hi there I'm Amelia I'm from F come welcome to our first Skillshare session of day two of the big Skillshare initiative if you missed any of yesterday's session don't worry you can catch them all up via our IG TV and they're also available on our website and today we are really lucky we're going to be joined by tony evans from AGI live and he's going to be talking to us about strategic events in the current climate and so let me just okay Tony there now and so Tony found it eto live communication in 1996 to advise and support leadership teams as they drive engagement and the progressive behaviors that deliver strategy in world-class companies by helping them to create the space and time for the conversations that matter hi Tony how are you Oh hopefully he'll reach you don't soon and say yeah they've been working with companies such as Pernod Ricard Deloitte GE BP Amadeus and Novartis across Europe Asia Africa and North America and so globally around the world on strategic events and he's passionate about the value of engagement and as a former chair of the guru group within the engaged for success movement and also a fellow of the Royal Society of the encouragement of arts manufacture and commerce and so yeah we're very very lucky to have him here let me just see if I can add him myself so the joy of Technology this is our second Instagram life hi there maybe a hi hello sorry about that thing that little technical glitch indeed indeed we are yes thank you well thank you for thank you for inviting me to join you it's a pleasure on on one of my favorite subjects really well yeah I'm very excited to hear all your thoughts on strategic events and I've got some questions prepared and so I guess yeah I just wanted to start at the beginning at the beginning and and so you know what exactly do we mean when we talk about strategic events and and why I choose to put one or more other benefits of strategic events specifically yeah that's a good questions to start with for sure and I think strategic events probably mean slightly different things to different people but in essence I think a large number events are fundamentally strategic I think we can get a little bit nervous when the label strategic goes on top of it and somehow this sort of dark mysterious box in there that we've got to come up with some magical answers but for me the the great strategic events they might touch on strategy but fundamentally it's about exploring this journey that an organization or even a community is on so where they're going from and where to and in in essence that's that's what a strategy is it's about our desire to get somewhere that is better and a strategic event therefore is often an opportunity to check in with how we're getting along on that journey but often just as importantly to get in alignment and that alignment can be around our commitment to to the journey to the direction that we're going in an alignment that we're all feeling that we're pretty much in the same place but also an opportunity to see around us the the power and the potential of the people that make up the community that were in the organization that we're in so I think they serve these two purposes at setting our direction and mentoring that where we're all moving towards that and you know at the moment strategic events are really important but they're also really difficult to be doing and I think that's a great conundrum that that a lot of us are facing in the moment yeah complete actually it leads me nicely into my next question which is about specifically strategic events right now in this current climate and particularly in the context of you know a lot of people's long-term strategy is constantly changing as this new normal is constantly changing and so how can you create strategic events when when that strategy is is constantly changing yeah well I think it's a real challenge and I think if you look at a strategic event where you've got to go out with a set of instructions as leaders and tell everybody what they've got to do then I think that's a real real challenge at the moment I think however and I think more enlightened and more distributed leadership is thinking the other way around that actually the solutions are within the community of people that we have around us then a strategic event is a great opportunity to discover that to describe the talents to create the unexpected interactions where innovation where change where progress might might exist and to to use that energy to be able to make some progress go further forward but I think there's there's teach things that are probably probably ended there's some energy around both of those things one is a human level I've talked they're very positively about the value of bringing people together but of course in the current circumstances we will be very apart and there's we've all had very different journeys as we've gone through and I'll continue to go through this this pandemic and we know that at the other end as and tough challenging conditions coming and you know and on our industry the members of f comm and beyond that you know have felt that as much as anybody and the great thing I think about events that are strategic the events that bring people together is it also an opportunity for us to process these experiences and to share what we're going through to make sense of these things and also I think for an organization therefore to to demonstrate a level of compassion now that might not be about being strategic but actually it's at the heart of many of the companies that we work for it's at the heart of their purpose and at the moment I think we're going to be judged on on how we behave with people how we interact with people and and showing compassion is hugely valuable the challenge to that on the other side is and we saw this in the in the last recession as well is there's a perhaps a reluctance to go full with full commitment towards the strategy because we're sort of still working it out we actually somebody said on a webinar last week you know we're still in the eye of the storm so really trying to make sense of it we could make some bad calls week we could so I think at the moment we're trying to be the patient and compassionate and if we can find those two things and there's no reason why we can't be at the moment bringing people together other than obviously physically we can't bring them together so we're going to have to think about other ways of doing it completely so yeah patience and compassion there's a good good things to bring together absolutely and trying to retain some confidence in all of that you know that there's certain things that we can't control there but there are a lot of things that are much much bigger than us but I think the in the moment and the present you know we can set we can take some confidence you know the certainty there if nothing else completely and you talked about the difficulty of bringing people together right now and I know there's a lot of conversation at the moment in events about the possibilities of virtual and hybrid etc and what do you think the impact of that is going to be in in strategic event space how do you think we can use virtual in that space so I think it's really exciting and I think the first thing is to you know look looking across our sector what an amazing response there is being to be able to adapt and adjust the the sorts of events that were maybe planned or or indeed the communications that have been so so