Burning Question: What makes an event memorable?

As I start to line up speaking later in the year around themes in my new book, I was reminiscing this weekend about the many industry events I have been fortunate to be part of.  Plenty of gorgeous resorts and rock bands came to mind, but the ones which really stuck out had interesting venues, formats or themes.

Here are some of my most memorable -

Long trip: Almost a whole week of travel for an hour’s presentation in Moscow – including a stop in London to get the Russian visa. Compared to that, a day’s visit to present in Tokyo and a 2 hour trip to Squaw Valley, California qualify as rapid implementations .

Unique format: Every speaker got 5 minutes to present 20 slides at the Ignite event in Toronto. It was at night in a comedy club setting with the audience sipping on their drinks, so made the event even more interesting.

Interesting location:   You would think it would be at a standout resort, but one that really stood out was presenting at the Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, KY on a stage where they auction horses :) Another was at a pub in a hotel close to Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

Unusual Panels: In New York, us panelists took over – the poor moderator barely got in 2 questions. We did not need no stinkin’ guidance. Years later the moderator still reminds me how we hijacked that session. In reverse, I moderated possibly the most boring panel ever at an event in Orlando. Three prep calls where I told them to use plenty of examples, provoke each other went to waste. They were all consulting types and fell back into their comfort zone on stage – methodology talk!

Complex set up: With innovations in lighting and acoustics, no presentation is simple any more, but I find presenting to a non-English audience a unique challenge. I am thinking particularly about presentations in Cannes, Tokyo and Milan, each with (multiple) translations being piped to the audience. The delayed feedback from the audience is difficult to adjust to. You have to pinch yourself that it is not your jetlag playing games:)

Readers, what makes an event memorable from your pov?