Staying Awake During New York Climate Week
Can we end bad conference designs?
Something I’m Learning
Imagine you're walking through New York's Times Square. You're familiar with the usual chaos - the lights and giant screens, the hordes of tourists (though in more different outfits than you've seen in a while given you mostly work from home in sweats). Tourist trap photo ops abound – from Minnie Mouse on one end of the spectrum to naked cowgirls with star-spangled glitter on the other. Hard to tell who looks more bored. The giant screens have become 3D since you were last there – there's an orc from Lord of the Rings reaching down to grab you.
Suddenly, you hear your name called. Someone is trying to get your attention above the din. You look around and a former colleague from Kenya you haven’t seen in a decade is waving at you. It takes a minute or two to remember their name, so you’re surprised they recognized you in the hullabaloo. You try to chat, but the inexorable force of the crowd means that you are both getting pulled away in opposite directions, so you wave goodbye and they’re swallowed up by the masses and gone.
That happened twice in Times Square and another three times in other parts of the city. All in the same week.
That’s New York Climate Week and UNGA. It feels like every single person in your field is in the same city for a week.
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Given those mad street vibes, a smart event organizer would design to match the energy outside. But some are too canny for that; they know people need their sleep in weeks like these. And so they design events for that. Empathy in action, folks.
Some examples. There was the event I was asked to speak at on Friday afternoon (by which time nearly everyone has left or started drinking). It was in an inconvenient location and I was invited on a 30-minute panel as one of 4 guests with a high-profile moderator (who I knew would hog some airtime himself). There were also two other panels and a keynote in the same event. Umm, no thanks.
Here’s a rule of thumb for your next conference. If your agenda has a panel discussion with over three panelists, it’s going to be bad. If such a session is under 45 minutes, it’s going to be terrible. There’s no chance of anything interesting or substantial – it will just be people promoting their work in the blandest way, not speaking to each other but at you. And if one of them cues up a slide deck, walk out. Seriously. Let’s end bad conferences.
Another event I attended was a panel of earnest youth changemakers backslapping each other for their good work and collective disdain of a group that wasn’t present. This is also somewhat pointless. When it’s an open event (i.e. not closed-door or Chatham House rules) and the panel is about the evils of an oppressor group – whether fossil fuel companies, oppressive regimes, or adults who’ve messed it up for youth – and there are no representatives of the oppressor group on the panel, that’s another sign that you may as well check your emails and WhatsApps elsewhere. I left halfway through to sneak in a quick nap.
Which turned out to be a good idea because later I went to one of two events that are worth highlighting. This was hosted by Giving Green, and they got several things right (not just the free booze). First, there were only three panelists. Second, each was working on something they didn’t have all the answers to, making them more vulnerable on stage. Third, the topic was around cutting-edge tech, which is always engaging. Most importantly, the moderator asked the tough questions that audience members might feel too impolite to ask, like probing an innovator in the alternative protein space with something to the effect of, “With Beyond Meat’s stock in the toilet, why should we believe in your industry?”
The other well-designed event was a LinkedIn-hosted debate with 6 speakers, each accomplished enough to be on a TED stage. They were divided into two camps to speak for or against a proposition in about 2 minutes. This inevitably gives you 1) a lot of different voices, 2) quick turnovers before your attention drifts to your phone, and 3) provocations for each other and the audience. It’s not deep or nuanced, but it’s entertaining.
So unless you want to let your audience catch up on sleep, design something unexpected. Most of them will be juggling demanding schedules, with back-to-back days bookended by pre-breakfast coffee meetings and post-dinner drinks meetings. Plus, we all have an ADD-inducing device in our pockets. Event planners, this is what you’re up against. Our attention is a precious resource, not granted freely. To keep it, keep us on our toes.
For me, it’s a good reminder that I need to walk my talk if I ever organize a public event at New York Climate Week. Otherwise, I may as well spend the week taking photos with Minnie Mouse.
Something to Consider
LinkedIn influencer Nick Martin also has a bee in his bonnet about badly designed and moderated events. He has some tips. Who Wants to be a Great Moderator?
Something to Quote
The first criterion of success in any human activity, the necessary preliminary…is intensity of attention, or less pompously, love.
- W. H. Auden