Leaders bring people together. Thoughtful connections happen every day, but organizing a public event takes a concerted effort. Great events deliver on a promise by consciously colliding together a diverse mosaic of stakeholders who share premium human time together.
When an experience unites the right audience, events expand and accelerate progress. Before, during, and after an event, the more value someone receives by committing to attend, the more likely they are to return. Tactical depth for organizing both live and online events are practical sections within You Don’t Need This Book. Revisit the Community chapter of YDNTB for more on building engagement through these shared experiences. With that in place, let’s skip downstream.
Polymorphic Sequencing
Organizing an event combines resourcefulness, content creation, attention to detail, and people who care. It’s planning and executing an experience that offers more value than the time required for attendees to show up.
This sounds straightforward, and we see others hosting endless events. This constructs an illusion that leads many to think it’s easy. Yes, anyone can do it, but organizing an event rarely happens without struggle. No experience, a lack of organized resources, or not having the channels to create awareness with enough people who care make any new concept a lift to launch. Fortunately, building into something we care about is work that feels like play, and our juice is often worth the squeeze. Hosting one event can create powerful effects, but treasure awaits those who keep building into a sequence of multiple events. As momentum grows, the ability to execute becomes more natural. This allows creativity to expand impact while people, themes, and other events stay connected.
As different experiences begin to rhyme, shared appreciation builds trust that caffeinates whatever you care about. This keeps the supply of events steady but disconnects occur when the demand changes.
Navigating Demand
Anytime we get good at something, it’s helpful when the requirements to be good stay the same. Sticking with what works is swell, but roles drift and what people need can deviate. Cultural shifts are usually slow, which makes it possible for events to stay in tune longer, with fresh twists that maintain demand and keep attendance consistent.
When the climate changes more suddenly, organizers can get stuck playing the same song too long. Events that only hold on to what’s worked in the past, may get stagnant and can quietly but quickly lose relevancy.
Take a global pandemic for instance. As our planet emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2023, public events felt different. Years later, they still do. The world had stayed home for an exorbitant amount of time, and when people returned to a new normal, the game had changed.
Online-only communication had been normalized in the pandemic, and efficiencies were fun at first but soon got old. Virtual teleportation grew networks, but the high speed of growth led to fragmentation. While remarkable progress was made, without the heart of an experience that transcended an agenda, online events began to feel hollow and lacked enrollment. Virtual meetings had set topics, specific attendees, and only certain people leading the discussion. Inquisitive side conversations diminished, which reduced the serendipity that makes everything awesome.
As impassioned engagement began to fade, the effort to activate events became burdensome. Attention dissolved, and leaders lost sight of what their audience needed. The smallest moves felt risky, exhaustion set in, and communities fell apart. This unprecedented time reminded us how relationships can survive at a distance but struggle without IRL interactions.
As this tragic pandemic subsided, everyone was socially out of shape. It was good to be back together in-person, but a jarring reality remained. People had become addicted to productivity, felt safe in isolation, and a new generation of founders had started successful companies without contact during the pandemic. Showing up for anything felt like an unnecessary task, which led to an aura of optionality.
Enthusiasm to get involved was soon harder to find. Life happens and calibrating how we spend time is worthy, but this ethos can easily devolve into an excuse to do less. To hesitate. To say no when a yes would have led to more adventure. With altered demand, crowds became harder to curate. Many past events returned to unite attendees through a similar experience, but just as many returned to dwindling congregations that felt stagnant. Failed events led to organizer burnout, which meant less opportunities for good people to collide. Social fracturing on a global scale took time to mend, but as leaders began to explore new ways to bring us together, fresh ideas were collided, formats adapted, new collaboration emerged, and value returned.
A global pandemic is a dramatic example, but when change is constant, how can leaders evolve the supply of events to meet demand for the people in a startup community and the organizations within an entrepreneurial ecosystem?
These cultural crossroads remind us that a beginner’s mindset preserves a willingness to experiment. When the status quo is easy, lean toward what’s hard. Tension can help avoid more dead ends, and when challenges are seen as opportunity, adaptive events can meet evolving demand.
As events transform to fit the moment, remember a why, foster diversity, harmonize with key stakeholders whose needs may have changed, consider the cadence, explore new venues, try new marketing maneuvers, and recommit to local leaders hosting contiguous events.
The lasting promise is that evolving demand does not change the value of serendipity. Unscripted collisions keep us all wild and healthy. Great events spark invaluable intuition and help peers avoid misery. Human ingenuity connects dots, ideas are given space to mingle, progress is seized, and a renewed audience can leverage exponential encounters that are united through a positive-sum mindset.
Parlay Measurements
Systems like data-driven assurance and many forms of data can be compiled as we work to assess an event.
Use traditional metrics that have been helpful, but even small pigeonholes can make good data dirty, so beware of the measurement traps all around you.
If you’re truly interested in enchanting events for those you may never meet, let intuition guide you. Leverage analytics, but don’t let them disguise reality. Instead, parlay good, clean data with feedback from the people who care. Listen to attendees, offer surveys, welcome being wrong, segment attendance trends, find joy with informal check-ins, and don’t limit feedback loops to only the loudest in the room.
