Creative Streak

Planning Successful Workshops, Part 3

This is the third in a four-part series of my conversation and brainstorm with Kate Whitehair and Tamsin Stanley, two veteran event organisers at Zing, on how to plan, prepare and manage events.

Stage Three: On-Site, Particularly for Multiple Day Events

Assign (or hire) a person to be wholly accountable for the event. All information should flow through this ‘event manager,’ and this person alone chooses how to delegate. Allow this person to make the best decision without interference. For 99% of decisions, their authority should trump the majority of others.

Establish a central area. Tell people to go to the this area (the rego desk, for instance) if they have problems or want answers. Staff the area with internal team members so they feel like they’re part of the event success.

Facebook vs. Twitter?

Here's an interesting article comparing the use of Facebook and Twitter in social media marketing strategies.  Personally, I find Twitter drives most of my own traffic to this site (Linked-In a close second), but my Facebook contacts are far more vocal. Favouritism aside, what sort of behaviours do you see specific social media audiences reacting to your organisation?

The artwork comes from a similar series of posts from Mashable.

Definitions of 'Creativity'

I was re-reading some old posts yesterday, and found one I wanted to update:  Definitions of Creativity on January 5, 2009. The original list included general statements, whereas the list below are specific definitions I've culled from a variety of resources.

Having or showing imagination and artistic or intellectual inventiveness.  Drs. Richard Paul and Linda Elder, from Critical and Creative Thinking. I've found lots of links that suggest the words "artistic or intellectual inventiveness" come from Webster's Dictionary, but the copy staring at me from my desktop has the vanilla definition: "The ability to create."

Nothing more than going beyond the current boundaries, whether those are boundaries of technology, knowledge, current practices, social norms, or beliefs. Creativity is nothing more than seeing and acting on new relationships, thereby bringing them to life.  Joseph V. Anderson, from "Weirder than fiction: the reality and myths of creativity", Academy of Management Executive, 6:4 (1992), page 41.

Planning Successful Workshops, Part 2

This is the second in a four-part series of my conversation and brainstorm with Kate Whitehair and Tamsin Stanley, two veteran event organisers at Zing, on how to plan, prepare and manage events.

Stage Two: Implementation

Create a theme that both stimulates and provokes. Themes can range from specific and aggressive to subtle and subconscious. Whichever you choose, the theme should be complementary to or elaborate upon the event's objective and the values of the organisation They should be written in active voice.

Planning Successful Workshops, Conferences

(This is the first in a four-part series. Today’s post: Pre-Planning.)

There’s a skill to planning and scheduling a brainstorm, but what about when your meeting expands to a full-day workshop (including both strategic and creative modules)? Or, spreads out over several days, such as a sales conference, an in-house employee event, or an off-site meeting?

While many of the organising tasks are similar, additional elements – more people, a bigger or more broad agenda, perhaps even an outside venue – means there's also additional preparation and implementation steps. Last week, I sat down with two experienced event planners – Kate Whitehair and Tamsin Stanley at Zing – to brainstorm some helpful tips and considerations at each stage of the event planning process.

Stage One: Pre-Planning

1. Articulate clearly the purpose or objective of the event. Think about what you want the event to accomplish. Consider how the event might support or bring to life the organisation’s vision, mission or values into the event. Also, does this event fit into other initiatives, or is parallel or complementary? If so, how should they be linked together?

Winning Business

The process of new business development – specifically, winning a new assignment from a client – is often elaborate, time-consuming, lengthy and political.

To make the process easier, more productive, and focused on generating the right outcome, the client should outline and broadcast the specific criteria they’ll use to select the best agency. (More about “and broadcast the specific criteria” in a moment.)

The criteria tends to fall into six different categories.

Content. Will the agency’s proposal – specifically, its strategies, its tactics – help the client meet both its business and communications objective? How measurable are the objectives?

Creativity. Will the ideas which bring the strategic and tactics to life be cut-through, differentiating, unique and tailorable to the client’s messages? Can the agency talk about its creative process?

Wisdom, Mondays and Kung Hei Fat Choy

What

I

Should

Do

On

Monday

Lo and behold, it's Monday - so get cracking!

And before I forget, Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Best Business Slides, by Nigel Malone

Nigel Malone has been writing a series of posts in his blog on Anthill entitled 'The Best Business Slide.' There's some great food for thought here. Slide topics range from positioning to messaging to creative development. There's seven so far, with three more to come.

At the same time, Anthill is another good source of innovation and entrepreneurship in Australia.

Tips to Improve Presentation Skills (When Sitting Down)

(This is Part Two. Part One is here.)

Because sitting, when presenting, negatively impacts so much of one's presentation skills, there are some discrete skills to consider to ensure your effectiveness isn't negatively affected as well. At the same time, here's some additional 'sitting tips' when part or all of your meeting attendees are on the other end of a conference call.

Body

Command attention by leaning forward into the table. Your back should never touch the back of the chair. Likewise, your colleagues should sit back, 'giving' you the table. Sit at the table where everyone can see you. At the head of the table is far more dominant than sitting at the side. Which is appropriate for your topic or the environment?

Gestures

Forget what your Grandmother taught you. Your elbows should be on the table, and gestures should be high, preferably near the face. Don't gesture at table height so your hands look like flopping fish. More so, do NOT gesture with your hands on your lap, under the table. (Trust me, it happens.)

Presenting, Standing Up or Sitting Down

(This is Part One. Part Two is here.)

When I lead a Presentation Skills workshop, it's always funny to hear a participant say they'd prefer to be filmed sitting down.

"Why?" I ask.

"Because I never stand up to present."

"Why not?" I ask.

• "There's no need to."
• "Everybody else is sitting down."
• "The room is too small." (Only a valid excuse if it is.)
• "I'm uncomfortable standing." (Only a valid excuse if you have a medical condition.)
• "It's un-Australian."

No surprise, the vast majority of people prefer to sit down when making a presentation for three reasons: they're more comfortable, they feel less exposed, and it's more collegial.

While they're understandable reasons, they aren't accurate. Simply put, the vast majority of people are at least 50% less dynamic when sitting down, because their body movements are halved ... and perhaps as much as 75% because everything else is restricted too. It's more difficult to breath properly, which means it's harder to project your voice. Hand gestures diminish, if not disappear. Eye contact disappears too because the person tends to read what it's front of them. All of this adds up to what I call "a stable sameness."