What worked? What didnt? Why?
- What worked out well?
- What didnt work out?
- Why?
- What came as a surprise to you?
Please fill in any thoughts, ideas you might have, just press "Add a new comment" below. Here are our top categories:
- Preparations
- Content
- Logistics
- Speakers / Participants
- Partners / Sponsors
page revision: 4, last edited: 04 Mar 2008 12:33
Several people have said that the name on the name badges should have been bigger as it made networking even more cruel than usual.
Agree
The sheepdogs should have been issued with a 'crib sheet' with all the information that they needed on the people to look out for. As it was, the registration team had to dismantle a lot of goodie bags in order to keep providing them with new booklets.
Was hard to bring people back into the room without a bell or gong or something.
We didnt always manage to start on time.
Most people left at the same time & having only 5 cars became a big issue. If it wasn't for Toby & Jonas flagging down black cabs on Baker Street & sending them round to the venue we could have had a lot of unhappy people.
Having someone there in the Partners lounge to deal with any issues was a good idea. It was a busy role & definately needed someone who could handle the wide range of requests. I think it was an extra 'treat' that the speakers & partners appreciated.
Were a great idea, the colours were distinctive & were a 'uniform' that worked well. I think they were more useful during the Summit than the dinner.
Although it was great, Michael’s presentation allotted time was too short, and presentation preparation was too last minute:
- 15 minutes for introductory remarks and thankyous only left 15 minutes for a presentation. It could have been made shorter but I think it needed a full 30 minutes after introductions to deliver a valuable and powerful message, which stimulates questions and discussion.
- Earlier preparation of the presentation would help management of delivery timing.
It can be a real struggle being a female in a very male dominated industry, and very difficult to establish females as equally valuable opinion makers and players in the industry (something which NEF generally does very well).
So, while the line up of women speakers, moderators, and staff was fabulous, a lot of the hard work was undone by holding the after-dinner party at a nightclub whose attraction was the semi-naked female dancers. I was very surprised at the choice of venue, especially considering the effort made to represent women leaders in the industry. I think I have a point when I say that there would have been a lot of objection about the appropriateness had we gone to a club where the dancers were semi-naked men…
Most were fantastic but some really difficult:
Difficulties:
I agree with the comment above. The table discussions were the best when people didn't know each other, or at least weren't friends from the same company (or dating, which seemed to be the case in once instance). When trying to get a stalled discussion going at tables like the one above people would either be condescending in their responses, start talking only to me (at which point I'd divert my eyes so they'd engage table members), or actually dictate word for word what they thought I should type. I let all this slide for a while, but then decided that I should be a little more strong-armed. I pushed back a little on some people, especially the dominant ones at the table, and found I got some amount of respect and the table-wide conversation picked-up. And, the ones I pushed back on came back to my table three more times. The take-away from this, I believe, is that it would probably be a good idea to put people at tables where they don't know anyone — this way, everyone is a bit out of their comfort zone and the table host is the immediate authority for leading the discussion.
Also, with friends and such at the tables, two people that weren't part of the 'group' asked to leave and join a different table. They felt marginalised by the other table members. I saw these individuals at later table discussions contributing freely, and even driving the conversations.