The concepts for running a Lean Startup described by Eric Ries (twitter, blog) in his recently published book (The Lean Startup, Amazon) can also be applied to make a conference better by turning “ideas into products, measure how customers respond and learn whether to pivot or persevere [in your actions].”

Lean Startup principles can help you innovate an event’s marketing, experience design, program curation and many other activities in order to create a radically successful business.

Last week I delivered a workshop at frog‘s studio in Milan on how you can organize a better event by challenging it’s basic assumptions. I mentioned Eric Ries’ book and one of the designers –who’s currently working on concepts to improve a conference’s experience– asked me about how to apply the kind of lean practices that are usually used for software development to an event. This article expands the answer I gave her in that occasion.

A conference works very similarly to a startup. Even if it has been in the market for several years, every edition of the event is the result of iterations that try to move it towards something more attractive for attendees, sponsors, partners and speakers year after year. If you don’t build something your customers want (be it sponsors, attendees or other stakeholders) then you’re wasting your [surely scarce] resources… and might go out of business soon.

What is the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of an event? It can be many different things depending on which aspect of your event you’re considering. For example: an affiliates marketing campaign, the program, a mobile App or even a new website. The

The core of a Lean Startup is the BUILD-MEASURE-LEARN cycle. Ries writes that the “fundamental activity of a startup is to turn ideas into products, measure how customers respond and learn whether to pivot or persevere. All successful startup processes should be geared to accelerate that feedback loop.” Actually the same is valid for a conference too!

“Because startups often accidentally build something nobody wants, it doesn’t matter much if they do it on time and on budget. The goal of a startup is to figure out the right thing to build –the thing customers want and will pay for– as quickly as possible.”

Good metrics and reports are absolutely necessary for validated learning. Do you have the right kind of metrics? Ries reminds us that “metrics are people too” and that the reports we make to evaluate our progress should deal “with people and their actions, which are more useful than piles of data points.”

“Are we making sufficient progress to believe that our original strategic hypothesis is correct, or do we need to make a major change?”

Marketing, Communications  and PR

This is one of the most suitable places to start with lean startup concepts as the marketing & sales campaigns for an event usually start well in advance, which gives you time to try and iterate through different MVPs. Consider social media channels like Facebook, Twitter or a newsletter. Are you basing your marketing actions on them just because everybody does it or because it really works?

Make shorter campaigns, act them fast and measure. What happened? Did someone react to them? If no one did, just scrap it and think of something else. But if a few dozen people did react, maybe there was something that worked. Find out what it was, improve it, try it again fast, measure… repeat.

Avoid Vanity Metrics (eg. number of Twitter followers, Facebook likes, etc) are a deadly sin for a conference. If you have 90,000 Twitter followers but your last campaign targeting them didn’t bring any sale (or other interesting result), then 90,000 is not a valid number to judge your actions by.

Be aware of value-destroying behaviors too (e.g. a conference that after years on the market still depends on massive payed advertising or funding to sell tickets but does not develop a value-creating product). While advertising is not evil per-se, in the long run you should be able to earn media presence or increase ticket sales through word-of-mouth.

If your marketing campaign is not working, don’t expect that it will just by magic. It might be time to pivot! “A pivot requires that we keep one foot rooted in what we’ve learned so far, while making a fundamental change in strategy in order to seek even greater validated learning.”

[UPDATE] Marketing Linchpin Seth Godin wrote an interesting article on his blog questioning the applicability of the “minimum viable product” to marketing (at least to certain cases). Well worth a read: When “minimal viable product” doesn’t work

Experience Design & Logistics

If your event takes place once a year, it might seem impossible to go through the build-measure-learn cycle. There are a few ways around it.

Organize smaller events throughout the year to try out new things. For example make free periodical meetups for your community. They could be short (a few hours) gatherings of past-attendees with a program component (a workshop by a sponsor, a lecture by an interesting past speaker) and a networking part (drinks, breakfast, etc). Not only would you increase customer loyalty, but also build buzz for the upcoming event. These events could be hosted at a sponsor’s office (they earn karma points) so the costs could be close to zero.

Another useful concept is that of Genchi Genbutsu which means to “go and see”. Conference organizers should “get out of the building” and see how their experiences are working. Are people engaging? I find it useful to film people at an event (e.g.: during registration, networking sessions, etc) to see how they’re interacting with the logistics we’ve created.

