Do I really need a….?

Isaac Watson: 00:00:13

How do you as a leader of a growing community, Truly make a

Isaac Watson: 00:00:17

conference or event that has impact, a gathering with purpose and an attendee

Isaac Watson: 00:00:22

experience that knocks their socks off.

Isaac Watson: 00:00:25

An event that leaves your audience in awe and wondering where

Isaac Watson: 00:00:28

you've been their whole life.

Isaac Watson: 00:00:30

Make it Kickass is the podcast that explores these questions by uncovering

Isaac Watson: 00:00:34

the strategies, tactics and tools that we use every day to bring

Isaac Watson: 00:00:38

our clients' conferences to life.

Isaac Watson: 00:00:40

I'm Isaac Watson, executive producer of Kickass Conferences, and we are

Isaac Watson: 00:00:44

here to help you make it kick ass.

Isaac Watson: 00:00:52

We are back with another episode of Make It Kickass, and we are coming to a close

Isaac Watson: 00:00:59

with this season, but first, Who am I?

Isaac Watson: 00:01:02

I am Isaac Watson, executive producer at Kickass Conferences.

Isaac Watson: 00:01:06

And who is she?

Isaac Watson: 00:01:07

She is Nessa Jimenez, operations Manager.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:01:11

Hi everyone.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:01:12

Welcome back.

Isaac Watson: 00:01:12

Maybe next season you'll be the one to introduce both of us.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:01:15

Maybe.

Isaac Watson: 00:01:16

You did last season actually.

Isaac Watson: 00:01:18

You were good,

Nessa Jimenez: 00:01:18

correct.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:01:18

Yeah we took turns, so maybe who knows?

Isaac Watson: 00:01:21

We're just flipping it around . So we are I don't know,

Isaac Watson: 00:01:24

maybe we're just a little loopy cuz we're on the last episode of the season.

Isaac Watson: 00:01:27

But we have been spending this season addressing some of those hot questions

Isaac Watson: 00:01:31

that we get asked all the time related to organizing conferences and events

Isaac Watson: 00:01:36

from people who meet us on the street or at your favorite conference to

Isaac Watson: 00:01:42

people who are actually our clients.

Isaac Watson: 00:01:45

And we're diving deeper and digging deeper.

Isaac Watson: 00:01:48

Lots of deep things that are happening to figure out what are people really

Isaac Watson: 00:01:54

asking when they ask us these questions.

Isaac Watson: 00:01:56

And what are some of the underlying problems that bring these to bear?

Isaac Watson: 00:02:01

Without further ado because I'll just keep making a mess of the

Isaac Watson: 00:02:05

words coming out of my mouth.

Isaac Watson: 00:02:07

, let's talk about this episodes question.

Isaac Watson: 00:02:11

Nessa is dying over there.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:02:12

You're fine.

Isaac Watson: 00:02:16

This is what happens when I hit three o'clock in the afternoon,

Isaac Watson: 00:02:21

. This question is a So we were trying to figure out how best to word this,

Isaac Watson: 00:02:26

but the truth is it gets, it takes the form of many questions, but it

Isaac Watson: 00:02:31

usually starts with do I really need a.

Isaac Watson: 00:02:36

And then it's a fill in the blank.

Isaac Watson: 00:02:37

And this could be a question about, do I really need AV services?

Isaac Watson: 00:02:43

Do I really need a social media manager?

Isaac Watson: 00:02:45

Do I really need to hire an MC for my event?

Isaac Watson: 00:02:49

Do I really need signage?

Isaac Watson: 00:02:50

Do I need a designer?

Isaac Watson: 00:02:51

Do I need someone to manage the front of house?

Isaac Watson: 00:02:55

All of these questions are stemming from the same root concern or

Isaac Watson: 00:03:05

uncertainty around these things.

Isaac Watson: 00:03:07

So this episode's question is, do I really need a fill in the blank?

Isaac Watson: 00:03:12

So NASA, take us for a dive into what do people really mean when they ask us?

Isaac Watson: 00:03:18

Do I really need to fill in the blank?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:03:20

Absolutely.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:03:21

So this always comes from a mentality of obsession with

Nessa Jimenez: 00:03:24

logistics before anything else.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:03:27

So instead of thinking about strategy, they're already like in the last phase

Nessa Jimenez: 00:03:32

of the logistics of the thing, right?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:03:34

What They're usually.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:03:36

Asking when they ask this question is, how do I spend the least amount

Nessa Jimenez: 00:03:39

of money and still get the results I want, how do I DIY this sucker and

Nessa Jimenez: 00:03:45

still make something that's good enough,

Isaac Watson: 00:03:48

way to cut to the chase

Isaac Watson: 00:03:50

. Nessa Jimenez: That's truth.

