Everything You Did to Make Your Conference Better Actually Made it Worse
Lots of the things conferences do are worse than doing nothing.
Read on SubstackMisha on Conferences
Here are some essays on conferences from my Substack.
The three levels of conference: a report from the Progress Conference in Berkeley
Level 1: get people together, create obstacles to connection. Level 2: get out of the way, to allow serendipitous connection. Level 3: intentionally design for the connections you want to create.
Read on Substack
34 Tips for Running an Actually Good Conference
Distilled advice from planning many, many events. Here’s a list of the things I say most often, that my clients have found most helpful.
Read on Substack
The Reason Most Conferences are Bad is That Running a Conference is Scary
If you run a forgettable conference, nobody blames you. Doing something different feels risky. This story talks about one client who made brave choices and had great outcomes.
Read on SubstackMy four principles of conference design
Most of my advice on running conferences boils down to four principles. They are:
- Have goals.
- Do things that support your goals.
- Don’t do things that undermine your goals.
- Periodically ask “what would I do if I thought my participants were competent adults?”
The Works in Progress ad
I love Works in Progress magazine. When they offered me the opportunity to collaborate with them to create a custom full-page ad in the magazine, I jumped at the chance.
Do you have an event you need help with? I’d love to talk!
I’m very happy to talk, even (especially) if you are just in the early/maybe stages of conference planning.