Why You Should NEVER Skip Production Meetings
It was year three in my business. We were one week out from a one-day event that I was hosting at a beautiful space on 42nd Street in New York. We had spent the last six weeks working tirelessly to put 40 amazing women into this room. My team had prepared everything from name tags to centerpieces to workbooks. After so many team production meetings, it felt unnecessary to have any more. We decided we’d just follow the production schedule on the day of. The event is full. Everything will be great. We don’t need to have any more meetings.
Famous last words.
We get to the event, and the name tags are not alphabetized. They’re in the wrong order, and it’s causing a crazy line at registration.
I walk into the room, and the workbooks are not set out. The tables are set up incorrectly, and none of them have water set out.
I start the event, and all throughout the course of the day, the handouts are wrong. The rest of the event was utter chaos behind the scenes.
Thankfully, other than the long line at registration, our clients didn’t really notice the chaos – but I did, and so did my team. By the end of the event, we were all exhausted, disappointed, and a bit frustrated with each other.
I had learned my lesson. I never held another event without having clear production meetings the week before.
This is something that I’ve taught my clients over and over again.
Whether you are doing a webinar, a virtual workshop, or an in-person event – and whether that event is three hours or three days long – it is really important to have a production meeting.
This is a meeting where you walk through every step of the event together as a team.
Pull up your pre-set production schedule on a document that everyone can see in front of them (e.g. a shared Google Doc). You should have everyone’s responsibilities clearly written out for every 20-minute increment of the event.
I’m writing about production meetings this week because we are currently in production meetings for the event we’re holding next week: The Big Comeback.
I’m absolutely thrilled that we have more than 200 people joining us at this event next week.
Our production meetings this week consist of three three-hour meetings. Yes, that’s nine hours of meetings to prepare for the event.
There are four team members running this event. We spend these meetings going over every detail, every responsibility, and it’s one of the reasons our events go smoothly.
One of the reasons that people enjoy coming to our events is that they can feel the level of organization. They can feel the level of service.
Personally (and just as importantly), it’s one of the reasons I enjoy doing events and one of the reasons that I end each event feeling at peace.
After each event, I feel celebratory and I feel energized, because we all work together, and the events are amazing.
If you haven’t signed up for the Big Comeback yet, I would love for you to join us. Tickets are normally $495, but right now we’re offering $300 off using the code SAVE300.
And for those of you who are doing big things either this year or next year, don’t forget to include production meetings in the mix.
