Why Seth Godin is sooooooo wrong…

I agree with you, and I’ve experienced this repeatedly on a professional level.

I’ve worked with colleagues across states and countries and it’s always better after I’ve had a chance to meet with them. Being in the same place and seeing the same thing and chatting informally over dinner makes a difference. Even the ones that I only meet briefly, it’s helpful to be able to mention that we were both there the next time I talk to them because it puts us in a similar mindset.

The big business events may not be as useful in and of themselves as a series of little events, now that “frequent cheap communication is easier than ever”. But they are the stages on which we form the deeper connections that matter. Perhaps instead of eliminating the big events, we should be training people to make better use of them. It certainly didn’t come easily or naturally to me at the beginning.

I read this:

>>>The big product launch

And had a laugh. Wow. That whole iPad event would have been so compelling just as a series of tweets and TwitPics. NOT!

Godin is so wrong to tell his loyal followers they can now avoid his list of 5 things. Communication is VITAL in every type of business!! To suggest that one should choose cheap and frequent is irresponsible on his part.

One purpose of conventions is to promote thought within a given organization. The elimination of these events is the elimination of thought. Not to mention that big events have a significant impact financially for hotel workers, vendors, convention centers, etc. “Cheap and easy” isn’t always what is best for an organization. Just my two cents.

Great post Scott!

Scott- although your comments about big events are soooooo right, I do not agree with your assessment of Godin’s post. From what I read, and in the spirit of Godin’s message, I believe the idea is that many iterations cannot be replaced by a one-shot event.

To take your illustrations far enough to match “the big event” that I feel Seth wrote about would be to say that NCAA basketball would exist only in March- no practice, no pre-season, no non-conference games, just the big dance. And in Disney’s case, perhaps they would have only 1 day to shoot a film start to finish- action… cut… that’s a wrap. It’s both the iterations and the big events that make something mundane magical.

From experience, I can speak to the power of iteration. And in our culture today iteration is essential to success. One-and-done won’t cut it. However, combining daily interactions with a community “shared experience” is a sure-fire path to success in any organization, community, or family.

Great United commercial post, too. That’s one of my all time favorite commercials, and right-on.

Could it be that the greater danger to the future of large meetings is not the over-the-top events that have made the headlines over the last year, but rather the gawd-aweful conferences that we attend and wish we had not?

Godin’s logic and blanket statement miss by a mile. Poorly executed meetings with no strategic intent, with no free exchange of ideas, with no time for developing the relationships that cannot happen in a teeny twitter post are a waste of time and money. That is true. But to make a sweeping statement that all big meetings can be replaced by frequent,cheap communication misses the dynamic of human engagement. As I wrote in my book, TALK AIN’T CHEAP-IT’S PRICELESS, there is no loyalty to an email sender, a facebook post, or a tweet. We yearn to be known as individuals– not just customers or employees with an ID number.
Good meetings bring people together for creating those kinds of connections that cannot happen electronically.

As for me, I’ll continue to work with my clients to make sure we have meetings that create the connections and conversations to carry us into the year. We’ll create time for intimate gathering so people can actually exchange ideas and insights.

BTW: wonder how much money Seth will be paid to tweet or you-tube since he obviously has no time or interest in presenting to useless big meetings.

You are right Scott. It doesn’t matter whether we are on the agenda or not…we want great meetings that build relationships, generate new thinking, and broaden viewpoints. Interesting that Seth os on the magazine cover. Methik he might speak out of both sides of his mouth. we shall see

I did have trouble with Seth’s comment on this day, but he generally likes to incite passion and action (which it looks like he did), so I let it go. If you tuned in the following day, you will notice he made a statement about WHY to host a big event:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/02/the-best-reason-for-a-big-event.html

Thought people here might appreciate this as well.

While I’ve retweeted this several times, I haven’t commented. I just wanted to add my two cents to the Hurrah’s on here. YES – we all need to meet, we all need to gather, and we are smarter and better for it.

Not only do meetings support the growth of a company or industry, they have become the underpinning of our economy. IMHO the impact of fewer meetings in the last 12 months has been felt in every corner of our financial structure.

While pundits have said we need to pull back on meetings and “save” the shareholders money… the unintended consequence of that has been the opposite. Best estimates are that 1.6 million people are DIRECTLY involved in the meetings industry. My best guesstimate is that there are closer to 30 Million indirectly impacted: not only the 256 convention centers and their employees, or the thousands of hotels and their employees, or even the speakers and speakers bureaus… but a silent group.

Think of this: mom & pops across from convention centers and hotels. Transportation: Taxi drivers, Limo companies, Bus companies, airlines, rental car companies. Food service and restaurants. Add the people who depend on those companies for a living: gas stations, fast food places, repair shops, airports, airport shops, maintenance companies for airlines and all the other transportation companies. What of the laundry services, the AV companies, the carpet cleaning companies, security agencies? Don’t forget the attractions that spring up around the tourism and meetings industry. And of course, cities and states reap great rewards from all the taxes associated with the above.

It’s a house of cards. When our administration and people with wide reach like Seth say we shouldn’t have meetings, they don’t just knock over the house of cards, they set it on fire.

States like Hawaii and Nevada have taken a huge hit. Hawaii had $184 MILLION drop in tax revenue in the first quarter of 2009 after anti-meetings and anti-resort comments were made. The Daily Show recently did a spoof about how awful it was that the RNC held their meeting in Hawaii — as if they had gone to the moon, or Tahiti. That did damage to that economy.

IMHO Seth Godin wrote that to get buzz. He wanted to stir the pot, hoping his devout followers would forgive the hypocrisy. Yes, we are all talking about his blog and him. My hope is that all the hue and cry against what he said will help people think more clearly not only about the direct benefit of meetings, but also about the far-reaching effects of this industry to our financial well-being.
Beth Terry, CSP