an event management perspective. As a planner I learned a lot from this experience and I invite you to participate in a BarCamp close to you because it will definitely help the way you approach your career.

Why ecoCamp?

I organized ecoCamp with Carmen Boscolo, a fellow blogger and environmental consultant, and I will use “we” referring to me and her. We both fell in love with the BarCamp formula. Open access, no pre-scheduled sessions, interaction and the Internet sounded like a great mix. In conceptualising the event we came up few things we wanted to experiment:

- Usually BarCamps host presentations. We didn’t like that . We thought that presentations are a subtle way to control a session and kill interaction. We decided to tell our audience that we wouldn’t host any presenter but just “promoters”. We borrowed this role from Harrison Owen’s Open Space Technology. At the beginning of ecoCamp, the promoter suggested her/his topic and got immediate feedback in terms of participation to the session. The promoter had the duty to guide and facilitate the session, collect the names of participants and manage time as well as take responsibility of the room and logistics.

- Usually BarCamps share the content, in that the organizers publish slides and materials of the presentations. We did not like that as well. We thought that the chance of having a large number of people working together could not be wasted. We were sure that the energy of the event would have been great. In order to collect and funnel that vibe we thought about creating a document, again inspired by Harrison Owen. We called the document “ecoCamp@world“. The promoter of every session was given a template to fill out during the discussion. We asked few questions:

- What have you discussed?
- Why have you discussed it?
- What were your conclusions?

The participants of the session got their name on the document, which would have been published on the official wiki, open, free and accessible.

Promotion

I have to say that in our case what worked the most were Social Media. I’ll go in depth.

- We used a wiki as the main platform where we put everything about the event. If you want to know more about starting and planning a BarCamp and its wiki, I collected few resources, you can find them here.

- We then created a blog to deliver news and updates.

- We created a badge and put the HTML code on the wiki for other bloggers to grab and paste on their platform.

- We coordinated a database of blogs on environmental subjects and sent the invite to use the badge

- We set up a “posting day”. We published a round-up article on the main blog and 10 other blogs posted about the event, trackbacking to that article.

- That same day we posted on Italian Social Media Networks clones of Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.

- We created a Twitter account for the event and inserted a Twitter badge in the ecoCamp wiki with live updates about the event.

Promotion Results:

- We generated buzz. We got free press coverage on every single local newspaper. In some instances, we didn’t even send the press release. Journalists went on the wiki and grab information. I was interviewed by radios and TVs before and during the event.

- A web TV made a documentary which is going to be online soon

Things to consider about promoting with Social Media

- time to build relationship with other bloggers

- striking content

- knowledge of Social Media Networks and key influencers there.

Location and Sponsors

Most of Barcamps do not take place because of the lack of a location. We managed to find one in two weeks. A business incubator which gave us two big rooms and free internet, plus buffet area and AV equipment.

We set the date of the event the 15th of March. Therefore we had two weeks to work on it. Our approach was: if we get no location or sponsors it means that the event has not to take place.

Three days before the event we contacted sponsors. We did not have any urgency to get buffet or gadgets but at a certain point in time we decided to give gifts to the brave participants. We managed to get on board one of the biggest Italian producer of energy saving light bulbs and photovoltaic panels. They gave us an energy saving light bulb for every estimated participant plus tons of promotional materials, block notes and pens. We got on board local producers of organic cheese, organic groceries, patisseries and cafes. We ended up with a huge buffet.

The great thing was that at no point in time we needed to give numbers or show media releases or participants profiles. The interest of sponsors was proactive and genuine from the very beginning. We told them we managed no money and that we were just intermediaries of the community.

Attendance and Statistics

The most successful BarCamps have 300-400 participants (Los Angeles, Toronto - millions of people and efficient public transportation). We are in a 20,000 inhabitants city in Southern Italy, far from transportation. The biggest city nearby is Bari (300,000 inhabitants), we got 80 people attending. We had more than 100 requests to follow online. Huge response.

The day before we set up a streaming on Ustream with 2 webcams in 2 different rooms. The promoter of every section was in charge of the streaming as well. In this way people living far away did not have to use transportation, therefore we got rid of unnecessary carbon emissions.

Experience and Feel

No one of the participants ever heard before what a BarCamp was. They left the location willing to attend another Camp immediately. We collected feedback such as “Wonderful”, “One of the greatest experiences of my life”, “I only wished we had more time to keep discussing”, “Thanks very much for putting this together”.

We registered people from 10am to 10.45am. You could tell everyone was a bit unsure of what to do and how to proceed. We then gathered in the main room and I illustrated, after thanking sponsors, what was the process.