Isaac Watson: 00:03:50

That's what they wanna know.

Isaac Watson: 00:03:51

Cuz they think it's a dollar.

Isaac Watson: 00:03:54

Again, a logistics thing.

Isaac Watson: 00:03:55

They're thinking about dollars and cents.

Isaac Watson: 00:03:58

Bottom line, instead of taking a look back at the strategy, but I think

Isaac Watson: 00:04:03

another question that they're actually a asking us tends to be, what does

Isaac Watson: 00:04:09

fill in the blank, what does this thing contribute to the experience?

Isaac Watson: 00:04:14

What does a paid mc or a professional host what do they contribute to the experience?

Isaac Watson: 00:04:20

What difference does it make?

Isaac Watson: 00:04:22

I got a cousin named Tito, and he's not embarrassed by things.

Isaac Watson: 00:04:25

So what's the difference between getting a Tito to get up there and

Isaac Watson: 00:04:28

host his thing versus somebody who's actually done this professionally?

Isaac Watson: 00:04:32

Right.

Isaac Watson: 00:04:32

, That's the that, that's another way people come at it, right?

Isaac Watson: 00:04:36

Like, why?

Isaac Watson: 00:04:37

What difference does it make?

Isaac Watson: 00:04:39

Yeah.

Isaac Watson: 00:04:40

Do you actually have a cousin named Tito?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:04:41

I do have a cousin named Tito . Yes.

Isaac Watson: 00:04:44

Bring it, make it real.

Isaac Watson: 00:04:45

That's good.

Isaac Watson: 00:04:47

So let's dig into the actual problems that.

Isaac Watson: 00:04:50

Really are at the root of this line of questioning it.

Isaac Watson: 00:04:54

I think the first thing is that people feel like they are just putting together

Isaac Watson: 00:04:58

a conference and not their conference.

Isaac Watson: 00:05:02

They're just going through the motions and at the same time questioning why

Isaac Watson: 00:05:09

things are the way they are when it comes to organizing a conference.

Isaac Watson: 00:05:14

And they don't necessarily understand what value certain piece brings to it.

Isaac Watson: 00:05:21

When you think about it, yes, you need AV production.

Isaac Watson: 00:05:25

Of some sort, right?

Isaac Watson: 00:05:27

You have audio and you have visuals, , and those need to be produced, right?

Isaac Watson: 00:05:31

Yes.

Isaac Watson: 00:05:32

But if you don't understand what a skilled professional brings to bear in

Isaac Watson: 00:05:38

that then it's easy to just say I don't, we don't really need that, do we?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:44

Yeah.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:44

And we.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:45

A little bit about this earlier in the season where they're just looking

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:49

at this checklist based on what other people have done, and they're

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:53

not realizing whatever that person did, they did it for their event.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:57

Like TEDx and the TED events, right?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:00

They do it because that's their event, but you don't necessarily need

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:04

all of that stuff that they're doing.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:07

So it's.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:09

It's forgetting about this checklist based on what other people are doing

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:13

and realizing, for example, av, Yes, you'll need av, but there's a huge gap,

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:20

like a huge range of what AV can look

Isaac Watson: 00:06:24

yes, exactly.

Isaac Watson: 00:06:25

And that's everything from one person sitting in a little home

Isaac Watson: 00:06:28

studio running a zoom to 30 people.

Isaac Watson: 00:06:33

It's hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gear in a venue, right?

Isaac Watson: 00:06:37

And everything in between.

Isaac Watson: 00:06:39

Okay.

Isaac Watson: 00:06:40

Another kind of underlying problem around this is stems from a misunderstanding

Isaac Watson: 00:06:46

of what resources an organizer has at their disposal already.

Isaac Watson: 00:06:51

Thinking about things in terms of do I really need to hire.

Isaac Watson: 00:06:56

A social media person or do I really need to pay for ads?

Isaac Watson: 00:07:03

If you don't fully understand what resources you have, that can lead to

Isaac Watson: 00:07:09

this blanket questioning of everything.

Isaac Watson: 00:07:13

So instead, you can be thinking oh I've got I've got a social media

Isaac Watson: 00:07:19

person already on deck for my business.

Isaac Watson: 00:07:20

We just need to enhance that a little bit to get some event

Isaac Watson: 00:07:23

marketing out there, or, Oh.

Isaac Watson: 00:07:26

Turns out maybe you're a marketing person or your, who knows, your nephew

Isaac Watson: 00:07:32

or somebody actually has some graphic design skills and might be willing

Isaac Watson: 00:07:36

to contribute those to your event so you wouldn't have to pay for it.

