Insight to Spare Robert Tucker asked each participant to share some of their ‘keepers’ — a sentence or quote that provides a reminder of a bigger idea — from the Elite Retreat. Among them: ‘Overenthusiasm for change creates resistance to change.’
against your vision before making any decisions. Every decision that meeting producers make,
every element, every component of conferences [should] be approached from the standpoint of how it can be better for the guests.
Could you be more specific? No detail is too small. For example, most confer- ences have someone who serves as an emcee. That’s an area for innovation right there. If the emcee is disconnected from your vision and goals for the meeting, they can destroy the culture and the deliv- erables pretty quickly. So if you put on your confer- ence-visionary hat, you’ll search to find the right emcee and inculcate the emcee into the vision. Receptions are a typical part of every confer-
ence. But how can you innovate the reception, knowing that people often attend because of the
110 PCMA CONVENE DECEMBER 2012
+
› For more on Robert B. Tucker, visit innovationresource. com. › For more on the Elite Retreat, visit innovationresource. com/2012-elite- retreat. › To watch YouTube highlights from the Elite Retreat, visit convn.org/ elite-retreat.
ON THE WEB
networking? Instead of looking at staff as hands to implement, intimately involve them in value cre- ation. The orchestration role becomes pivotal and will result in a more innovative conference. Another conference-architect requirement is
to be an industry expert who anticipates hot topics in advance. Great conference producers share the vision and objectives with their speakers. And they have a finger on the pulse of their people.
.
Susan Sarfati, CAE, is CEO of High Performance Strategies LLC (sarfatihighperformance.com), which focuses on organizational assessments, innovative thinking in organizational strategy, leadership and management, moving from ideas to execution, and building a human-focused learning culture. She served as CEO of The Greater Washington Society of Association Executives. She can be reached at susan@ssarfati.com.