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Category: Behind-the-scenes

  • The Invisible Work of Conference Planning

    Some of the most exhausting parts of conference planning are the parts no one ever sees. The decisions that happen quietly. The constant prioritization. The mental checklists running in the background at all times. The emails you don’t send because you know they’ll create more confusion than clarity. The problems that never materialize because you…

  • The Calm Before the Conference: Lies We Tell Ourselves in the Final Week

    The week before a conference lives in its own strange universe. A place where hope and chaos hold hands. A place where we tell ourselves beautiful little lies with the confidence of someone who absolutely refuses to look directly at the to-do list growing behind them like a hydra. We’ve spent months planning, organizing, color-coding,…

  • The Great Chair Fiasco of 2009: A Conference Planner’s Worst Wake-Up Call

    There’s one thing all conference planners universally dread—the early morning or late-night phone call from a vendor. You know, the kind of call that makes your stomach drop faster than a freight elevator (foreshadowing, anyone?). Because by the time we get onsite, every spreadsheet, diagram, and sticky note has been obsessively reviewed, color-coded, and triple-checked.…

  • Confessions of a Spreadsheet Addict

    Every conference planner has a list… and a list of their lists. There are the things that need to get done today, the things that need to get done tomorrow, and the things that haven’t even made it to a list yet but somehow haunt your dreams at 2 a.m. (usually involving room sets or…