Eric Ries - Photo by Emily Shur

Program Validation

Some events fail because the program they put together (keynotes, workshops, etc) are not interesting to the potential attendees or sponsors. To prevent this you can go through the build-measure-learn cycle) by giving tidbits of your program to your community as soon as possible. Even more, share with them which speakers or companies you’re considering. Do they like it? Why spend time and money in trying to get that speaker that no one cares for. Ask for feedback well before the program is finalized and you might be able to put together one that’s more attractive (and sells better).

Sponsor Sales

You probably will pitch to many sponsors. Again, the build-measure-learn cycle can help you raise your sponsor acquisition. Identify the MVPs that you’re pitching. Did something create interest in the sponsor? Did the budget meet their expectations? Don’t fossilize on just one sponsorship proposal. Make new proposals with new concepts, you don’t need to build anything (you’ll worry about that when they accept the proposal). At PICNIC we used to prepare several concepts for our sponsors, going through several iterations until we found the right one to sign a contract.

More on the Lean Startups philosophy

• Visit Eric Ries website Startup Lessons Learned
• Buy the book The Lean Startup

I‘m writing on a plane headed to Austin (now posting from the hotel), Texas, for South by Southwest (web, twitter). SXSW is a huge festival where music, film and interactive (or Internet stuff) overlaps for about two weeks. I’ll be there mostly for Interactive and this year I’ll be also speaking in one panel (How to Rawk SXSW) and am curating another one (the Technology Summit session focusing on Italy).

Going back to this Delta flight 109 from Madrid to Atlanta, what initially seemed a big disservice -there is no individual personal entertainment screen but a small “public” screen just too 5 or 6 rows away- turned out to be an excellent opportunity to catch up on some books in my Kindle/iPad.

First was Hugh MacLeod’s latest – Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination (Amazon)

I absolutely recommend it for several reasons but that’s not the main intention of this article. The acted as a good stimulus to not leave my own evil planning on hold and a quote from Jerry Colonna, a venture capitalist turned business-coach. I hope Hugh does not mind I reproduce a brief extract from the book:

Jerry then talked about his own carrer evolution from successful New York venture capitalist to private business coach with a thriving practice.

Jerry told me that he simply took the cream off the part of being a VC that he liked the most -that is, helping good people make a difference- and forgot about the rest.

I often whine about how boring it has become for me to take care of many aspects of the conference business I’ve been for the last 8 years or so. Though I think I’ve achieved quite some proficiency in running operations, logistics and other necessary stuff, I can hardly bare doing any of it anymore. Yes, I do like to keep an eye on it and share my experience with my teammates, but every time -for one reason or another- that I realize that a big chunk of my workday is spent in those activities I feel pain, boredom and occasionally depressed. (On the sunny side, during the last few years in PICNIC, Frontiers of Interaction and now in La Red Innova, I’ve been dedicating most of my energy and time in the strategy, marketing and experience creation areas but still long-hours logistic planning always comes back as all those organizations are small and have a reduced staff).

Jerry Colonna’s quote is a reminder of one of the conditions I’ve set for myself if I decide to stay in e conference arena. I don’t want to be a production agency nor produce one-off gigs as my main activity. I want to concentrate in researching, creating and executing amazingly remarkable experiences that can change the (my) world. I want to tread fresh new ground, try new stuff and make things that stand out. To create a platform that enables something bigger and not just pays the bills.

For any potential future partners reading this, let me be clear. I DON’T CARE ABOUT MAKING CONFERENCES per se. There are tons of ultra-efficient agencies out there that can do that at a low(er) cost than what I could do. For me a conference is a great tool (did I say platform already?) for building things on top of it. Even from the business (aka making money) point of view the serial event-maker company is a tired model that has a very clear cap.

I like to think I’m a bit altruistic but that’s not the point here. I also want to make a successful living out of my main professional activity and most importantly work in something I’m passionate about.

Ok, enough said. This rant has been howling around my head for a long time and I just needed Hugh MacLeod’s book and a boring 9+ hours flight to let it out (actually I have to wait to find an Internet connection to be able to publish it).

Read Evil Plans. Even if you already have one, it’s a terrific book. You can also follow Hugh’s cartoons through his blog and newsletter or buy his prints. Book reviews by Matthew May and Daniel Pink, two more authors I really like.

To associate great public speaking with Steve Jobs is a recurrent cliché (I already wrote about it here)… but it’s undeniable that Jobs’ presentations are remarkable per se, not only in the corporate & technology world.

Carmine Gallo (twitter, website) -a famous communications coach, author and speaker- has made a colossal work by carefully dissecting Steve Jobs presentation techniques in his latest book “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs” (amazon link).

