Mistake #1: Leaving networking up to chance
What’s the #1 reason people go to events? It’s not the fantastic keynote speaker, or the thoughtful programming. It’s networking.
But too many organizers put more thought into choosing the side dish for dinner than helping their delegates meet the people that they really want to meet.
What to do instead
Start by identifying why people are coming to your event. Is it to make industry connections, or maybe riff with other people on new ideas?
Then curate your networking events and coffee breaks around those goals. For instance, set up four coffee stations for four different conversation topics. At one station, they can talk about the keynote speaker. At another, industry trends. At the third, the rise of AI. And at the fourth, you can sit and answer your emails without the pressure of talking to someone.
No, your delegates won’t remember whether they had broccoli or cauliflower for dinner. They’ll remember whether they met the people they wanted to meet. So give people a place to go and a reason to go there, and watch your conference become the most valuable event of the year.
Mistake #2: Letting your industry speakers run wild
Industry speakers are one of the pillars of a conference. There are good reasons to have them: often their sponsors and booths are valuable resources for you and your attendees. But here’s the tradeoff: often, industry speakers want to stand up on the stage and give a pitch for their product or service, when that’s the last thing your audience needs to hear.
What to do instead
Give your industry speakers a little coaching before they stand on your stage. Here’s what they need to understand: to give a good talk that’s valuable for them and for the audience, they should focus on what the audience wants to hear rather than what they want to say.
The truth is, the audience wants to do business with the smartest person in the room. So if your industry speaker sounds like the smartest person in the room, the audience will naturally want to work with them. But if all they say is “My product is better than their product,” the audience is going to walk out—and they’re going to blame you, the conference organizer.
So make sure your industry speakers are prepared—and make sure that they do what you want them to do, rather than just saying what they want to say.
Mistake #3: Not knowing why you’re doing the event
It’s true! The vast majority of conference organizers don’t know why they’re even putting on their event. Most of them, when asked why they’re having a conference, say “Well, we had one last year.” That’s not good enough. You’re never going to achieve anything if you don’t know what you’ve even set out to achieve.
What to do instead
Take 30 minutes and sit down with your leadership and your planning committee. Hash out some simple objectives. Figure out what you’re trying to accomplish—and how that differs from last year’s objectives, if you had an event last year. And don’t forget to figure out how you’re going to measure success!
Here are some questions we recommend that all our clients ask:
- What challenges and opportunities do we want this event to address?
- What measurable impact do we expect from this event?
- Who is our primary audience? What are their biggest pain points and aspirations?
- What do attendees believe or do now that needs to change?
If you’d like more questions and a framework for planning your programming, download our free conference programming workbook!
Mistake #4: Booking a keynote speaker
Here’s a little secret: nobody actually wants to book a keynote speaker. (And yes, we’re saying this as an agency whose whole purpose is to book keynote speakers!)
What organizers really want is ideas that can help them in their life, in their job, in the world. Those ideas just happen to be presented by a keynote speaker.
Every time someone calls us up and says “I want this speaker,” the truth is that they don’t. They just want what they think that speaker is going to deliver to their audience. But they haven’t articulated that to themselves, which is why so many organizers start out wanting a mountain climber and end up hiring an economist.
What to do instead
Before you even think about speakers, ask yourself: What do I want the audience to think, feel, or do differently after this event?
Write it down. Be specific. Do you want them to embrace a new technology? Collaborate more effectively? Rethink their leadership style?
Once you’ve clarified the outcome, finding the right speaker becomes simple. You’re no longer spending weeks or months picking from a list of names—you’re matching an expert to a purpose.
Mistake #5: Researching the past, not the future
People always tell us, “Oh, we’ve done our research! We’ve looked through two or three years of conference lineups.”
Trust us when we say: that’s a trap. Sure, those speakers were perfect—for last year’s challenges.
If you’re researching previous conferences or looking for speakers online, all you’re going to get is last year’s ideas. And your audience needs next year’s ideas.
What to do instead
If you want solutions to next year’s challenges, first you need to know what next year’s challenges are.
Seek out voices in Wired, The Atlantic, and Harvard Business Review. Listen to podcasts. Watch for up-and-coming experts who haven’t yet made the conference circuit.
Remember: TED doesn’t go to the TED website to find speakers. They’re out in the world, spotting the ideas no one else has found yet. (Sometimes they come to us!)
If you want to deliver something truly valuable to your audience, do your research where tomorrow’s ideas are being born—not where last year’s ideas were staged.
Mistake #6: Sending out surveys you’ll never use
Most post-event surveys are a formality—something organizers do because they feel they have to. When the answers come back, organizers don’t know what to do with them—so they go in a pile and never actually help to make the conference better.
If your survey questions don’t lead to better decisions next year, don’t even bother asking them. “Did you like the speaker?” doesn’t help you choose the right speaker next time. Neither does “How was the food?”
What to do instead
Only ask questions you know how to act on.
Before you hit send, be clear about what you’ll do with the answers. If 60% of people say a session wasn’t relevant, will you drop it next year? If a speaker gets low marks for ideas that matter, will you reconsider booking them again?
And instead of generic questions, ask targeted ones:
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Which session or speaker provided the most actionable insights you’ll implement in the next 3 months?
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On a scale of 1–10, how effectively did this event meet your main objective for attending?
- In one sentence, how would you describe the impact of this event to a colleague?
Good surveys are valuable. Make sure you’re acting on them.
