[HN Gopher] How to run an event that doesn't suck
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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.
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