Isaac Watson: 00:07:39

So it's not, again, this is, these are not, this has come

Isaac Watson: 00:07:42

up in previous episodes.

Isaac Watson: 00:07:43

These are not bad questions to be asking.

Isaac Watson: 00:07:46

But what we want to try and uncover here is what is at the root of these and how

Isaac Watson: 00:07:51

can we develop some strategies to.

Isaac Watson: 00:07:55

Get at what is causing these questions to happen rather than just flat out

Isaac Watson: 00:08:00

answering them at the top because they're not cut and answers.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:04

Yeah.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:05

Absolutely not.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:06

And we had a client recently the client was a designer and their partner was

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:12

a designer, and their partner did a bunch of the design work for us, right?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:17

So we didn't have to pay a designer versus another client who, they have

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:22

absolutely no design like skills.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:25

So we had to find designers to do that stuff.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:28

Yeah.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:29

It's.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:32

It all depends on who you know and what, like with the resources you have.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:35

I think a lot of people underestimate the people that they already know,

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:40

the network that they already have, and they also underestimate

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:44

people's desire to help as well.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:08:47

Into continue.

Isaac Watson: 00:08:47

That's true, that's true.

Isaac Watson: 00:08:49

I think the third underlying problem behind these questions really comes

Isaac Watson: 00:08:53

down to money and being worried about not making enough revenue to make it

Isaac Watson: 00:09:00

worth the effort to, either break even or turn a profit or concerned

Isaac Watson: 00:09:03

about how much they're willing to invest in making this thing happen.

Isaac Watson: 00:09:07

And when you are rooting the majority of your decision making in a purely

Isaac Watson: 00:09:15

financial evaluation that can work to the detriment of the event's outcomes.

Isaac Watson: 00:09:22

And that causes you to question, Oh we don't need that.

Isaac Watson: 00:09:25

We don't need that.

Isaac Watson: 00:09:26

That's, that seems superfluous.

Isaac Watson: 00:09:29

We can't afford that, so we'll just do it really crappy on

Isaac Watson: 00:09:33

our own or something like that.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:09:35

And you, when you do that, you start making mistakes.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:09:37

You make stupid mistakes a lot of the time, right?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:09:40

When you're just looking at dollar amounts and then later on you realize,

Nessa Jimenez: 00:09:44

Oh man, since we didn't pay this person to do that, now we have to spend

Nessa Jimenez: 00:09:49

20 hours trying to figure out how to do it because it's too late now.

Isaac Watson: 00:09:53

Yes.

Isaac Watson: 00:09:54

Yeah.

Isaac Watson: 00:09:54

I, One of the most classic examples that we've seen, Repeatedly is in

Isaac Watson: 00:10:00

working with a social media expert to help with event marketing.

Isaac Watson: 00:10:06

And so often clients will say to us I, this is just a, this

Isaac Watson: 00:10:13

is a significant expense for a bunch of posts on social media.

Isaac Watson: 00:10:18

And they're not really thinking about what the return on that investment would be.

Isaac Watson: 00:10:22

And so often we see even within the first few months it is

Isaac Watson: 00:10:28

obvious that it's worth it, right?

Isaac Watson: 00:10:29

Like the money that we've spent to hire this person has already recouped itself

Isaac Watson: 00:10:35

through the ticket sales and has made the event better in the process, right?

Isaac Watson: 00:10:41

These are the kinds of things you need to think about it when it comes to budgeting.

Isaac Watson: 00:10:45

Okay.

Isaac Watson: 00:10:46

Let's talk about some of the solutions.

Isaac Watson: 00:10:48

I think.

Isaac Watson: 00:10:49

Speaking of budgeting , one thing that we work with our clients on

Isaac Watson: 00:10:53

a lot is identifying what type of conference their business and

Isaac Watson: 00:11:00

community can actually sustain.

Isaac Watson: 00:11:02

Cause a lot of people come into it going, I want a three day conference.

Isaac Watson: 00:11:06

I want a thousand people there.

Isaac Watson: 00:11:07

I this is, I want it to be just like this conference in this other space

Isaac Watson: 00:11:12

and it needs to be this and that.

Isaac Watson: 00:11:15

And they come in with these preconceptions around what this conference is.

Isaac Watson: 00:11:19

And as we start to dig into.

Isaac Watson: 00:11:21

Understanding their audience.

Isaac Watson: 00:11:23

Ding ding.

Isaac Watson: 00:11:23

There's our keyword for this entire season when it comes down to

Isaac Watson: 00:11:27

understanding goals and things like that.

