Run a wash-up inside the first hour after close, before anyone reaches for a drink.

technique — attributed to Mark Brewster

Brewster runs an internal debrief at ELX immediately after the event ends. The window matters. Wait until dinner and the team's recollections soften into stories. Wait until the next morning and the loudest moments have crowded out the structural ones. Run it inside the hour and the operational notes stay crisp, the speaker assessments stay honest, and the team has not yet rewritten the experience around a single highlight. The wash-up is observational judgment in its most reliable form. It is not a replacement for the survey. It is the human telemetry the survey then corrects or confirms.

For event leaders and ops teams running multi-day flagship events. Pairs with mb-13 on the limits of observational judgment.

debrief, operational-discipline, observational-judgment