Attendee feedback, experiential wisdom, and good data support better understandings. Decisions get easier, and there’s less guessing. With success and this state of understanding, program details can evolve in a shared direction and technology can be gamified to support more stakeholders. This level of growth is not for the faint of heart, so don’t be afraid to keep it chill, but if we continue building and create handy solutions that are made to be easy, user appreciation leads to enrollment. This bolsters good data, which can be used to grow worthwhile events.
If a decline is clear and nobody cares to provide feedback, harder decisions are coming soon. Even if it’s time to graduate gracefully, honest assessment provides confidence to learn, appreciate what was accomplished, and enjoy a closing sunset.
Growth vs. Therapy vs. Entertainment
Developing and attending events is an effective way to add and enhance real skills, but stay cognizant to keep your purpose aligned with events and related attendees.
There are no wrong answers, but there is a difference between events geared for personal growth and events geared for therapy or entertainment.
For example, if you need basic education but the majority of attendees are there for entertainment, newcomers will feel a sense of fun but may not stick around as the motionlessness sets in. Another example is the welcoming environment that lacks in-depth insight, which will have more experienced people choosing to disengage. These examples remind us that when the messaging does not match the experience or an atmosphere cannot support the goals of an attendee, less value is felt and impact can fizzle.
To align expectations with the experience, be clear with those you seek to serve. Avoid trying to be everything to everyone, understand the type of people who make your events relevant, and welcome constructive feedback. This intentionality attracts the right attendees, which makes it easier to deliver an experience that resonates. To meet ever-changing demand, stay viable and remain relevant by expanding how people feel before, at, and between each event.
Versatility
Expanded viability can be achieved when one event has different flavors or when various leaders host different types of mutually dependent events. Multipurpose events led by one person or organization look better through a short-term lens and often see faster results, but ego, thirst for control, a wrongful sense of ownership, and ulterior motives will get in the way. A more lasting and sustainable path involves a diverse collection of ecosystem allies who are excited to share an audience between related events.
Consistency and variety will keep people coming back, but that’s a heavy lift for one versus a lighter lift for many. Distribution of events in a startup community adds depth that makes it easier for organizers to be consistent as they focus on what they do best, knowing other events deliver supplementing variety. As attendees experience different types of value in a connected community, engagement grows thanks to versatility that people can get excited about together.
Currency of Attention
There was a time when we didn’t know every option. The internet and social media changed that. The bombardment of information has literally changed our biology and reduced attention spans with endless options that saturate our lives. When combined with an innate desire for routine, attention becomes currency and is much harder to earn.
When time is precious and attention is scarce, the perceived optionality of events will always keep them on the chopping block. For event organizers trying to fuel awareness, it’s not enough to just open your doors or post an event online.
Leaders must stay ahead of innovation curves, attend other events to pave two-way streets, revisit marketing tools, keep fresh blood flowing, and make an effort to invite the right people at the right time. Even as recognition is earned, don’t be complacent, for the currency of attention never lasts long.
Impermanence
If the message has been received but people are still not showing up or you’re feeling tired as an attendee, determine whether the event is still something to spend time with. If it is, don’t hold back. Host more events until you have enough experiential data to honestly reassess. If you’re participating as an attendee, consider getting more involved. Hopefully, you’ll achieve a new level of satisfaction, but if dots still aren’t connecting, it could be time to move on.
Although this will be emotional, appreciate the impact that was made and learn from the experience. As we wind something down, personal bandwidth is added, so think about how that can be used to create new types of thickness within your interest in events and their polymorphic sequencing.
As you shift gears, the community and target audience may remain, but time away helps to reexamine reality and find new people to collaborate with. With updated perspectives and the network effect of more people involved, stay urgent but remain patient as new opportunities emerge.
Deep-Rooted
What is long-term in the context of events? It’s not rigid math, but it begins by developing one event. To sequence more lasting value, think through if/how one event may lead to future events. Consistency over a few events is common, and a one year stretch is impressive. People who host events over a few years are even more influential and stories that extend beyond 5–15+ years are given time to root prolific value. Movements seem to take 15–25+ years and interestingly, the timelines of different religions may be the longest cadence for events in history. As always, consistency is hard, but it adds up quicker when you’re around those you love.
What’s the right cadence for your events? Annual events bring everyone together. Quarterly events can be excellent over the years. A series is how we experiment to feel success without the weight of forever. Monthly events are easier, but take a year to mature, while a weekly cadence connects community.
Extra Shot
What’s the longest you’ve hosted an event?
What event have you attended the longest?
Humans will always crave connection, so whether you’re actively evolving events or looking for the next opportunity, be willing to adapt. Deliver on what’s expected, then delight the right audience with unanticipated value. Even within evolving demand, leaders can eliminate the optionality that looms when the currency of attention is required to show up again and again. Word will spread as people feel heard, and the opportunity that events present will forever be optimized with timely purpose and lasting significance.
Brewed From Within
#53 📖 Leadership