Isaac Watson: 00:11:30

We then start to uncover what is the conference that their

Isaac Watson: 00:11:35

business can actually sustain.

Isaac Watson: 00:11:37

That has to do with budgeting, that has to do with audience size and

Isaac Watson: 00:11:41

conversion to ticket sales or to event registration that comes down to.

Isaac Watson: 00:11:48

Even like, how long is the thing?

Isaac Watson: 00:11:51

How many speakers can we have?

Isaac Watson: 00:11:52

All of that plays into that sustainability aspect, especially if you're thinking

Isaac Watson: 00:11:59

about a first time event, like you wanna start small, keep it proof of

Isaac Watson: 00:12:02

concept keep your cost at bay and then you expand from there, right?

Isaac Watson: 00:12:07

These are all the kinds of things that we work.

Isaac Watson: 00:12:09

and

Nessa Jimenez: 00:12:09

what you're willing to invest and possibly lose.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:12:13

That's a, that's an important number to think about as well.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:12:17

I'm willing to invest X amount of money and if we lose it, then we lose it.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:12:24

Especially when we're talking about a a first time event.

Isaac Watson: 00:12:28

Yes.

Isaac Watson: 00:12:29

Related to the sustainability are your business goals figuring out what kind

Isaac Watson: 00:12:34

of conference will actually serve those.

Isaac Watson: 00:12:37

What are your audience's goals?

Isaac Watson: 00:12:39

How can you serve them?

Isaac Watson: 00:12:40

Because serving them helps serve your own goals.

Isaac Watson: 00:12:43

They're all interrelated.

Isaac Watson: 00:12:45

And then thinking about what, how is your business made up right now?

Isaac Watson: 00:12:50

Like w.

Isaac Watson: 00:12:51

Who is on your team?

Isaac Watson: 00:12:52

What resources and bandwidth do you have available?

Isaac Watson: 00:12:56

And by resources, I also mean like we talked about network friends and

Isaac Watson: 00:13:01

family professional associations.

Isaac Watson: 00:13:05

All these kinds of things can help bring your conference to life.

Isaac Watson: 00:13:10

And if you don't know how those are mapped out and how you can

Isaac Watson: 00:13:13

use those to your advantage in a.

Isaac Watson: 00:13:16

Sustainable way.

Isaac Watson: 00:13:18

Then you're gonna be working really hard to try and backfill when you could

Isaac Watson: 00:13:23

just be leveraging that kind of stuff.

Isaac Watson: 00:13:25

So do I really need, fill in the blank.

Isaac Watson: 00:13:28

This is our like, overarching.

Isaac Watson: 00:13:30

Question.

Isaac Watson: 00:13:30

Do I need av?

Isaac Watson: 00:13:31

Do I need catering?

Isaac Watson: 00:13:33

Why do I pay for so much for catering?

Isaac Watson: 00:13:36

Do I really need to hire social media manager?

Isaac Watson: 00:13:38

Do I need this?

Isaac Watson: 00:13:39

Do I need that?

Isaac Watson: 00:13:40

What about this?

Isaac Watson: 00:13:40

So and so did this.

Isaac Watson: 00:13:42

Do I need to do this?

Isaac Watson: 00:13:43

All of these questions boil down to wanting to maximize financials of your

Isaac Watson: 00:13:50

event, feeling the need to DIY everything.

Isaac Watson: 00:13:53

Oh I could just do it myself, right?

Isaac Watson: 00:13:57

Probably not.

Isaac Watson: 00:13:58

And questioning like what a particular element actually

Isaac Watson: 00:14:02

contributes to the experience.

Isaac Watson: 00:14:04

The key things that we can do to support that are helping you identify

Isaac Watson: 00:14:08

what your business can sustain.

Isaac Watson: 00:14:11

What kind of conference is best for your business, for

Isaac Watson: 00:14:13

your audience, for your goals.

Isaac Watson: 00:14:15

For their goals, and identifying what Your what capacity your business has and

Isaac Watson: 00:14:21

what resources you have at your disposal to be able to efficiently and effectively

Isaac Watson: 00:14:27

execute on the logistics of the conference from a strategic standpoint.

Isaac Watson: 00:14:31

First, before you dig into those nitty gritty logistical questions,

Nessa Jimenez: 00:14:36

and this being the last episode of the season, I ki I'd like

Nessa Jimenez: 00:14:40

to discuss like an overarching Take away message of the entire season.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:14:45

What, any thoughts around that?

Isaac Watson: 00:14:49

It's the thing we've been harping on from in most of our episodes.

Isaac Watson: 00:14:53

It's about really understanding your audience.