Gallo uses clear and direct language to explain the techniques that you should master and makes no secret about the fact that to achieve that mastery you have to practice, practice, practice… sorry, no shortcuts here. The book is divided in 3 parts or “acts”, each containing a series of short “scenes” that approach every aspect of the presentation method: from planning to writing a headline, from delivering the experience to refining your skills.

The author works as a director who first describes Steve Jobs style and then breaks it down into practical lessons with a theoretic background provided by other experts (graphic presentation gurus like Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte, scientists and other famous speakers).

“Presentations have become the de facto business communication tool” Nancy Duarte, presentation design guru – Slide:ology

Should you imitate Steve Jobs in every aspect to become a good public speaker? Absolutely not. While many of the lessons are there to help you “transform a typical, dull, technical, plodding slide show into a theatrical event complete with heroes, villains, a supporting cast, and stunning backdrops”, Carmine Gallo boldly emphasizes that you should pick on the best practices to create your own style. It would be ridiculous to think that by wearing a black turtleneck, jeans and sport shoes your image on stage would bring you near to anything but looking like a fool. Besides, let’s admit it, your company’s products or services aren’t as cool as those of Apple.

“It’s the story, not the slides, that will capture the imagination of your audience” Carmine Gallo

Some of the advice would risk to seem to classical like “to achieve success, do what you love” or “no technique can make up for a lack of passion for your service, your product, company, or cause”. The book avoids this common pitfall by giving you tools and a roadmap to apply them in a concrete way.

It also serves as an effective reminder to keep focus: “Answer the one question that matters most [...]  communicate it as clear as possible, getting rid of buzzwords and jargon… and repeat it it during your presentation”. Gallo describes how “Jobs takes the guesswork out of a new product by creating a one-line description or headline that best reflects the product. [...] He reveals the headline, expands on it, and hammers it home again and again. [...] The headlines [...] are effective because they are written from the perspective of the user“.

This is not a book on how to design a powerpoint presentation (though you’ll find some advice on it) but on how to deliver a successful experience to an audience through a live presentation.

“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good” Malcolm Gladwell

A final advice: have fun! “Most business communicators lose sight  of the fact that their audiences want to be informed and entertained”.

And if you made it all the way to the end of this article, why not refresh Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Speech of 2005 (video, transcript)

Haruki Murakami's book (see links below)

While reading a book by Haruki Murakami on running and writing, a sort of memoir of the importance of running in the author’s personal an professional life, I came across the following description on how he prepares himself for international presentations in English language:

“Naturally it takes a lot of time to prepare. Before I get up on stage I have to memorize a thirty- or forty-minute talk in English. If you just read a written speech as is, the whole thing will feel lifeless to the audience. I have to choose words that are easy to pronounce so people can understand me , and remember to get the audience to laugh to put them at ease. I have to convey to those listening a sense of who I am. Even if it’s just for a short time, I have to get the audience on my side if I want them to listen to me. And in order to do that, I have to practice the speech over and over, which takes a lot of effort. But there’s also the payoff that comes with that new challenge”. [from What I talk about when I talk about running, page 101]

Murakami expresses some key issues of a succesful presentation.

1. You have to give life to the presentation (it is not only about the content)
2. It’s not so important how intelligent you are or brilliant the content is if people cannot understand you. The presentation IS FOR THE AUDIENCE, not to make the speaker’s ego bigger
3. You have to be yourself, and try to transmit it. It is important that YOU are giving a speech and not someone else. So how is it different? What added value do you provide? If the speaker is not important he becomes replaceable
4. Practice, practice, practice…. there are no secrets for giving a successful presentation but practice

Note: the links to What I talk about when I talk about running on Amazon.com on this article contain my Amazon associate referral link which allows this website to earn some money when you buy the book through it. This helps pay the hosting space ^_^ )

Me with The Whuffie Factor (photo by Claudia Bergonzi)

I recently finished reading The Whuffie Factor, Tara Hunt‘s first book (recommended) and on chapter 8 I found an interesting way for rating the success of an event, that I agree with.

Hunt describes the TransitCamp she organized in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008 and when talking about the result of this un-conference she says (pages 224-225):

I had several people approach me throughout the event and afterward to tell me that they were not only blown away by TransitCamp, but that they couldn’t wait for the next one and they would bring several people with them. To me, that’s the hallmark of a great event. Would you tell others? If no, it was disappointing. If maybe, it was okay. If yes, it was awesome. If, as one guy told me, you would drag many people even if they were kicking and screaming, it was kickass.

Can you say the same after your conference, was it remarkable for the attendees? Will they tell others about how good it was? If not, think about what went on that didn’t make it a memorable event worth sharing with friends and colleagues.

