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Pull something off the shelf. I write most weeks about the parts of an event nobody sees.

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The Library

October 6, 2026

Event planning steps, in the order they actually go

October 6, 2026

Nine days out from your event, and the document your team needs is still being written rather than checked. That week gets decided months earlier, in the order things got built. This post walks the five layers of an event, what each one is waiting on, and how to pick it up from wherever you already are.

October 6, 2026

everything on the shelf

Arielle Jones 9/29/26 Arielle Jones 9/29/26

The event planning form that replaced nine emails

Somebody on your team turns up with the wrong number, and they were told the right one in a conversation three weeks ago. This post covers why that keeps happening even when everyone communicates well, the event planning form that fixed it on a nine-hundred-person conference, and the three things that make written capture actually hold.

Arielle Jones 8/27/26 Arielle Jones 8/27/26

How to plan a conference when the event gets bigger

What worked beautifully for thirty people doesn't quietly scale to three hundred, and the places it breaks aren't obvious in advance. This post covers what changes as the number grows and what to build before you need it.

Arielle Jones 7/7/26 Arielle Jones 7/7/26

The decisions to make before you invite a single event speaker

Inviting speakers before you've settled a few things means renegotiating with them later, which is a conversation nobody enjoys. This post covers what to decide before the first ask goes out, so the yes you get is the yes you wanted.

Arielle Jones 6/30/26 Arielle Jones 6/30/26

Why your speaker lineup looks great on paper but falls flat in the room

Impressive names, strong bios, and a room that somehow never quite lifts. It happens more than anyone admits and it isn't about the speakers being wrong. This post covers what determines whether a lineup lands once everyone is in the room.