16 Actions & Inactions We Don’t Recommend

Not everything worked out all the time. We love our finished product, we’ve enjoyed a lot of success, and our Staff worked really well together during the weekend, but there were many actions and inactions we wouldn’t recommend to anyone:

1. Going through Orientation with Central less than six months from our preferred event dates
2. Letting fear guide our decision making
3. Submitting inflexible venue RFPs
4. Micromanaging instead of project managing
5. Adding unnecessary complexity to simple systems, processes, and decisions
6. Stalling completely during periods of seemingly fruitless research or circular disagreement
7. Avoiding addressing interpersonal issues, including ignoring or excusing bullying and negligence
8. Bearing the burden of other people’s responsibilities without providing negative feedback
9. Launching Micro-Sponsorships and releasing tickets before understanding either – and their connection
10. Asking lunch-related questions after tickets had been purchased
11. Procrastinating in general, but especially on finalizing print designs, which resulted in the only eleventh hour emergency
12. Delaying the certificate of insurance approval process between our main venue and on-site vendors until two weeks before the event
13. Forgetting to design a bathroom sign for the Sponsor Gallery and allergen-free signs for our afternoon snacks and After Party desserts
14. Neglecting to do thorough inventories of all the tangibles – especially shirts and print materials – until right before the event or not at all
15. Coding t-shirt sizes in a way that was easy to decipher
16. Keeping Organizer walkie talkies on in session rooms during talks