The Event Is Only the Beginning
After more than 20 years working in events, I’ve learnt that putting people in a room is actually the easy part.
Getting them to care about being there is harder.
And creating something that stays with them after they leave? That’s where I think the real work begins.
I’ve always been a creative first. I love the process of taking an idea, bringing people together and creating something that feels different from the ordinary.
But over the years, I’ve come to realise that a great event isn’t simply about the idea we come up with.
It’s about understanding why those people should come together in the first place.
The lesson I learnt from a cheese festival
Around 10 years ago, I created the Cheese Lovers Festival.
At the time, I thought about success fairly simply: get people through the gates, create a great day, make sure the exhibitors and stakeholders get value, and leave people with a good experience.
And yes, all of those things mattered.
But as we got deeper into the event, I realised there was something much bigger happening.
We weren’t just creating a festival. We were bringing together cheesemakers, producers, winemakers and people who genuinely cared about what they were creating.
That meant I needed to understand the people behind the products. What mattered to them? What were they trying to achieve? What did they want people to understand about what they did?
That changed the way I looked at events.
As I said at the time:
“The event should never have been about, hey, this big, great idea that I put together. It should have been about supporting their mission because they’re the cheesemongers who are out there trying to change the world with their cheese, and they’re the ones doing that.”
That lesson has stayed with me.
And it applies just as much to a corporate conference, industry forum, customer event, leadership gathering or internal team experience.
The event is bigger than the day
We can sometimes become very focused on the event itself.
The venue. The speakers. The production. The catering. The run sheet. The registrations.
All important.
But the event is only one part of the experience.
There’s what happens before people arrive, what happens while they’re together, and what happens after they leave.
What are we giving people a reason to care before the event?
What are we giving them to talk about when they’re there?
And what gives the conversation somewhere to go afterwards?
That’s where we believe the opportunity is.
Corporate doesn’t have to mean generic
There’s a temptation, particularly in the corporate events space, to fall back on familiar formulas.
A panel. A keynote. Drinks and networking. A few branded moments. Some photographs for LinkedIn.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of those things.
The question is whether they mean something to the people in the room.
People have more choice than ever about where they spend their time. They can find their communities, follow their industries and connect with people who share their interests without ever attending an event.
So if we’re asking someone to take half a day, a full day or an evening away from everything else they could be doing, the experience needs to give them a reason to be there.
That doesn’t necessarily mean making it bigger.
Sometimes it means making it more relevant.
Start with the people, not the format
For us, the conversation shouldn’t begin with:
“What sort of event should we run?”
It should begin with:
“What do these people actually care about?”
What are they trying to solve?
What do they want to learn?
Who do they want to meet?
What would make them feel like they belong?
And what does the organisation want to achieve by bringing them together?
Once we understand that, the format becomes much easier to find.
Maybe it is a conference.
Maybe it’s a roundtable.
Maybe it’s a completely different experience.
The format should serve the purpose, not the other way around.
That’s something we’re seeing more and more in the work we do.
When we take the time to understand the organisation, its audience and the community around it, the event becomes much more than a date on the calendar.
It becomes a reason for people to connect.
The best events belong to more than the organiser
I’ve never wanted Icon to create events that are simply about putting our stamp on something.
The best events feel like they belong to the people in the room.
They reflect their interests, their challenges, their ambitions and their communities.
Our role is to help bring that to life.
That’s why our thinking has evolved from simply delivering events to delivering experiences that connect people, build communities and support them on their mission.
For me, that last part is particularly important.
Because the event isn’t really about us.
It’s about the organisation we’re supporting, the people they want to bring together and what they are trying to achieve.
So, what happens after the event?
That’s probably one of the questions I ask myself most now.
Not just:
Did people enjoy it?
But:
What did it create?
Did people meet someone they needed to meet?
Did they have a conversation they wouldn’t otherwise have had?
Did they learn something that changed their thinking?
Did they feel more connected to their industry, organisation or community?
Did they keep talking about it afterwards?
Those are the things that make an event worthwhile.
And perhaps that’s what I’ve come to appreciate most after all these years.
We’re not really in the business of putting on events.
We’re in the business of bringing people together for a reason.
The event is simply the vehicle.
The connection, the community and what happens because those people came together, that’s the part that matters.
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