Acclaimed blogger, author, speaker and entrepreneur shares his thoughts on how to create an authentic event and the value of taking risks. Author: Mitra Sorrells
It's been over 20 years since Seth Godin entered the world of marketing. He wrote 17 books that have been translated into more than 30 languages. He recently crossed the 5,000-post mark on his blog, sethgodin.com, where he posts at least once a day—sometimes a few sentences, sometimes a few paragraphs. Godin is also a popular speaker, giving three dozen presentations a year, and he is also an entrepreneur. His latest creation is Squidoo, a recommendation website that raises money for charity and pays royalties to its millions of members. In a recent conversation, Godin shares his thoughts on how to create a worthwhile event and why you need to take the unexpected into account when planning.
What has changed and what has remained the same in marketing strategy over the past decades?
There is one major change that I have been tracking for a long time in the chronology of events. Marketing and advertising were once synonymous in 1965. Advertising was a magical message that turned money into attention, and then you could turn that attention into trust, and trust into profit. Marketing culture is still largely based on the concept of getting strangers to do what you want. Over the past 20 years, since I wrote Permission Marketing, the concept has been turned on its ear, and in fact, marketing is now about storytelling. It's about how ideas spread. It's about being extraordinary. And it’s about talking to people who just want to be talked to and not screamed into their ears.
What's the most effective way to achieve this?
From the point of view of people from the event industry, no one just gets to conferences. Nobody ends up at a convention by accident. The people who come there chose to come there; they chose to pay attention to it. And yet, the people who organize these events waste the attention they receive every day. They waste it in their way of organizing the trade show portion of their events. They waste it on their suppliers and sponsors fighting over the right to yell at people to get their attention. Instead of building relationships with people throughout the year, they act as if people can “change the channel” at any time. And so they turn up the volume and compete for attention, when in reality we should be treating this asset with the care and respect it deserves. You must treat each interlocutor as a precious guest, as someone who, among all the diversity at the moment, has chosen to trust and give his attention to you. Don't waste this attention to increase your milestones and please your boss, but treat this attention as a privilege.
In one of your blog posts you wrote: “Organizations that do nothing but measure their performance rarely make breakthroughs. They just improve them." In the world of the event industry, organizers often look to increased attendance as a measure of success. You seem to challenge this view.
Right. This is precisely the wrong direction. If more and more people come to you, then by definition those people will become more ordinary, less admired, less interested, less important. The overall numbers may go up, but you won't be able to increase the importance of what you do. Perhaps one of the most important events of the year, measured in monetary terms, is the Allen & Company [Sun Valley] Conference, held each year in Idaho. It was there that Jeff Bezos decided to buy The Washington Post. If there were 300 people there, that would be a lot. What is required from the people who create these events is quality, not quantity. Quantities can now be purchased cheaper online. Whereas the rare quality is having the right people in the right place for the right reason - that's what an event like this can deliver.
What lessons can be learned from the rise in online communication compared to face-to-face interaction?
Facebook and Twitter have taught us that we are persistent in our desire to connect. Unfortunately, online communication is a very sad substitute for real communication. We agree to it unless there is no other choice. In reality, what we want is the kind of communication that, having changed our lives, remains in our memory, and which can become the foundation for building a career. I will share with you my latest observation. If you go to an event and see that the hall has round tables for 10 people and they are going to serve a banquet designed to serve a huge number of people in a short period of time, then this is a complete failure. They tried to “put everything on the conveyor belt” and get away with it. No one will ever be able to communicate humanly at a table for 10 people. No one will meet a new person or start communicating with such a seating arrangement. When we mechanically process people rather than help them make new connections, we sacrifice our greatest asset—the ability to unleash chemistry and magic.
How to create an environment?
I perform 30-40 times a year. Those performances that I remember, and which people later talk about, are not at all the ones where I performed in a huge, “for show” hall packed with people. But those where there was a feeling of intimacy throughout (even if there were 20,000 people in one room), for the sake of which the organizer was not afraid to take risks. The challenge (and this is a big reason why people are reading this article now) is that there are risks associated with organizing these types of events. Your boss won't applaud you for taking this path, but it's the kind of work that makes for great work.
In your book, The Icarus Deception, you encourage readers to be creative and consider themselves artists. What do you mean?
One of the things I see in the events industry is the pressure to play it safe. Adhere to industry standard. Do exactly the same as others. Because the alternative is to stand up and say directly, “This may not work.” And, for obvious reasons, people don't want to do this. If they have doubts about their job, or if they work for someone who is risk averse, then it's a very scary thing to say, “This might not work.” But here's my argument: the only conferences that will actually be worth going to, and interesting enough to spend time on, are the ones where the exact thing that might not work happens. And I believe that when we do this, we create art. We are doing something new and important.
So when you said, “Look at the compass instead of a map,” you wanted to encourage people to blaze a new path?
The map shows step by step exactly what is happening and what happened before. The problem that you can't use a map when creating art is that no one has been here before you. However, you can use a compass. It will give you a sense of "right north". Will show your true intention. What are you trying to say? So people left the conference, and three weeks after the end someone will ask them what the conference was about, and what will they answer? Most conferences I've attended leave the feeling that the organizers hope to hear later: "Everything went smoothly." I think we are capable of more.
You speak at a dozen events every year. What inspires you? Or, in other words, what would you like to see?
If you are going to hire a speaker, there are a few general principles to follow. First, let the hall always be smaller, not larger. Second, we need to understand how to create an atmosphere in which people can connect with others immediately and frequently. And third, if you want the event to be special, the more you can add impromptu Q&A sessions and live elements to the performance, the more likely your guests will feel like they are witnessing something special. All of these moments involve risks for you, but they are worth it because that is what people came for: to feel how other people and the speaker touched something living in their soul. Too often we see mediocre project managers, poor use of IMAG, a room that is too large, an overly tight schedule that leaves people feeling like they are running around Disney World.
Tell us about the concept of tribes. Is it still acceptable to create one large event for several thousand people?
The idea of my book Tribes is that we are cultural creatures. We want to be on the same page as the people around us. These conferences are at their best as tribal gatherings where people can rethink and understand what the standard is. Yes, we can do this for 1,000 people - I think maybe 50,000 people come to a scout jamboree - but the point is that we have to do it intentionally and consciously. I often organize my own events here in New York. I go out of my way to find something extraordinary and unique. Our food is unconventional, our program structure is specific, and our interactions are quirky. Everything is designed to create a special spirit, but not in the sense that it's another city, another day, and you think it's just your job. It's not the same. And that very thing is a spiritual opportunity to establish contact on a human level.
What have you learned from organizing your events?
One lesson I've learned is that the people who spearhead most of these efforts are generous, talented, and creative. These are not challenges like “we don’t have the right resources” or “we don’t have real talent.” I think my job is to encourage people to listen to their inner voice and find the courage to do what they already know is right. This is the reason they come into this business in the first place.
What will you do next?
I have no idea. Part of the job I chose is that you launch projects and then maneuver between them. And right now I'm maneuvering and trying hard to enjoy it. I'm not sure I'm succeeding, but I'm trying.
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