What can a small cafe on the shores of Greece can teach every event manager?

Oveit
Oveit
Sep 6, 2018 · 6 min read

I am back from a vacation in Greece. As anyone passionate about their work I like to find lessons I can apply on my daily work wherever I go. This time I found quite a lot in a small cafe in Kymi, on the greek island of Evia.

This wonderful place is called Cartoon Cafe and it’s located on a hill with a wonderful view of the Aegean Sea. While sipping a Greek traditional coffee you can enjoy good music, wonderful sunsets and the good vibes the owners have put into building this place.

While they do sell awesome coffee, tea or cocktails, what you will eventually leave with is even better. It’s the feeling that you have been offered a memory that will stick with you for a long time. Something that will make you come back again and again. An experience.

I think event planning is all about building experiences. And these people are masters at designing unforgettable experiences. I would like to share with you some things that Angelica, the cafe owner and her son Tolis have taught me in my short stay.

Experiences that keep on giving from start to end

There was no sign on the wall. Nothing to let me know there was a cafe but the open doors and some unusual drawings, tables and seats. I stepped in timidly and was almost instantly greeted with a smile by Angelica, the cafe owner. Angelica is a special kind of human — a graphic designer with a strong character but also a positive vibe you can feel right away.

They didn’t had a menu but asked what would we like. I asked for a traditional coffee and my wife asked for some tea. We sat at a table facing the sea. Everything around us was natural and perfectly balanced. Plants, wooden tables and comfortable chairs were perfectly embedded in the scenery. Slow tunes were barely discernible, giving way to the peaceful silence surrounding the hills and the sea.

The coffee and the tea were wonderful and we felt energized by the view, the smell and the great treatment from our hosts. Traditional sweets definitely helped.

We came back the next evening, bringing some of our friends and they loved it too. The more — the merrier. And we’ve got to know more about how the place was build, just how long it takes to water the plants in the cafe (3 hours) and just how long the vine covering the terrace took to grow and shape into the wooden curtain that now protected us from the hot sun — a little over 6 years.

As the night rolled on we noticed why the cafe was placed outside the main commercial area of the small town of Kymi. It was the stars. They covered the sky in bright shiny dots and what was previously great was now something we haven’t experienced before.

Just think about it. I thought I was buying a greek coffee and layer by layer the cafe owners unveiled a stunning experience at least 6 years in the making. Think about the lack of signs at the entrance and just how much beauty and love were packed in such a small place.

As event planners we sometimes get lost in logistics, marketing and all other administrative tasks. But we want to offer experiences. And experiences are build in time, with hard work and lots of love and care for the people that visit our work. I don’t know if Angelica and Tolis knew what they were building. I know they put a part of their soul in that place and turned it into an unforgettable experience.

And this leads me to the next lesson I’ve learned…

It is personal. At least in this line of work.

If you are an experience architect and you want to offer your visitors the best they can get, you have to add a personal touch. Event planning is part science and part art. Each successful event, whether it is a concert, a festival or a conference is a work of art and you are the artist.

You are an artist and you are communicating an emotion. To do that every exceptional event planner will add something personal to his or her creation. Maybe it is an idea, a feeling, personal values or principles.

Event planning is personal. It requires a part of your being to turn events into experiences.

Bigger is not always better.

I bet you’ve heard about that big festival, the concert that sold out tens of thousands of tickets in minutes and that huge tech conference that gathers each and every entrepreneur.

But did you hear about that small gig a local band did for their 200 fans? Or that small gathering some tech aficionados have set up to show their apps and gadgets? Or maybe that small festival on the island where a handful of people enjoyed freedom, indie bands and found new friends?

What I’ve learned from the Cartoon Cafe is that small is indeed beautiful. If you’re an event planner starting out and you are just creating your concept and you have just a few visitors that love your work and pay for the ticket — don’t worry. This is an wonderful chance to add your personal touch. You can actually talk to all of your visitors and understand them. Talk to them. Ask them about their wishes and dreams and hopes. It makes them happy and it is fulfilling for you as you offer the world a real contribution and meet new people.

Not everyone is your customer

It doesn’t make sense to please everyone. And it doesn’t make sense to try to fulfill everyone’s wishes.

As I talked to Tolis he told me about people that wanted a fast serving, breakfast and dinner included cafe. They wanted commercial music and they didn’t like the plants. Yes, the view was nice but sometimes ants came around the table. The nature felt a bit too…natural.

They had to decide whether they would cater to everyone’s needs, wishes and yes … whims. And they decided that they cannot do that. They wanted to do something that is fun for them and fulfilling for the customers.

So they’ve stayed true to their initial concept and found that even though they had less visitors than the other cafes in the town center, theirs were the happy and loyal customers. Those that returned day after day, year after year. Those that appreciated their work and the effort they put in designing the place, maintaining the experience.

They liked the people that visited the cafe and the people loved them for who they really were. It was not just a business. It was a way of life.

If you are building an event, you will have to choose between the many people that would like your event or the few that will love it. Choose love over likes. As Sam Altman, president of Y Combinator puts it customer love is all you need.

Each major event in human history has been driven by a handful of loyal supporters that in time brought in more and more people. Your event will grow if you build a small community of people that love your work rather than a large group of people who merely like it.

You cannot buy love but love makes everything more valuable

When you enter the Cartoon cafe you feel the love the owners put in to designing it. You feel it in the way the plants are placed. You feel it in the decorum, the way each table is placed and how it feels that each is unique and handpicked.

You feel the love when you speak to Angelica and Tolis. You feel it in the way they place the coffee on the table and when they ask you if you liked the cocktail.

Love cannot be bought and you cannot sell it. But if you sprinkle a little love on what you do and what you build — it shows. The price tag stops being relevant. We live in a fast moving, automated, robot-like world. Production lines do not add love. That’s why commodity manufacturers have pricing battles.

When love is what you are offering the product it comes with is so much valuable.

But it’s not easy to do that.

There is no MBA and no top college for offering people a part of yourself. You cannot trade love on the stock market and there is no corporation specialized in packing and shipping care and love for their customers.

You can only pack love in your events and experiences when you actually love what you do. Love your visitors and offer them an experience that will get better as time goes by. They will repay you kindly and stay loyal to you and your event.

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