WELCOME TO THE
Library
Pull something off the shelf. I write most weeks about the parts of an event nobody sees.
New on the shelf
everything on the shelf
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.
Run of show meaning: the production document for your day
You've written the agenda; it covers what's happening and when, and something still feels missing when you picture the actual morning. The piece you're looking for is a separate document written for a different set of people. This post covers what goes on a run of show, who gets one, and how to build yours.
What belongs in your event planning spreadsheet
Everything you're currently tracking across six documents and a notes app could live in one place. This post covers what belongs in that document, how it's organized, and what it feels like to open one thing instead of six.
The event planning checklist for your last two weeks
The final fourteen days generate a lot of activity and not all of it is useful. This checklist is built around what genuinely needs confirming in that window, rather than what feels most urgent at 10pm.
Event planning at midnight: why the session never sticks
Late-night planning sessions feel productive and almost never survive the morning. You reopen the doc and none of it has moved. This post covers why that work doesn't stick and what does, at a more reasonable hour.
Where your speaker information lives changes everything
Bios in one folder, travel details in an email thread, slides in a shared drive nobody can find. This post covers what changes when speaker information lives in one place, both for you and for the speakers themselves.
Why your inbox can't tell you where your speakers stand
Scrolling back through email threads to work out who sent their bio and who still owes you slides is not tracking, though it feels close enough until it isn't. This post covers what to use instead and how little it takes to set up.
The event logistics spreadsheet your team needs to execute without you
Your team can only run the day without you if the document in front of them answers what they'll actually need. This post covers what has to be in it, what usually gets left out, and how it changes event day.
Your event has multiple versions right now. Here’s why that matters.
Your event currently exists in four places and they don't quite match: the doc you share, the notes on your phone, the vendor emails, and the version in your head. This post covers why that matters more than it seems and what to do about it.
Stop being the search engine: how to build a retreat coordination hub
When every question comes back to you, you've become the place people look things up. This post covers how to build the place they should be looking instead, and what has to live there for it to work.
Why Your Retreat Team Keeps Coming to You for Everything (And How to Fix It)
Your team is capable and they still check with you before nearly every decision. They're missing something you've been carrying in your head without realizing it. This post covers what that is and how to get it out of there.
The five elements that make a retreat feel professionally held
Guests can always tell when an event is being run well, though most of them couldn't tell you why. This post covers the five things they're picking up on, and how each one gets built before anyone arrives.
The one document you need to keep your retreat on track
When every moving piece of a retreat lives in one document, the whole event stops depending on what you remember. This post covers what belongs inside it, how it gets built, and what changes for your team once it exists.
How to prevent your retreat from falling apart (even if you’re a first-time host)
Something changes in a client relationship after you've been in a room together. She replies faster, refers more freely, and renews without a conversation about it. This post covers what actually happens in that room and why an afternoon does what a year of posting cannot.