We had two computers in two different locations. At one station, promoters could suggest their topic, give a brief description and tell their name. In the meanwhile participants looked at the projector where the sessions schedule was quickly building up. At the other station we collected participants for each session and their preferred session time for the day (morning/afternoon). We immediately had numbers and it was quite easy to generate the schedule, merge sessions or eliminate those with not enough participants. We printed out and distributed the schedule and then started off.

We did not have a coffee/lunch break, instead we left buffet accessible at all times for everyone to enjoy, respecting the session in progress .

Response was astonishing. Great, quality topics together with pragmatic and inspiring discussions took place. We had,from time to time, to “hold time and space” as Harrison Owen would suggest, indicating that there were 5 minutes to go and that the promoter needed to draw conclusions.

Conclusions

At the end of the day I saw participants cleaning up tables, collecting and recycling waste. They have been given the possibility to return, instead of wasting, unwanted sponsors’ material. It’s been of utmost importance for us to be consistent with the content of the event. We made sure every bit of ecoCamp was coherent with the theme of the event. From recycling to organic buffet, from promoting carpooling to giving energy-efficient bulbs as gadgets. The ethics of the organization contributed to set up an ethic environment, were people found themselves at ease to interact and produce something.

I saw engineers talking with farmers, lawyers engaging in discussions with media and marketing people, students sitting next to business men and accountants.

We needed to tell people that there was going to be ecoCamp2 somewhere and sometime in the future, because they simply needed to know there was going to be another meeting like that.

As a planner and a conference planner I have seen delegates leaving meetings bored and maybe drunk by the buffet. I have seen people sleeping during endless bullet point presentations and showing up just to follow a super guest star and leave the rest of the event to others.

This experience is a wake up call for those working with traditional conferences because things are changing, and quicker than we think.

ecoCamp

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Last week I had the chance to read about De-growth. I am very convinced now that less is actually more. I think the concept behind the movement outperforms every green/sustainable theory so far. It is quite embarrassing there is no Wikipedia entry about it in English. I will commit to translate it from Italian.

There are several hundreds of posts around the blogosphere on how to green your event. You can follow my Blogroll to stumble upon a few. As a matter of fact most of the green/sustainable practices cut emissions, waste, etc. My point is that it is not enough. I’d suggest that what you do in your event actually generates value for internal (participants) and external (community) stakeholders.

To guide you through my point I’ll reference to the first example of how to achieve the optimum level of satisfaction and being useful.

Sustainable Dance Club. Outstanding. People dancing generate energy. What about collecting that energy and generate electricity to light the club.

Use Fon for your wireless. Most of the times you won’t use all of your bandwidth, with Fon you can share the signal with people close by either by charging them or for free, securely. Opening the wireless could be a great business card for the community where you operate, think about it. The wireless signal is also sometimes perceived by some as pollution and intrusive, making it an opportunity for the community to connect to the Internet can be a way out.

Choose location within your premises. In order to make such a courageous choice you actually need powerful content. If your attendees participate for other than content reasons you might want to skip this step. Location can be used by event planners to incentive participation. An attractive location can move extra (i.e. not-motivated) people. On the other hand, if you manage outstanding content who actually “sells itself” you might want to sort the location within your company/organization. The room/space you will use is already there and will be running anyway, so why not taking advantage of existing premises and cut costs as well as transportation emissions and extra energy to run your sessions.

Promote locally. I have found myself involved in paranoid activities aimed at promoting my event to the whole World. I thought that making people move from London to New York for an event would be a great success. I had to think again. I think the greatest success would be to involve all the potential participants who could use local public transportation to get to the location. For the rest of them there has been a great invention called the Internet who can actually ensure presence (and payment maybe of a smaller fee) and participation. We are going to use Ustream for our next event. Easy, free, scalable, interactive and controllable.

Produce a document. I think this whole principle is not only limited to the environment. It strikes the whole concept of meetings and events from within. I am getting bored by just thinking about gatherings of hundreds of people with no tangible end results. Why are you moving the masses and not getting anything out of it? A multitude of people coming together should be addressed at producing a document outlining their interaction. Verba volant, scripta manent. Writing a participative document about the session could be a great bonding experience and facilitate networking as much as a coffee break.

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The Cluetrain Manifesto is almost ten years old. I was actually surprised to see it was written in 1999 for two reasons:

- It is amazing to see how it is still relevant to both Internet and businesses. The words of the manifesto sound like a Web 3.0 startup’s mission. They got it right. The people who signed it saw 10 years in advance what was about to happen. Few things are yet to come but I’d bet we’ll shortly experience them.

- Crazy, crazy, crazy. Companies had in front of their eyes the chance to get the most out of the Internet and treat the customer in new, engaging ways. It was there, clearly written and explained. It is SAD to see how only few organizations have embraced these life changing concepts.