vital to ensure that people are able to adapt and working from home and still feeling part of these large and often global organizations so I think we've done that incredibly well and and and the technology is stood up really well to that and the skill set of our communities as delivered against that I think I challenge is to take it to the next stage and it's something that we're looking very carefully at the moment you know our aim is to create the space and time for people to have these conversations to have these interactions and we're looking at how we might structure that almost through the eyes of an architect to be able to help people have meaningful conversations I think that's a really challenging thing to do online but there are methodologies that we can bring to the party and we can start with small conversations human conversations that the one-on-ones maybe it goes to a two-on-two and we start to create convection around strategy and around purpose rather than perhaps the cascade which were going at the moment which is all about projecting certainty and and rightfully so so I think this is there's a step to go through there's an exciting next step to go through and I don't think that means it's the end of live events but I think you know we're all struggling to know when they might come back but I think there's the hybrid model is something that we can certainly look to and of course it's real benefits there to the carbon footprint you know that that that's actually gone up the agenda and whilst we pray press this large pause button something that is becoming very very real at first for many of our clients and in either of those environments obviously a lot of our members deliver content and communications and for them I think they're shown already some great adaptability and I think that plays into that whole hybrid space so I think our sector can become more important and it's up to us really collectively to sort of grasp that metal and get to the top table in our organization in our clients organizations completely yeah it's it's really potentially really exciting moment for virtual and and for sustainability is absolutely and so yeah sort of what makes it really any tips on what makes a really great strategic event you know what what brings out the best in strategic events you know where would you go with it so again I think there's a huge spectrum here but for me I was reflective on this obviously knowing we were having this conversation and I think ultimately it's about what difference do you want to make what's the change and a lot of the work that we do is it's around internal communities and leadership communities and maybe sometimes partners and strategic partners with these organizations and I think that the measures that we're often looking for are are to try and move engagement move confidence in strategy understanding in strategy may importantly making people feel that it's relevant to them but actually what we do on a day to day basis you know we're not going into a meeting and saying can you can can you tell me what the strategy is there's not a test for getting it word-for-word but actually if you can tell stories about what you're doing and feel and know that actually that is aligned with the greater good with the strategy then you're going to end up with a community which is a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts and to get to that for me the greatest strategic events have often been really simple but they've had a lot of space in the agenda for people to be asked questions for people to tell stories and for people to listen and and if nothing else I would say put white space into your agenda and and into the your environment to create that space for people to express themselves and for us to find those interactions where we've got common ground and often sort of referencing to Richards talk yesterday on creativity where these unexpected interactions and great creativity can come out as well completely you told me a lovely anecdote on the on the phone earlier and about a Dutch architect would you be able to share that with us yeah be delighted to yet and and something I only heard recently I'm gonna reference Richard again and thank him for it the third one is is steel but don't cannibalize so so that's exactly what I'm doing but not all three I'm just gonna take the third one and I was watching a webinar yesterday and it was talking about the recovery and how we respond how if you like we can springboard on forwards and I had the pleasure of listening to a Dutch architect I think that the organization is called akka akka and she told this fantastic story about the design of of a learning institution and the architects had identified maybe the key three faculties and they'd laid them out and they knew where they needed to be but what they didn't do was to put any paths or roadways in between the two they literally just put grass everywhere and they left it for a year its first year of use - and waited to see where the path started to naturally emerge and that told them where the flow of people were and indeed where they were Criss crossing and I thought that was quite magical - and also quite confidence but that for me is it is about leaving that space because people have got just a natural way of telling you what they need and working out where the connections and interactions go and there was two elements that they they mentioned there and I think this plays into the design of strategic or any event indeed where you've got interaction but this was the the references they had for this particular design was leave it incomplete and leave it imperfect and I think we have got a habit of rushing towards having everything perfect as especially as event designers and event organisers you know we won that predictability we won that certainty but actually the uncertainty is often where the magic appears and so leave it incomplete and leave it imperfect and and trust the people who were there to to fill in the gaps and and to craft it in the shape that they would craft it and that's the right shape fantastic and well thank you so much I think that brings us to a close unless there's anything else you'd like to add but hey look it's a pleasure I think we could chat for a lot longer it's straight up alone so people might be dropping off but no I think that's it I think if I was to leave you with anything it would be to think when you're designing these meetings about how you can create the space and the time for people to have conversations you know change takes place in the conversation is a it's quite a famous quote and and and if you're creating an environment that allows people to do that and showing them that trust then you'd be amazed by what can come out of it and what progress you can make and also good luck to everybody who's doing this this is definitely a tough journey that we're all on but you know I invite people to to just be innovative look at what their strengths are and think about how they can be relevant to what they're doing and what they're doing for their clients going forward well thank you so much Tony that was fascinating I feel like I've learned a lot and I'm sure the people listening do too and and so this will be on our GTV as well afterwards and on our website and but yeah please do check out what Tony does and for more wonderful with them on strategic events and thank you so much for joining us Tony thanks media thanks everybody cheerio