This article doesn't suck. I've been on event staff quite a bit, seen 'em take all sorts of forms, and from my experience the author here is right on the money. Worth reading and believing.
The poorer events I've been to were generally marred by attempts to bring some special extra goodie of some sort, while failing at the things the author emphasizes: deliver competently and in a timely manner the salient things YOUR EVENT is about, while caring for the attendees.
It's really that simple. Your event is the purpose. If there's meaning to it, you're the one who has to bring that meaning. In doing that, you serve the attendees your message, your purpose, with a due respect for not so much THEIR purpose but the fact that you're proposing to replace whatever else they might be doing with your thing.
End result is not about whether they went away bribed with goodies, but whether going along with your purpose ends up seeming to them like time well spent. Ideally, they're so into sharing the experience with you and others, that they end up counting it a great, treasured experience.
The poorer events I've been to were generally marred by attempts to bring some special extra goodie of some sort, while failing at the things the author emphasizes: deliver competently and in a timely manner the salient things YOUR EVENT is about, while caring for the attendees.
It's really that simple. Your event is the purpose. If there's meaning to it, you're the one who has to bring that meaning. In doing that, you serve the attendees your message, your purpose, with a due respect for not so much THEIR purpose but the fact that you're proposing to replace whatever else they might be doing with your thing.
End result is not about whether they went away bribed with goodies, but whether going along with your purpose ends up seeming to them like time well spent. Ideally, they're so into sharing the experience with you and others, that they end up counting it a great, treasured experience.