5min chapter

Beyond the To-Do List - Productivity for Work and Life cover image

Phil Mershon on The Art and Science of Creating Unforgettable Experiences

Beyond the To-Do List - Productivity for Work and Life

CHAPTER

The Importance of a Great Event

Sally Kohn: I've worked with you for a number of years when she was part of social media examiner, they put on social media marketing world. So working behind the scenes and just all the care and attention to providing what you were just talking about is important. She says there's that phrase out there in productivity or in business that's this meeting could have been an email.Kohn: It took me back to when I was first starting to work on the book,. One that actually was one of those that probably could have been a meeting, but I was at another event. And so I thought this is a really good road to like have a conversation around and you know,

00:00
Speaker 2
And so, you know, obviously, I've worked with you for a number of years when I was part of social media examiner, they put on social media marketing world, a great event. So working behind the scenes and just all the care and attention to providing what you were just talking about a great experience, not just a great experience, but a great cumulative collection of experiences that then stand out and are unforgettable. And you and I have also attended events together of other genres, etc. Usually smaller than that one is, some of which, again, they don't even like, there's one I'm thinking of in Nashville that now doesn't happen. And I miss it. You know, it was a small like 300 people in a room. It was over the course of two days, two and a half days, something like that, one great food in Nashville. So that was part of the experience that was built in, right? But just a month and a half ago, something like that, you and I were talking in a car ride, just having attended an event together. You were speaking, I was working it. And we were kind of doing that thing that people do when they go to an event is assess it, you know, talk about what worked, what didn't mostly what could be improved. How can you deepen the connection? And we were talking about, you know, who your book is for and different people that are reaching out to you. And you mentioned this idea of these people that do local events, small, maybe one day type events, associations even. And I said, yeah, well, with those people, you've kind of got this idea that there's that phrase out there in productivity or in business that's this meeting could have been an email. And I get the feeling that those association type people and others in the event space often come up against this maybe a turn of phrase on that phrase is this event could have been a meeting or this event could have been an email because they've just not created any kind of, you know, cumulative effect of an event made out of experiences that are unforgettable. And so I thought this is a really good road to like have a conversation around and you know, jump in on. So I don't know, what are your initial thoughts when I said that, I think you kind of said, oh, that's interesting. I like that idea. I got to run
Speaker 3
with that. Yeah. And it took me back to when I was first starting to work on the book,
Speaker 1
I was at another event. One that actually was one of those that probably could have been a meeting, but I was standing in line and a lady started asking me about what I wanted to work on because one of the things we're there to do is to identify a project that we wanted to work on. And I said, well, I want to write this
Speaker 3
book on how to
Speaker 1
create. I didn't have the phrase yet unforgettable events, but I described what it was. And she said, Oh, please write that book. My husband dreads going to all these mandatory meetings. He becomes a bearer, frankly, at the house when he has to go to these mandatory trainings. If you could change the world of mandatory trainings into something that people actually look forward to going to and get something out of, you would make my life a lot better, let alone my husband's. And so that's like where I went my mind first. And then I actually had an experience last week at an event that should have been what you're describing. It should have been like that, but it wasn't. And that's because the lady who organized it was so attentive to every detail. Like she wrote wrote out a four or five page script for a two hour meeting. And it was it was actually a pleasure to be part of it because she had thought of everything. And she really did it with intention. She hadn't even read my book yet. But she made it into something that people loved. And they talked about afterwards. So it was such a nice contrast to what those are often where you go. And someone thought this was a good idea to put on this event and get people talking about certain things, but they haven't gone to the trouble of really thinking through the details, how to stitch it together. Are these people really talking about what we think they're going to talk about? Like I went to one of those events not that long ago. Wasn't the one you talked about, but it was a different one where there hadn't been enough vetting of the people. And there were some home runs and there were some swinging myths, you know, some maybe even a couple strikeouts in the middle of it. Like that wasn't what they thought it was going to be. I'm thinking they probably would redo that. And so so many events fall into those traps. And so I think there's truth in what you said that this event could have been a meeting or an online training. Like that's another alternative that many are going to. And so why do it in person if it could have been done online should be a question we're asking. And that'll get us to what the real value is when we come together in person so that we're focused on the experience that people are willing to pay
Speaker 2
for.

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