Isaac Watson: 00:14:55

I cannot emphasize that enough.

Isaac Watson: 00:14:59

We clients will ask us why do you wanna know all this stuff about who

Isaac Watson: 00:15:04

our people are and what they want?

Isaac Watson: 00:15:06

Why do you need demographic information?

Isaac Watson: 00:15:08

Why why are you asking this line of questions?

Isaac Watson: 00:15:11

And it's because we need to understand the people that this event is serving.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:16

An event does not purely serve your business.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:18

It serves the people who are attending.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:21

And if you.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:22

Understand who they are, what they value, what they want, what they need, and

Isaac Watson: 00:15:27

how best to deliver to that, to them.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:31

Then I don't think that you can del you can do that like that.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:34

That's just, you're gonna shoot yourself in the foot.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:38

And I think that's why it's so important to have that strategy from the beginning.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:43

That's why we lean on it so heavily.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:45

That's why it is.

Isaac Watson: 00:15:48

It keeps coming to bear in all of these conversations we're having about these

Isaac Watson: 00:15:51

common questions is backing up and saying, Okay, but what's the strategy?

Isaac Watson: 00:15:56

Who are these people?

Isaac Watson: 00:15:58

Why are we doing this?

Isaac Watson: 00:15:59

What are we doing?

Isaac Watson: 00:16:00

How can we deliver this in a way that is valuable to them?

Isaac Watson: 00:16:04

How can we create something special for them?

Isaac Watson: 00:16:07

That is the key to.

Isaac Watson: 00:16:09

Those are at least my final thoughts.

Isaac Watson: 00:16:12

, what about you, Nessa?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:13

Yeah, those are great final thoughts.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:15

I agree with all of them.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:16

For me, strategy is the key.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:18

All of these questions that we've spoken about this entire

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:21

season can be easily answered.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:24

Once you have a strategy in place.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:26

Once there's a clear definition of who your audience is, what are your goals?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:31

What are their goals?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:32

What are their needs?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:33

What do they want?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:34

They're easily answered and then easily executed upon, because as we said, I

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:39

think we said at the beginning, it's not the logistics, it's the strategy.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:43

The strategy will tell you the logistics, stop worrying about the

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:47

catering and the venue and the chairs and the the fabrics or whatever.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:53

And get a strategy in order and all of this will come together.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:16:57

Yes.

Isaac Watson: 00:16:58

We've talked about.

Isaac Watson: 00:16:59

Paying speakers.

Isaac Watson: 00:17:00

We've talked about hybrid events.

Isaac Watson: 00:17:03

We've talked about how much should I sell my tickets for?

Isaac Watson: 00:17:07

We've talked about event platforms.

Isaac Watson: 00:17:09

We've talked about big name speakers.

Isaac Watson: 00:17:12

All of these things are rooted.

Isaac Watson: 00:17:15

Nessa said in logistical mindset instead of strategic mindset.

Isaac Watson: 00:17:20

And that is why is largely why we want to talk about all of these,

Isaac Watson: 00:17:26

because so many times people come to us with these logistical questions and

Isaac Watson: 00:17:30

we keep having to back and say, Yes, and let's figure out the strategy.

Isaac Watson: 00:17:36

Let's answer the strategic questions first because that will

Isaac Watson: 00:17:39

inform the execution all right.

Isaac Watson: 00:17:43

We are officially wrapping up with this season.

Isaac Watson: 00:17:46

It has been great pulling these episodes together for you.

Isaac Watson: 00:17:50

We're gonna take a little bit of a break and we will be back next

Isaac Watson: 00:17:53

season with all kinds of good stuff.

Isaac Watson: 00:17:56

Who knows what's gonna happen.

Isaac Watson: 00:17:57

Nessa's gonna start introducing me, or I'll introduce me and she

Isaac Watson: 00:18:01

introduces her, or vice versa.

Isaac Watson: 00:18:03

It's anybody's guess, but stay tuned.

Isaac Watson: 00:18:06

We will be back and in the meantime, make it kick ass.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:18:11

Yeah.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:18:11

We'll see you next season everybody.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:18:17

Thanks for listening to the Make It Kick Ass podcast.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:18:19

We hope that our discussion today about vendors will help make

Nessa Jimenez: 00:18:23

that decision making process a little bit easier for you.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:18:26

You can visit us at geteventlab.com and download a free copy of the questionnaire

Nessa Jimenez: 00:18:31

that we use with our clients all the time to help them figure out the answers to

Nessa Jimenez: 00:18:35

these questions and a whole lot more.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:18:37

That's geteventlab.com and I will see you all next season.