Technori After 51 Events
As I do each January for the past four years, I nervously watch as our ticket sales roll in for the month. For some reason, I always fear that with the switch of a new year we will completely lose our community and collapse. It’s might seem silly, but the fear is based on watching so many events launch and fail over the years. Some surviving a year, some even making it to year two. Most not lasting beyond their third or fourth event.
The event business is exceptionally hard to not only survive in, but thrive. I get asked multiple times after each show about how we have lasted as long as we have.
5 years, 51 events, 24,000 attendees, 255 companies showcased, a dozen volunteers, and a two person team to pull it all off.
I get asked how long we will keep doing it and my answer since day one remains the same: “As long as people keep showing up.” And they have. The last four shows in a row have been sold out with over 500 tickets each. And to be completely frank, I still have no clue why people continue to flock to Technori.
Don’t get me wrong, we have polled our attendees repeatedly and asked in person after the event. The answers are typically that Technori is: “entertaining” “well run” “that they like seeing new startups” and “to meet new people”.
The problem with those answers is they are confusing. Those are the exact same answers I have heard about dozens of others events in both Chicago and other cities, yet so many of those events are now gone. Poof! Into the ether they went. But we are still standing somehow. Why they evaporated and we didn’t escapes me.
It doesn’t mean I don’t have wild guesses as to our survival. If forced to make a list of the reasons we can still fill a theater in downtown Chicago every month, it would be:
- Punctuality: The number one mistake too many events make is thinking start times are optional. When we say the show starts exactly at 7:00pm, we aren’t kidding. So many people roll in late at 7:05 or 7:10 and are surprised to see the show well underway. Their reason is always, “I didn’t think you were serious about the 7pm thing. No event ever starts on time.” Well, we do. We also try to end the show at 8:20pm as well. I never want someone to miss a train, dinner reservation, time with their kids, etc… because we ran over by an hour. That is irresponsible and disrespectful to attendees.
- Professionalism: The number two mistake too many events make is running their event in a nonchalant, might as well be college dorm party, level of structure and timing. No one to greet you or acting as host, understaffed registration tables causing lines, zero signage (hell a sharpie and a piece of paper even counts), no schedule of what will happen at the event shared with guests, and so on and so on.
- Keeping Schedule: Every part of our event is timed and we make sure to constantly adjust pace to speed up or keep steady. Teams are trained to present for exactly five minutes. Not six minutes or five minutes and 25 seconds… five minutes on the dot. We don’t mind if they finish early, but never late. Q&A is also timed for exactly three minutes. Even if there are ten hands still raised for questions, we move forward as the show must go on.
- Consistency: Basically, points #1 #2 and #3 are all about delivering the same experience 51 shows in a row. Our goal is you can attend one in January and one in October and have the exact same quality of experience.
…Beyond that though, I’m out of ideas…
There are so many other presentation events, tech events, networking events, and the like… All of them offering up the many of the same things we offer, yet one by one, I watch them launch and fail like clock-work.
All I do know for sure is that as long as people continue to show up, we will continue to celebrate entrepreneurship on stage at Technori. No one knows how long that will be, but I’m honored to have hosted this long and look forward to many more nights on stage here in Chicago.
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This article was written from scratch and published the same day as part of a 31 day writing challenge. To follow me on Medium through this writing challenge, go here:https://medium.com/the-writing-challenge
