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Coffee, checklists, and conference chaos — that’s the job, really.

I’m the Anonymous Planner: eighteen-plus years running nonprofit conferences, from 250-person workshops to 8,000-person productions. This is where I write about what that actually looks like — the funny, the chaotic, and (more and more) the stuff you can actually use on your next event.

Want the full origin story? That’s on the About page. Otherwise — here’s what’s new.

  • The Art of the Pre-Conference Checklist: Or Why My Brain Runs on Excel and Hope

    The Art of the Pre-Conference Checklist: Or Why My Brain Runs on Excel and Hope

    There’s a special kind of adrenaline that hits a conference planner about two weeks before an event—the kind that makes you simultaneously reorganize your spice cabinet, rewrite your packing list, and start wondering if you confirmed the 72-inch rounds for Ballroom C. (Spoiler: you did. You confirmed it three times. You will probably confirm it…

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

    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 Session Grid: Where Sanity Goes to Die

    The Session Grid: Where Sanity Goes to Die

    There’s a special kind of panic that comes when you realize your color-coded session grid—your masterpiece, your magnum opus—has somehow sprouted three double-booked rooms and one presenter scheduled to be in two places at once. You stare at the spreadsheet, take another sip of cold coffee, and whisper to yourself, “It’s fine. Everything’s fine.” For…

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

    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.…

  • So You Want to Be a Conference Planner? (Or… Maybe You Just Fell Into It Like the Rest of Us)

    So You Want to Be a Conference Planner? (Or… Maybe You Just Fell Into It Like the Rest of Us)

    Ever wondered who’s behind those seamless conferences where everything magically happens on time, the coffee never runs out (hopefully), and name badges appear like clockwork? Spoiler alert — it’s people like me. And let me tell you, none of us planned to be here. We just somehow tripped, stumbled, and fell face-first into the world…

  • Confessions of a Spreadsheet Addict

    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…