When an event is really successful it transforms the participants into the main marketers of what happened and of the most influential promoters next conferences you will be organizing. Word of mouth cannot be tricked or planned, it is just the direct consequence of  something very good (or bad)!

Note: the links to The Whuffie Factor on Amazon.com on this article contain my amazon associate referral link which allows this website to earn some money when you buy the book through it. This helps pay the hosting space ^_^ )

Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds

Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds is a book but also a blog that deals with the art of making presentations that is inspired by Zen Buddhism and Reynolds’ life experience in Japan, where he currently lives. Presentation Zen is an approach, not a fail-proof list of rules, for better delivering your message independently of the slideware (PowerPoint, Keynote, etc) or other multimedia support that you might be using.

Often the weakest point of a conference is not the organizational or logistic aspects of it but the low quality of the speaker’s presentations. From the “death by PowerPoint” effect to poor public speaking abilities or lack of communication between speaker and audience.

According to Garr, a presentation should be like a Japanese Bento (the lunch box):

The bento is presented in a simple, beautiful, balanced way. Nothing lacking. Nothing superfluous. Not decorated, but wonderfully designed. A delicious, inspiring way to spend 20 minutes. When was the last time you could say the same about a presentation you saw?

The main idea is to save yours and the audience’s time by making a difference with your presentation, big or small.

I have compiled some of advice delivered throughout the book and I warmly suggest that you get it to improve your abilities (you can use my referral link on Amazon.com by clicking on the image above).

Preparation

Start with the beginners mindset, a fresh and enthusiastic mind is open to all the possibilities, ideas and solutions that it finds on its path.

In the beginners mind a lot of possibilities exist. In that of the expert very few.

Shunryu Suzuki

Limits and constraints imposed to you are a great ally as they will stimulate your creativity.

When planning your presentation, better do it in an analogic way: pen & paper, whiteboard, post-it are great tools to start. Remember to relax and to be alone during this phase (meaning to avoid external disturbances). Brainstorming and creating a storyboard usually develop better far away from the computer. Only once you have drafted these on paper you can transfer them to your preferred software.

The next important step is asking yourself the right questions like:

How much time do I have for my presentation? Where will it take place? At what time? What kind of audience will I have? What’s their background? What do they expect from me? Whay do I want the others to do? Which visual instruments are more appropriate for this situation? Which is the goal of my speech? What’s the story? And most important of all: what is the absolutely central issue of my presentation? Keep this in mind when asking yourself the last question: if the audience could remember just ONE thing from your presentation, what should that be?

Another key issue is that you don’t have to give out a printed copy of the slides you are showing. They should be an aid for you and if they are self explanatory… well, what are you doing in front of the audience? The presentation should consist of three parts:

1. The slides that you will show (they support your presentation)
2. Notes only visible to you (just in case you forget something)
3. a handout that you will give to the audience

The handout should be a brief but clear document containing the summary of your speech, complete with bibliography and links for further information. The handout allows you to keep the essential information on the slides. Remember to announce that you will give a handout with further details at the end of the presentation.

Design

Garr suggests to concentrate on simplicity, that can be reached by reducing everything that is not essential. According to him good projects are full of empty space.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Leonardo Da Vinci

These are some of the main issues regarding design:

• Signal-to-noise-ratio: the ratio between relevant and irrelevant elements of the presentation
• Don’t use images/graphs with 3D effects, it reduces legibility
• You don’t need to add your company’s logo on each slide. Taking it out increases empty space and simplifys the message you are trying to pass. Insert it only in the first and last slide
• Use the superiority effect of images: images are easly remembered than words, in particular when people are casualy exposed to information and this exposition is limited in time. If you can express what you are representing with written words using an image, do so!
• Inserting a quote occasionaly can reinforce your argument and give credibility to the story you’re telling
• A correct use of empty space gives elegance and clarity besides of helping concentration in one single element
• Contrast: create big differences between different elements
• Avoid using bullet points or drastically reduce them
• Use only high quality images (and try to avoid the defaul clipart)

A good source for images is iStockphoto and by using the address istockphoto.com/presentationzen you can get a bonus!

Presentation

• Be totally present! Don’t think at success or defeat but be present in the moment
• Prepare yourself well. If you practice enough you won’t neet to think at what you are doing during the presentation
• Be passionate of what you’re talking about
• Connect with the audience
• The duration of your presentation is important. Better to leave the audience hungry for more
• Remember that logic is not enough, it is not just about informing and you should concentrate on telling a story
• You should get into the others shoes to try to understand what they are feeling

For more presentation tips visit Garr Reynolds personal website and watch his speech at Google