Bite-sized nuggets; turn forty-five minutes into fifteen to twenty.

technique — attributed to John Woo

Woo's rule for program length is operational. People do not retain much from long-format sessions. The Spiro team turns forty-five-minute sessions into fifteen-to-twenty-minute ones. The discipline is closer to crafting a good headline than to filling a slot. The headline should be big, punchy, impactful, memorable. The session needs to hit its salient points and let attendees walk away with something they can share. The editing process becomes more important than the content production. You cannot give someone an hour of platform anymore. They will tune out. The technique generalizes for any kind of programming where attention is the constraint, which is now most kinds.

For conference programmers, content producers, and corporate communicators thinking about session length. The technique is most useful as a corrective when sessions have grown over time without justification.

session-length, editing, retention, shorter-formats