The Cluetrain Manifesto is free to read. How the most popular Italian and world’s top 10 blogger, Beppe Grillo, would say, download it, print it and start sharing it around. Give it to your boss, to your colleagues, if possible pass it to the person sitting next to you on the underground.

The Manifesto has a lot of things to say to those involved in events. I went through the 95 Theses and got few that I thought might be of interest.

- Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.
I said before than men are not monkeys. Treating your guests as demographics is a giant step toward looking at them as these animals. The human kind is indeed of the animal genre but of the social one. Social media are a great examples of that. Great conversations, great ideas, great feelings and strong emotions that we wouldn’t otherwise experienced. BarCamp and Unconferences should be the role models of every event manager. Empower and connect, do not try to divide and lead because you won’t be happy with results.

- The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

What are you doing to allow conversations among the people attending your event. Are you integrating technologies? Are you aware that recruitment now happens on Linkedin? Do you know that there are widgets you can embed in your website to encourage carpooling to your event? Most of the people attending events such as conferences are only interested in networking. Carpooling as well as online forums or wikis enable networking even before the event.

- The inflated self-important jargon you sling around

Be clear, be precise and be real. Rhetoric and Pavlovian stimulus-response tactics belong to the past. It’s good to have demanding attendees because it means they actually care. Talk to them and tell the truth and do not try to persuade. Allow interaction and hold time and space do not try to be the star of the show.

- We are immune to advertising. Just forget it.

How are you talking to your audience. How do you communicate your event. I don’t believe in brochures anymore. Apart from being an environmental disaster (and your customers do care about the environment), I think there are tons of other creative and more engaging ways to get to your audience. Do you have a blog? Have you ever heard of Twitter? Engage, do not try to tell how beautiful your event will be.

- We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching. But we are not waiting.

There is not much time left. The economy as a whole is changing. As Seth Godin said this week, during recession times the biggest changes happen such as Google did. Change now because it’s not sure you’ll be able to do business tomorrow.

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A new club is out on Linkedin and if you are in events you can’t miss out.

For those of you who study or work in events you are probably aware of what Linkedin is.

I’ve been using Linkedin for 2 and a half years now and I must say it is a great service. It allows to stay in touch with you colleagues, coursemates or friends. I prefer it over Facebook as it is definitely less invasive and more business focused.

Most of my contacts are on Linkedin and this is a great thing. In fact, adoption is often a problem of social networking websites. Great ideas but nobody use them.

Recently Linkedin had a substantial makeover for the better. We are now able to update our status such as on Twitter or to create Groups.

And that is what I did. I created a Group for those involved in Event Planning & Management. I was amazed to see how in not even a week we became 130 top of the industry members (update: 420 Members)

One limitation of Linkedin is that once you create a Group you just have access to members profiles. And that’s it.

So I started a group on Ning where members of the Event Planning & Management Linkedin Group could interact in a Forum or have their own Blog.

Great success, great adoption.

So what are you waiting for, just use the links and get involved!

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While my visit at Confex 2008 did not leave me with the best memory, I had an interesting meeting with my friend Rob. He participates a lot in Event-Management-Uk a great website and forum about events with an awful lot of information on events.

I could see his dedication and willingness to share information, define practices, give advice to others involved in the industry.

He made me realize how event planners tend to be very possessive with what they know and how difficult it is to share knowledge.

I have to admit it is very true. If you just think e.g. about the number of blogs about sales or PR and you compare it with events you’ll see the ratio is ridiculous.

That translates to me in a lot of people who know how to do stuff but are not eager to share content.

If you are in events, I think you should start blogging now! I am convinced we need far more blogs about events than we currently have. It’s simply not enough.

I do not think about other blogs about events as competition. The good thing about the Blogoshpere is that the more point of views, the better for everyone blogging.

To demonstrate what I state, you’ll find a list of blogs about events below. I think that the content these people create on a daily basis is magnificent and worth reading.

To present them to you in the best possible fashion I decided to select the article that I loved the most, so you can start exploring the rest of the blog. Maybe you know some of them, or maybe not, but hey give ‘em a go:

- Breastest Friends @ Ready2Spark

- Are you Ready to take the leap @ It’s a Jaime Thing

- Tips for throwing a Budget’s Kids Party @ Australia Entertains

- 3 Types of Online Events You Can Host @ IndraSurya

- Now this is worthwhile, memorable and a sure fire guerrilla stunt. This is theater. @ Steve Dennis Event Design

- Going green should not make you feel blue @ Corporate Events Thought

- Event Design tip: Think outside the Table @ SwallowSpecialEvents

- Helpful Event Planning Tools @ Bonjour Events New!

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