“Being early is being on time, being on time is being late, and being late is unacceptable,” English footballer, Alan Shearer, once said on an episode of Match of the Day.
And in events, timing is crucial for both the organiser and the delegate.
So, when sustainable events movement, isla invited me to The Barbican Centre for its Made Possible Festival, my mouse clicked straight on ‘programme’, where I was delighted to see that registration was listed from 9:30am with the event starting at 10am. A solid hour later than most events I attend in London.
I live around 80 miles from London, in ‘The Great Waterfront City’ of Portsmouth. An historic city and a recent filming location for Ryan Gosling’s upcoming film Project Hail Mary. It’s a wonderful place to live but comes with a two-hour, door-to-door commute to London, which makes attending events with an early start time difficult.
But the Festival's delayed start time meant I didn’t have to walk to the train station before sunrise. It allowed me to arrive feeling fresh and excited for the day ahead, instead of exhausted and searching for the coffee stand. This sentiment was shared with other deleagtes, even those who live in or closer to London.
Building in extra time to allow delegates to reach the venue relaxed will almost certainly keep them engaged for longer - a continually difficult thing to do.
With research suggesting our attention spans have decreased from two and half minutes to just 45 seconds, education programmers are forced to pay closer attention to content themes, format and length, in order to keep the audience engaged.
The Made Possible Festival filled four hours across three different education tracks with an hour and a half lunch break in the middle for networking, catching up on emails and relaxing in The Barbican’s rainforest-styled Conservatory. The content programme allowed delegates to structure their agenda around their professional needs and interests, without being overwhelmed by content.
Good event design which considers the delegate, not just the sponsors, doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel. It’s the small tweaks such as starting an hour later or shortening a traditional multi-track education programme into bite-size sessions, that says to your delegates, ‘your wellbeing matters to us.’
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