The power and the polish of an event is demonstrated in the moments the audience doesn’t notice. These are the moments in between things, the time when elements are moving and the next thing is about to happen, but hasn’t yet.
How do we plan for those moments? How do we practice them?
I was part of a very large conference yesterday, one that happened completely online, via Zoom videoconferencing. From the outside, it could have looked like people just showed up, signed into Zoom conference rooms, and participated in the content that had been prepared. But behind the scenes, it was clear that an enormous amount of work went into thinking about every detail.
How will we build the schedule so people have time to finish one meeting and go to the next?
How will we encourage participation without having people talk over each other?
How will we help people select the breakout sessions they want to go to, and make it so easy that they can’t get confused or lost?
How can we support the people who are presenting material so they don’t have to deal with the technology elements of the meeting?
Beware of the planning document that looks like a list of events. This happens, and then this happens, and then this happens…Any theatre director will tell you that it is the moments where those commas lie that can make or break your production.
How will you get from “this” to “this”?
Is the route clear? To everyone?
Test it, double-check it, ask someone who thinks differently from you to try it out. Don’t let the moments in between compromise the whole endeavor.