Participation...

I tell people that the bi-weekly call with partners discussing event marketing strategy is one of my highlights of the month.

Not this morning. For some reason, most people weren't in to it.

I don't know why...usually, there are those who are facing a problem around their event, volunteer what it is, and get valuable feedback from the group.

Today, try as I might, I couldn't light a spark and get the natural conversation flowing.

I'll take some of the blame...perhaps I need to re-think how the calls are run. Matt Rothman from Guru already gave me one...'ask more people more direct questions."

On the other hand, I think I can assign some blame.
Seth Godin recently posted on how to be a great audience and I think it holds true for a call like this.

This call isn't an informational call, it's an educational call. You're going to get out what you put in.

The emotional part of me wants to say:

"If you're going to join anonymously, keep us on mute, and not give anything in the way of meaningful contribution, maybe you're better off not joining."

Now, that's my emotional side talking because I HATE it when we don't have GREAT calls...and, of course, I realize, not every call can be great.

But, when we all get on this call, we make a commitment to each other to share ideas and make each other better marketers. That's why we're all here. If the call isn't working for you, tell me how I can make it work for you. Leave a comment, email me, call....whatever. Just don't be complacent. You deserve to be the best and it's my job to help you.

Comments

• Anonymous
  April 06, 2007
  Jeremy- I missed the call this morning so my comments below are in reference to my expereince in previous calls. I agree with ask more direct questions but I don't think that should be directed at just you.  We all need to ask more direct questions of each other.  My own personal nature on calls like this is to listen to others as an attempt to learn something new.  I forget that we also need to give back to the community.  A few direct questions can cure that quickly. I'll bet I'm not the only one... Russ

• Anonymous
  April 06, 2007
  Maybe it was the cold turn in the weather.   I actually do try to make these calls whenever I can, because I do hear things I can try to make my events better.  But,I know today I was being pulled in many directions (sorry about the mute thing) and I wasn't focused. Which now reminds me... I had wanted to share a story. I saw a PowerPoint gone bad (very bad!) this week. Someone obviously learned how to put in sound effects, and overdid it so much that by 5 minutes into it, people were leaving the session.  The engine zooms and cash register rings were bad enough, but when he brought in The Grateful Dead (really, I am not kidding), it was all over for me!  

• Anonymous
  April 15, 2007
  Jeremy, Sorry to hear that this call was not as strong as past calls. Let me offer these thoughts. I can see that new participants might be uncomfortable at first to jump in. So I can understand that initially and hopefully some of us regular paticipants can help set the model of interaction through our participation. Some direct questions are OK, but I don't think it needs to be overdone and could become offputting if overused.  Your facilitation of the call is useful but I don't think that you have sole repoonsibility for making it a success. You might set this expectation upfront and point out that for this call to work that it depends on the group particiaption and inputs. We don't need more packaged presentaions. I really appreciate these calls based on specific discusions on real experiences which I find to be invaluable. You might communicate ahead of time the agenda of the call and suggestions on how the participants might best contribute and benefit most on that specific call and specific topics.

• Anonymous
  April 20, 2007
  Some may have thought I was a bit harsh after the last partner marketing call , but our awesome partners