Over-celebrate the speaker and you under-attend to the audience.

principle — attributed to Steven Clemons

Clemons's diagnosis of the biggest mistake think tanks, businesses, and media groups make is precise. They over-celebrate whoever is speaking and under-attend to the audience. The focus should always be on the audience: do they have a good time, do they feel connected to the content, do they want to come back. Events optimized for the audience produce return visits and the deeper community that funded them in the first place.

For think tank programmers, conference organizers, and media convening leads.

audience-focus, speaker-design, think-tanks, engagement